!8 Pounder shell case "dinner gongs"

[peregrinvs]

I thought that Forum members would also be interested to see this much larger WW1 shell case which my father purchased from another antique shop in the 1970s and has been in the family ever since. Although I don't know much about it I believe it to be of German origin and wonder if it was engraved by a German soldier in 1919 perhaps as a prisoner of war in a camp. Maybe he gave or sold it to a British soldier, who knows, but somehow it found it's way to England.

I believe you have a German 10cm cartridge case for the K04, K14 and K17 guns. The decoration was probably added post-WWI by a French or Belgian civilian to make a souvenir for battlefield tourists. This sort of thing is usually known as 'trench art', but the term shouldn't be taken too literally.