Canadian Trench Art Ashtray.

[Steve Nick]

Here is a piece of trench art I picked up yesterday in a local auction. It's been made from the bottom of a German 77mm Field Cannon shell casing which was referred to by Canadian/British troops as a "Whiz Bang" supposedly because if you heard the "whiz" you had to hit the dirt instantly because the "bang" was only a fraction of a second away. The casing as made in July of 1917 by Haniel Luege Works in Dusseldorf. (the auction site incorrectly concluded that this was Canadian thinking the Production date read July when in fact it reads Juli)

Looks like more than a few smokes were extinguished in this ashtray. I like the patina which makes me wonder how many stories were related with this as a centrepiece?

The information regarding the shell case stampings I found at Tony's very informative "Kaiser's Bunker" .