#22 • Desk Set: Salutation Shells from 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth

Part of TRENCH ART & WWI Memorabilia (live auction by Bannerman Auctions)

High bid $450.00

Status: Sold

Category: United States

Desk Set: Salutation Shells from 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth Three foreshortened 3" shells measuring 2.6cm, 4.5cm, and 22.5cm. They are screwed to a wooden base with turned shaft topped by a cane head in the center. Tallest shell is engraved, "Shells fired at salutation / of Peace Envoyes of Russia / and Japan the landing at / Portsmouth N.H./ Sept. 5, 1905." Base measures 15.5cm across; total height 23cm. "The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The negotiations took place in August in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and were brokered in part by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. The final agreement was signed in September of 1905, and it affirmed the Japanese presence in south Manchuria and Korea and ceded the southern half of the island of Sakhalin to Japan. . . . The Treaty of Portsmouth marked the last real event in an era of U.S.-Japanese cooperation that began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Instead, competition between the two nations in the Pacific grew over the years that followed. Conversely, Japanese relations with Russia improved in the wake of the treaty. Although the actual importance of Roosevelt’s mediation and personal pressure on the leadership in Moscow and Tokyo to the final agreement is unclear, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in moderating the talks and pushing toward peace." (Thanks to the Office of the Historian, US Department of State.) Estimate: $200 - $300