NAM.2001-06-96-1

Cabinet (or chiffonier) from a suite of campaign furniture used by Lieutenant Edward August Carter, 45th (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment of Foot, 1875 (c). Walnut, oak and metal, manufactured by Ross and Co, Dublin, 1875 (c). This cabinet and accompanying chairs are part of a suite of campaign furniture, consisting altogether of a table, four chairs, the cabinet, and a day bed. The suite was designed and made for Lt Edward August Carter, 45th (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment of Foot on the occasion of his marriage to Mary Hemphill in Dublin in 1875. High quality furniture of this kind, designed to be dismantled and transported in the cabinet with the table top acting as the top of the packing case, was much in vogue to give officers and their wives the comforts of home wherever they were posted. Ross and Co was the Victorian Army’s manufacturer of choice for high quality and ingeniously designed furniture. Founded in 1821 at Ellis’s Quay, Dublin, the firm became Ross and Co in 1860. Their furniture was often sold as wedding presents to officers and their wives who were expecting to serve overseas. This type of furniture remained popular until the end of the century when more lightweight furniture was required. From this point on, the firm quickly lost its share of the market and had ceased to exist by 1909.