Skipper's trench art collection.

Andy , you need to come to my home with a boot full of militaria for a swap . I'd have a bunch of Adrians, trench art and insiginias and if you saw my shell case duplicates you'd be here already.

 

i'll pack the car now

............actually i am thinking about going back to France next april again for another "tour" - but its early days let......and college is a problem too

 

Hey Skipper!
I'm back!!
And its great to catch up with all these great items!!

Thanks so much!

 

Hi Bigfun, so you finally found a spot to park your new truck. Great to have you back and glad you like my addtions.

What about this German Saargemünd ( nowadays Sarreguemines) tile that was especially desigNed for the 79th who took part in Barbarossa and was destroyed at Stalingrad? The tile shows their three Christmas whearabouts in 1939, 1940 and 1941 with the mention. Our 3rd Christmas at war, further from home but closer to Victory.
I believe it must be a pretty rare relic. I'm wondering whether this unit had conscripts from Lorraine due to the presence of the Lorraine Cross along the WWI Cross and the E.K.

 

I didn't know there was such an art form. These pieces are fantastic!

 

Enjoy webfoot, when soldiers had leaves or when they wanted to give presents , or sell items to get pocket money they would sometimes make these. I don't find them every week, but if you look close enough at local flea markets there is rarely one without a souvenir from one or anothe rsoldier hidden in a nook here and there. People will usually look for the obvious and pick helmets and uniforms and forget about these details of daily life .

 

I missed the tile piece, very nice!

 

I love today's find from a flea market : a Colonial troops personalised trench lighter .

It needs petrol but I tried it and it made a spark!

Note the soldier's initials engraved on it

 

After further checking I think this could have belonged to a Spahi soldier

 

and a Bronze veterans plaque

 

wow pretty nea Skip.. Which flea markets do you go to? all the flea markets I go to are usually ugly crafts, jewerely and worthless things.

 

That's what they all say but I have laser eyes and if you go with me, you'll find what others won't see. For instance, I came home with this little beauty. This ink set is just awesome. It was made with three shells , a small 37mm one in te middle and two large 75ers to hold the pens. One 75mm head was missing so I negocate dhtis home with the seller unti lhe gave up. Then I already had this beautiful Flak head at home and all I had to do was to put it back, the color is different but who cares. The wood part was carved just so yo ucan screw the heads in the holes and the rims are framed with copper

 

Here is my latest: a beautiful letter opener made with a mauser bullet . It has a dragon or a crocodile engraved on the blade too.

 

Got this beauty yesterday and it works too.

A French trench lamp made with 37mm shells. The lower part is the fuel tank.

 

I have some more to post, but need some time to download pictures, Last week i found a Britsh trench lighter crafted with a Birminghman made Dunlop valve. The girl who sold this one to me had a whole basket with about ten other trench lighters in there, they were all beautiful and included Imperial German relics , but she was asking quite some money for them so I bought one only. Prices for thse will go from 1 euro to 100 euro, depending on the fact that the seller sknows what he is selling or not. Useless to say that 99% of the sellers know what they have, but sometimes I'm lucky and get the real bargain.

 

A new goodie : this ink pot made with a 75 mn German fuse

 

There's absolutely no doubt that you're very experienced at this, Skipper - but you're right, with a little practice you can quite quickly 'scan' fleamarket stalls for military-related objects. Even the type of brass used for shellcases etc looks quite different to other items......eventually, you are only 'seeing' the militaria instead of all the other stuff.

 

You are so right Martin. Another example. I drove to the Le Mans area today. It was quite a distance and I never know in advance if the flea market will be a good one or not. I arrived quite late , but most collectors who had spotted the following French M-1937 canteen cup thought it was commun and had not bothered lifting it up . Good for me ,as I did and got this beauty dated June 14th 1940 for a few cents.
It appears it is about exact day the area was occupied by the Germans and I suspect , the pow artist who engraved this kept his day busy by carving a souvenir rather than just sit and wait for transportation to Germany. For some reason it was left behind (probably confiscated) or brought back .

 

Great new finds Skipper, wonderful to see the many 'uses' that can be found for shell cases, fuses, casings etc

I must take a photo of the peice I got in June, nothing special but interesting all the same