Miscellaneous Artifacts from the Great War

After all the easily categorized artifacts of the past postings I have to clump whatever is left as miscellaneous. This collection ends up being all the things I never planned to get.

The most recent is a surprising gem given to me as a thank you present. It is a simple sleeve to hold a box of matches and bears a portrait of Kitchener, K of K, as it stays on the back. It is a commemorative memento after his death.

Another box artifact is the Princess Mary Christmas tin from 1914. I was at a military ball in Ottawa in June 2014 (part of a Great War contingent) and the official military guests were presented with "replica" boxes containing chocolates. A card from Princess Anne came with it marking the centenary. The lid plate soon fell off and I show it here with the original.

It's a good box to keep all my small artifacts safe.

Next I have some "domestic" items, the first is a piece of trench art. This is a paper cutter made from a bullet. This is followed by what I gather was a popular can opener, appropriately in the form of a beef cattle. It doesn't work very well. And lastly in this group is a napkin ring from a German Zepplin, at least according to my grandmother's hand written comment on a box. At first I thought it was formed from a piece of aluminum structure and filed by my grandfather. It's the kind of thing he would have done. But the complexity of raised detailing makes me think it was fabricated to be a napkin ring. Did my grandfather pick it out of the wreckage? Was it made of aluminum to keep the weight down? What a wonderfully civilized artifact it is.

From these benign items we go to artifacts of war, all particular to the Great War. What could be more evocative than a short length or wire from the Somme battle field shown here beside  a corroded folding wire cutter, itself probably a souvenir rescued from the fields of Flanders after several years in the soil had pitted the surface.

Well, if anything could be more evocative it would have to be this gas rattle. Had I not bought this at the local antique market it would have met its death at a university football game that day. It is crude but effective. When it is swung about the racket is piercing and chilling. Again, like the sound of a bayonet ringing, this is a true sound of the trench, recorded in wood and metal to be replayed as fresh as it sounded 100 years ago.

My last artifacts of this post are the ephemeral. These are the things which should have perished over the past 100 years but didn't.

The first is a pristine pre-censored "I'm still alive" postcard.

Next is a YMCA postcard with details of a machine gun emplacement handover. This kind of card must have been written up in the millions. How many still survive?

My brother bought me this 1915 Ordnance survey map...made to last with a linen backing. It shows the area of Charleroi, Belgium, south of Brussels.

Last note:

Did anyone see the web entry about the Princess Mary Christmas boxes found in an un-opened cardboard crate? There were over eighty of them, contents still intact. It seems they had not been delivered. They were shiny and looked brand new. They are one hundred years old. So, is it okay to polish an artifact and bring it back to its youth? My Princess Mary box has had a makeover and she looks great!