It still amazes me that something that was made to destroy can be made to look so beautiful! And last all these years! Thanks again Skipper!
A new expedition ahead for tomorrow Saturday, so keep in touch, besides I'm restoring and cleaning some more shells.
and one more hot water bottle for the trenches. This time made out of a French 75er. It's really well crafted and welded with lead on copper, which must have been quite hard. I like it!
Of course I do, my kids have a fight everynight because they want the bottle. All you would have to do was to fill up it with boiling water . This would keep your warm all night long (the heat would prtoect your feet, keep the blankets warm and dry etc...) this was especially appreciated in the cold humid trenches, it's the same principal of central heating in fact. The kids have it for fun , it works perfectly . I have 2 of them now, the first one is made wth a 1917 USA 75er.
I'm a lucky man. Noone saw and/or recognized this little beauty, so it waited for me in a bucket of junk , today at the flee market. It is a WWI letter opener made out of copper by an Italina soldier on the Dolomite front. It says ricordo di guerra= souvenir from the War. Monte Grappa The little French WWII cup from the Alsace front was a present !
one item I got for 50 cents! An astray made with a French 75er from March 1918. The crafting is quite simple but was makes this item very interesting is the neat industrial cut and the engraving marking which mentions "remaniƩ" = "reworked". This shows that these might have been surpluses that were transformed this way in an arsenal rather than on the front, possilby right after the armistice to give those who went home a souvenir from the front. I will need to dig this further as this theory needs confirmation, but it is the first time I see this mentionned on a shell.
More for those interested in the terrible battles of Monte Grappa The Legends and Traditions of the Great War: Monte Grappa
Skipper -- Thanks again for these new posts. Great stuff! And I love the notion that you and your family make practical use of some of these items, such as the water bottles!
It's more like a game, we don't really need to use these, but the kids love to have the feeling they are camping and the wife will sometimes use my shells as a vase. Of course rare and fragile items are not concerned. I sometimes use the letter openers too. In fact most items are exposed and will not be touched.
That 75 is nice, Skipper. You're quite correct ; during - and after - both wars, some 'trench art' was not actually 'made in the trenches'. Some was made semi-professionally for sale ( such as unworked, surplus Mills Bombs after WW1, Merlin piston 'Battle of Britain' ashtrays after WWII ) and some ( such as 88mm shellcases ) was 'worked' by local inhabitants to be sold to Allied troops as souvenirs in places such as Tunisia, etc.
I had heard about this before , but it's the first time I see an item that has a professionnal cut. I have similar cut shells, but they are never 100% perfect and I doubt the poor chaps in the trenches had much time for this. Some skilled craftsmen were dicovered by their officers and taken to hte rear where they could work more comfortably. However, this explains why several items, which apparently needed large tools, could be made.
Hi Skipper, more nice things-especially the ashtray. Im STILL awaiting the arrival of my Guderian snapshot, v Mackensen PK pic, my EK awards pic w/ Rumanians and the 221st PiBtn after creremony pic w. the men named. Oh and, BTW, finally confirmed-im getting that East Front NCOs grouping of medals and award docs in in about 2 weeks.;-))
Hi Skipper, more nice things-especially the ashtray. Im STILL awaiting the arrival of my Guderian snapshot, v Mackensen PK pic, my EK awards pic w/ Rumanians and the 221st PiBtn after creremony pic w. the men named. Oh and, BTW, finally confirmed-im getting that East Front NCOs grouping of medals and award docs in in about 2 weeks.;-))
Hi Skipper, more nice things-especially the ashtray. Im STILL awaiting the arrival of my Guderian snapshot, v Mackensen PK pic, my EK awards pic w/ Rumanians and the 221st PiBtn after ceremony pic w. the men named. Oh and, BTW, finally confirmed-im getting that East Front NCOs grouping of medals and award docs in in about 2 weeks.;-))
Lafayette has finally landed! My four pics finally arrived yesterday. Doing as much research on them now and will give discriptions and such on them possibly tomorrow. Also, it's going to take some time but im going to try having my collection of pics put onto pic CDs-so I can send them to someone to post them for me since copies of my pics already sent years and years ago-will never see daylight on the now-four web.sites sent them to. PS, it turned out that my pic of Rumanians awarded the Iron Cross pic, is a Heinrich Hoffmann PK press photo-which was not listed as such when I bought it--which is a bonus. ;-)) The General der Kavallerie Eberhard von Mackensen photo-is also a press photo and shows some great details. There is a youngish Major standing outside of the Generals Panzerspahwagon-apparently carrying some maps that are inside a portable field desk/case. This man looks like he is an Artillery officer.
That sounds like a real winner! This is a (probably post) WWII bronze medal (about 8cm wide) from Churchill.
Thank you Skipper. That E/Front grouping is a nice one. It's my largest "grouping" bought yet. Sadly, of the six awards in the grouping-only two award documents still exist--at least with this grouping. One thing I do like about the Docs is that these are not the Preliminary ones-but the official ones given to them at the ceremony-or shortly afterwards?