#76 • WWI Artillery Shell Trench Art Clock

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

High bid $1,000.00

Status: Sold

Category: Belgium

WWI Artillery Projectile Trench Art Clock Massive 6" diameter iron artillery shell stands 14 1/2" tall, with 1" thick walls.  Sides are grooved from travel through a rifled cannon barrel, and one side displays very interesting scars from impact.  The top has a brass fuze cap and the base was removed.  The open-bottom, hollow shell rests on four iron canister ball feet.  A key-wind clock with a 24 hour face of Roman and Arabic numerals, key stem, and beaded brass edge bezel is mounted in the body of the shell.  No glass cover.  Since we do not have the key, we do not know whether or not the clock works.  The clock casing is roughly trimmed to follow the contours of the shell surface and is held in place by wires visible from the back.  There is a corresponding hole there to allow access to the clockworks.  This piece was acquired by Advance Guard Militaria in 1999 from the defunct Dadizele War Museum in Dadizele, Belgium, about 20 miles East of Ypres on the Western Front.  It sold on catalog 25 in the year 2000.  The same clock stopped Jeff dead in his tracks when he spotted it on a table at a Civil War collectibles show in Tennessee 23 years later.  It is now offered by Bannerman to become part of someone's trench art or ordnance collection again. Estimate: $2000 - $3000