Henredon Campaign Dresser and Nightstands: Sapphire Blue Vintage Gems
I picked up these gems more than two years ago, and squirreled them away until I had a vision, and the tools, workspace and ability to carry out that vision.
I've been painting furniture for more than half my life (not necessarily for pay), but, as we see elsewhere in society, technology has been evolving super fast even in the furniture painting realm, over the last few years. And, actually, campaign pieces have become very desirable now in the vintage furniture world as well. Which is to say that I might have been a little ahead of my time when I picked these up. This happens from time to time; I discovered gray many years ago, and it really now has taken over beige and brown as a neutral. But I digress.
This is how the set looked. Hard to believe that brown/black look was lovely in anyone's bedroom. But hey, remember the 1970's? My sister and I had a lovely orange/red/yellow shag area rug in between our rainbow comfortered twin beds. This set, as is, would have gone just fine with that, except that the oak veneer was chipping in too many places. Whomever owned this thought so little of it they shipped it off to the thrift store, where I spied it.
Don't forget, we are talking about Henredon here. Lasting, classic, quality, albeit in need of cosmetic repair. Did they know, when they made this set, that the design would be coming back around?
Campaign furniture in the 1970's was made not for portability and stackability, as it had originally been designed for war campaigns, but to evoke the feeling of luxurious travel, as it was also formerly used, with porters taking the pieces by the recessed side handles and loading them onto trains bound for destinations where everyone wore white in the hot sun and fanned themselves with palm fronds. Interesting to imagine. But again, I digress. Vintage campaign style furniture today is just plain hot.
The color? Blue. It had to be blue. Navy? Royal? A little of both? Yes. Satiny? No. Shiny? Yes.
A gazillion coats later, in a fairly non off-gassing water-based clear coat, the sapphire blue shines almost as brightly as the gleaming brass hardware--all 14 3-piece pulls, 12 L-brackets, 12 sabots (feet), and 72 tiny escutcheon pinheads: delacquered, cleaned, polished, buffed, and relacquered (Mr. City Girl was a little concerned about my brain cells). A bench buffer became a necessity.
Now that it is done, does this bedroom set evoke an era of luxurious travel? An era of military campaigns?
I don't know, but I feel that it has never looked better.
Henredon Campaign Dresser
Thanks for reading. If you have comments, I'd love to read them on my City Girl Arts facebook page.
At the moment, they are available in my shop: City Girl Arts on Etsy. Ooops, not anymore :)--they went to live in a nice condo with a politician in Miami Beach.