First model Water Can

MG34NZ

MG34NZ

Active member
Hi All

I have been on the hunt for a decent First Model water can for the MG08 for quite a while. I was fortunate enough to have been able to purchase this one from a fellow collector friend, The can has some dents and I imagine that many of these cans would have suffered damage easily being rather a heavy and bulky item empty without adding the extra weight of the contents. The other can is one I picked up on Flea Bay a while back "Battle Damaged" the bulk of the battle damage appears to have been from an encounter with a scrap metal hunter with a pick axe, the holes in the can are from a square pick spike and the brass fittings have been chopped out of the top with an axe :-( interestingly on the side of the can a square patch was once fitted (over real battle damage) and then removed (possibly this was also brass!)

I have seen a later production with steel fittings in the top, the early ones have brass fittings and would probably be more common.

Both cans have the same makers name on the bottom, I cant quite make them out both were made in Berlin, I will try and decipher as much of the name as I can and would be interested to see other cans and makers names/markings.

If anyone has a beaten up can with the top fittings I would be interested or another budget priced can would be of interest.
 
More pics of the "good" can

I deciphered the maker marking

E.ALISCH & Co ( or EALISCH)
BERLIN.S.

I would be interested to know if there were other manufacturers? Why Berlin.s.?

Regards
Andy
 
Congratulations on the rare can! I used to collect MG stuff but sort of lost interest in that particular area when I sold my live 08/15 upon moving to California 15 years ago. I was fortunate enough to have had several of the water cans over the years including both brass and steel hardware. One of the cans I had with the brass hardware was heavily encrusted with dirt and I thought very heavy corrosion and I questioned it's restore-ability. I dunked the whole thing into a bucket of muriatic acid (available at any hardware store and which I diluted with water) figuring I had little to lose and within an hour all the encrusted crud fizzled away leaving a can and brass hardware in stellar condition. It turns out the encrustations were lime/limestone based (lots of chalk in some areas of France where the war occurred so that figures) which the mild acid readily disintegrated. Another day of soaking the whole thing in a bucket of baking soda solution to neutralize the acid and voila...a fantastic early can! I remember seeing that chopped-up water can on Ebay. I just didn't feel like having yet another restoration project to deal with. Good luck!
 
120RIR said:
Congratulations on the rare can! I used to collect MG stuff but sort of lost interest in that particular area when I sold my live 08/15 upon moving to California 15 years ago. I was fortunate enough to have had several of the water cans over the years including both brass and steel hardware. One of the cans I had with the brass hardware was heavily encrusted with dirt and I thought very heavy corrosion and I questioned it's restore-ability. I dunked the whole thing into a bucket of muriatic acid (available at any hardware store and which I diluted with water) figuring I had little to lose and within an hour all the encrusted crud fizzled away leaving a can and brass hardware in stellar condition. It turns out the encrustations were lime/limestone based (lots of chalk in some areas of France where the war occurred so that figures) which the mild acid readily disintegrated. Another day of soaking the whole thing in a bucket of baking soda solution to neutralize the acid and voila...a fantastic early can! I remember seeing that chopped-up water can on Ebay. I just didn't feel like having yet another restoration project to deal with. Good luck!
Click to expand...

You were fortunate to own several of these cans, I would love one with iron fittings!
15 or 20 years ago would have been a better time to collect 08's and accessories that's for sure. I can remember thirty years back most collectors having MG08 or 08/15 parts sitting in their gun rooms and no one really chased things like that at the time, they were just old rubbish. I recall one complete gun and sled being found in a barn locally which went to another collector then was eventually on sold (always when you have no money)

Regards
Andy
 
They are around but command a high price. The steel fittings are more common than the brass ones though in my small experience.
Mark
 
Great post.....I have largely ignored W&O because it is not my thing. However, I do like to learn and have picked up lots of information to stimulate the "little grey cells". I will be reading and learning more here in future. I would especially like to congratulate Ed and Mark, on their photo posts. They are just fantastic period shots which allow us to step back in time and see things as they were. :thumb up:
 
Hi All
Here is another MG08 cylindrical water can I was fortunate to pick up, this has iron fittings. I have 75% of the makers name which is stamped into the base of the can as follows

Schulz&Sac???
BERLIN

There is also an Imperial proof stamped on the top rim of the can which can be seen in the picture to the right of the shrapnel hole.

Any information on the complete makers name would be appreciated, maybe they produced other tin ware for the military?

I would love to see other examples of these cans and it would be interesting to see if there are other makers besides this one and the maker of the can I first posted.

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Great work Andy. Here are two brass ones and will look for maker stamps on the patterns.
Mark
 
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