93 - Four pieces of trench art from cartridge cases, pair of vases with floral relief, Polte and Spandau

Four pieces of trench art from cartridge cases, pair of vases with floral relief, Polte and Spandau Brass-coloured metal, four pieces of trench art made from cartridge cases. 1) and 2) Pair of vases, upper part cylindrical with punched ground and relief flower on a leafy stem, lower part waisted and gadrooned, foot ring, base of one vase stamped "POLTE" and "Karth.", base of the other with weakly struck stamps. 3) Low wide vessel from a large-calibre case, rim with engraved arcade border all round, base stamped "GFSP", "175", "JAN", "1915" and "Sp4", primer screw inscribed "Schlgz" and "14". 4) Slender cylindrical case tube, base with hand-struck marks "N", "M" and cross. Condition commensurate with age, H. 11 to 50 cm. Trench art denotes souvenirs and utilitarian objects made from ammunition remnants by soldiers during waiting periods, above all in the trench warfare of the First World War; shell and cartridge cases were reworked into vases, ashtrays, candlesticks and cigarette boxes. The base stamps name the maker and month of manufacture of the case: "GFSP" stands for the Geschossfabrik Spandau, "POLTE" for the Polte works in Magdeburg, founded in 1873 as Jürgens & Co. and taken over by Eugen Polte in 1885, which with around 12,000 employees in 1916 was one of the most important suppliers of ammunition and shell cases to the German army in the First World War. Such reworked ammunition parts are today collectors' items of First World War militaria.