Antique Camphor Chests
A lidded chest or travelling trunk built of aromatic camphor wood, made to keep moths out of cloth and to carry belongings to and from hot climates.
Antique Camphor Chests
Camphor wood was chosen because its oils deter moths and insects, so it became the timber for storing textiles and for luggage sent overseas. Chests were made in quantity from the eighteenth century onwards for sea travel, military service abroad and the China trade, and later as carved souvenirs of the East.
The plain, brass-mounted travelling trunk is the version most buyers meet. "Trunk" appears in 296 of 534 titles on Sellingantiques, with campaign in 148 and military in another 38, and the form is rectangular with a flat or slightly domed lid, brass corner caps or banding, and handles at both ends. Some are solid camphor, some another timber with camphor only as a lining.
The carved Chinese or oriental chest is the clear second group, worked in relief across the front and lid. Where a decade is given, the 1920s lead, and that is where the carved chests concentrate, while the campaign trunks sit in the Victorian half. Dating is loose more often than not: 198 listings say no more than "19th Century", and only 279 of 534 carry a clean year.
Two smaller seams run through the category. Leather- or hide-covered trunks, studded and brass-bound, turn up steadily, in red and burgundy and sometimes painted. Sea, ship and coaching trunks appear singly. And roughly one in eight titles sells the chest for a job it was never made for: blanket box, storage box, coffee table, occasionally on a stand.
The Range
Brass does most of the work at the top. Straps, bands and corner caps applied over the timber lift a plain trunk, and "original brass fittings" or "original brass hardware" is called out on the higher-priced pieces. Leather or hide covering with studwork sits well up the range too, red and burgundy examples among them.
Size pulls hard in one direction. Huge, enormous, extra large and oversized cluster at the top, one of them an enormous Cantonese trunk banded in brass, while "small" and "of small proportions" sit near the bottom. On the carved chests, depth of work is what separates them: plain carving at the lower end, finely or richly carved higher up.
Anything that anchors the chest to a place or a person counts. Canton and Cantonese attributions, a Hong Kong maker's name, a shipping line's paper labels, a London retailer's label, a signed export trunk. Fitted interiors do the same job, and the archive holds a cutlery canteen, a two-drawer campaign chest and a wine-cooler trunk.
Antique Camphor Chests Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for camphor chests, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Superlatives of size gather at the top of the Sellingantiques range: huge, enormous, extra large and oversized all appear in titles.
The Antique Camphor Chests Glossary
- Camphor wood
- Aromatic timber whose scent repels moths, and the reason these chests were built for cloth. Written as one word, camphorwood, in a good many current listings.
- Camphor lined
- Said of a chest made in another timber, or covered in leather, with camphor used only for the interior lining.
- Campaign
- Made to travel with a serving officer: brass-protected corners, flush fittings, recessed or loop handles. It appears in 148 of the titles.
- Brass bound
- Brass straps, bands or corner caps applied over the timber to protect it in transit.
- Chinese export
- Made in China for Western buyers, and often leather-covered and brass-bound rather than carved. China trade describes the same commerce from the shipping end, and turns up on Canton and red-leather trunks.
- Anglo-Indian
- Made in India under British influence, in nine titles, usually campaign trunks. Coffer is used loosely for a deep lidded chest, and steamer trunk, sized for a ship's cabin, appears only once or twice.
Antique Camphor Chests: Frequently Asked Questions
Are camphor chests always solid camphor wood?
No. Plenty are solid camphor, but the term also covers chests built in another timber, or covered in leather, with camphor used only as the interior lining.
Listings distinguish the two, using "camphor lined" for the second kind. Wood appears in 338 of the 534 titles on Sellingantiques.
What period do these chests come from?
The dated listings run from 1800 to 1950. Dating is loose more often than precise, with 198 saying only "19th Century" and a further block given as Victorian.
Where a decade is named, the 1920s lead, followed by the 1900s, then the 1880s and 1910s. Georgian, Regency and eighteenth-century labels appear, but as isolated dealer attributions rather than a body of stock.
Why are so many called campaign trunks?
Campaign describes a piece made to be moved with a serving officer: brass at the corners, flush or recessed fittings, handles at both ends. Camphor suited the job because it protected textiles on long journeys to hot climates.
Campaign appears in 148 titles and military in 38, which makes the brass-bound travelling trunk the largest single group in the category.
How do carved oriental chests differ from the plain trunks?
The carved group is worked in relief across the front and lid, and is described as Chinese, Cantonese or oriental. Carved appears in 94 titles, Chinese in 90.
They sit later than the campaign trunks, concentrating in the first third of the twentieth century. The 1920s is the best-represented decade in the whole category.
Do people buy these for storage rather than display?
Yes. Around one in eight titles sells the chest for a present-day job: blanket box, storage box, or coffee table.
A handful come mounted on stands. Blanket appears in 32 titles, storage in 30.
How often do camphor chests come up for sale?
A little over sixty come to market on Sellingantiques in an average year.
A hundred and three different dealers have handled one, so the category isn't held by a single specialist. Sizes run from small box scale up to pieces described as huge or oversized.