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hello all,
I just joined here as I hope someone might be able to provide information about this
chest I picked up in a junk shop in Ireland. I believe it is from ww1 and most of it is missing but it does contain 3 x sperm oil tins and 2 x neats foot oil tin, another empty tin and 1 small file. From a quick google I believe the oil tins might be rare and have value-
thank you
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Welcome to the forum, WWI troops used to put whale oil on their feet to try and combat trench foot arising from having their feet constantly immersed in water which caused the feet to swell, skin to slough off or burst open from the swelling it was very debilitating for the troops it was rigorously administered by the officers boots and socks off rub it in then put it all back on again.
Neat find you have. Hard to imagine the tins making it to this date...
Can you see any signs of a Broad Arrow marking/s on the chest or any of the tins indicating that it was originally of British origin?
Thanks for the replys folks- much appreciated.Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
No I cant see any such markings on it. Being a complete novice on anything like this or anything military my limited research makes me think this is an 'M1910 arms repair chest' from an 'M1903
Springfield rifle' ,which would make it of US military origin. It seems any collectors are finding it next to impossible to find a single oil tin so to
have the full set is unusual. It'd be great to try and recover more of the parts but its likely to be a huge challenge -if not possible when you dont know what your looking for. I only purchased it as ive a bit of an interest In the whaling industry and the sperm whale oil tins I thought were very unusual. Took a gamble on it and gave €100 for it. The wooden box itself is in immaculate condition for its age.
I don't think that you can go wrong for the price that you paid for it and it does appear to be in excellent condition. I did wonder if I'd seen something similar in a museum in the past and thought that the RAF Museum, Hendon may be a possibility because I think that they use to have an armourer's display. Having a look on-line I couldn't see anything so perhaps it's not on show there now???