WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Regency campaign bed, sold for £3,400 at Lyon & Turnbull.

Quality and rarity affect value, but with campaign furniture other factors can also come into play. ‘Buyers can be more tolerant of damage when it adds to the character,’ says Sean. ‘Maybe the table leg was broken after it was carried for 500 miles on the back of the camel, then crudely repaired by a local blacksmith.’

From the 1950s to 1970s furniture was produced in a campaign style, and if buyers know they are buying a reproduction piece, and pay an appropriate price, that’s not necessarily a problem, says Sean. ‘But they should be on the lookout for items that have been “enhanced” by an unscrupulous dealer: it might be authentic, but it’s had extra brass carrying handles put on, which would never have been there.’

Furniture by good makers always attracts a premium – a campaign tester bed sold for £5,500 at Lyon & Turnbull in 2017. Normally a big bed like this would be difficult to sell, but this one attracted lots of interest, Katie says. ‘It was by a prestigious London firm, Morgan & Sanders, and had really good provenance, documented as belonging to the Duke of Sutherland.’

Sean agrees on the importance of provenance, but tends to be cautious about family lore. ‘Between the generations stories get very confused, and gravitate to the most romantic possibilities. Sometimes they don’t fit with the age of a piece; something made 50 years after Crimea definitely wasn’t there. But when we’re able to carefully document who owned something – and when – and show definitively that it was at an important battle like Waterloo, it significantly enhances the value. It becomes something a museum might want to own.’