Antique English Trench Art Miniature Signal Canon Sculpture

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Antique English Trench Art mixed metal miniature howitzer - signal style table cannon. Hand-crafted, assembled in the early 20th century, … Read more Antique English Trench Art mixed metal miniature howitzer - signal style table cannon. Hand-crafted, assembled in the early 20th century, fashioned in part from spent shell casings, older brass, bronze, and copper elements, including a heavy brass barrel embellished with sculpted rails, applied stars and decorative studs, engraved "WORLD," with interlocking initials "VZ," and various original markings; seated in an ornate openwork frame decorated with Bacchanal putti, trailing grapevines, wine casks, engraved on one side "Victoria," opposite side engraved "God Save the Queen," rolling on large pierced metal wheels, flanking central gilt bronze ormolu Bacchus mask mount.

A truly superb specimen, very large size, high level of quality, and unusually decorative design, it makes for a fascinating sculptural object, interesting historical work, and one-of-a-kind conversational piece, sure to appeal to a variety of collectors, including militaria, world history, military folk art, especially WWI and WWII, 19th century Victorian era decorative art and antique statue, small scale weapon models, and more.

Dimensions: (approx)
21" Long, 11.5" High, 5.25" Wide, 8lbs

The definition of what exactly can be counted as trench art varies, but it is widely accepted to center on World War I, where soldiers in the stretching, brutal battles created art with the remnants of war. Despite its name, trench art wasn’t usually done right in the muddy trenches, but rather after or by wounded soldiers, or often by prisoners of war. Yet no matter the point where it was made, whether right on the battlefield or in a hospital or in a prison, when trench art left conflict it gradually became this anonymously created, tangible memory of violence that can fade into history as quickly as it can destroy.

Trench art is a term used to describe objects made from the debris and by-products of modern warfare. Trench Art is typically associated with the First World War, although similar items have been produced in numerous other conflicts.

Most trench art was made by servicemen to pass the time when not in the front line. While much of it was simple and amateur, the production of some examples required metalworking skills or even workshop facilities. Prisoners of war (POW), faced with a constant battle against boredom, were also known to produce these items.

Later, other examples of trench art were also made by local civilians for sale to soldiers. This manufacture often drew upon traditional local crafts, such as metalworking or lace-making. Despite the danger from these potentially deadly items, many civilians would collect debris from battlefields to transform into souvenirs out of necessity to survive and produce what little income they could in their war ravaged homeland.

Most every military museum has some trench art as a curio in its collection, but there’s recently been a move away from treating it as an oddity and towards using it as insight into the experience and processing of war through art.

You might expect lots of bombastic, patriotic imagery in trench art, but it actually tended to be the opposite.

“It is one of the ironies of metal trench art, and decorated bullet cases in particular, that most were decorated with pastoral motifs such as flowers, leaves, and romanticized images of women typical of the Art Nouveau style which had flourished since the 1890s.” Nicholas J. Saunders wrote in the 2011 edition of his Trench Art: Materialities and Memories of War

Most of it has a surprising elegance, and while it may not have been the intention of the soldiers, it gives an odd reminder that these weapons are in the end just materials, and can by human hands can be formed into both instruments of death and objects of beauty. See less