Aero Squadron Trench Art

Aerowallah · 21 January 2009, 07:46 AM

Here are some of those impressive shell casings you see about. These have some unusually impressive handiwork (I'm saving the best `till last). Identify the aero squadrons and win a bottle of propwash...

Aerowallah · 21 January 2009, 07:47 AM

Aerowallah · 21 January 2009, 07:47 AM

Aerowallah · 21 January 2009, 07:54 AM

This next one is the most fun.

This piece of trench art belongs to a friend whose grandmother was given it by her chauffeur, John Walsh. He was one of the 50 men in the Motor Truck Supply Train memorialized by a German prisoner they ferried back from the front. The German made the art for John after they became friends. Sadly John died in 1924 of the “lingering effects of poison gas”, and gave the shell to grandma, his employer, because he had no family.

What I love are the nicknames of the soldiers straight out of a Cagney or George Raft film...

Aerowallah · 21 January 2009, 07:56 AM

Aerowallah · 21 January 2009, 07:59 AM

My friend wants to give this shell to the Army Museum. Any thoughts as to whether this shell will have a better chance of ever seeing the light of day than, say, in the Smithsonian? I've suggested it will delight more people on forums like this and in private collections down the years than gathering dust on an institution's shelf...

Rgds

'14-'18aviationcollector · 21 January 2009, 10:23 AM

Hi, excellent trench art!

The little axe - man is a dead giveaway, 25th Aero Squadron. They had some of the most thoroughly photographed SE5a's I have seen. I think it is because they did not ever actually fly in action, so they would have had a lot of time to take photographs - and evidently to make trench art too!

The question of where to donate such items is always a very difficult one. I can't answer that for you unfortunately because I don't know enough about US museums. Thank you very much for the photos!

Cheers,

David.

Jim · 22 January 2009, 03:00 PM

As to where to donate it the first thing to do is to talk to the museum first to see if they want it.

The Smithsonian is offered countless truckloads of 'stuff' every year by well meaning people but the Smithsonian rarely accept anything anymore unless it is historically very important. The reason is they have no place to store it and little room to display things. Everytime they accept something it costs them money to build a place to keep it and to manage it into the future. If you offer them an original SPAD they will say yes, or

Eddie Rickenbacker's original uniform they will say yes, but once you get beyond things like that they get very picky about what they accept.

Smaller and less famous museums are a bit less picky but they are under the same constraints as the big museums in terms of having to pay for the annual upkeep of whatever they take in and have a building big enough to store it in. They find it very hard to raise money for such costs and so they are usually hesitant to accept contributions of anything but cash.

If you do find a museum that would like to have these, you will then need to be fully aware that once they are given there is no assurance they will ever be displayed. Also you need to know that they have the right to 'deaccession' anything that has been given to them. What that means is they can and do sell off or trade away things that they no longer feel are essential to their collections so they can get cash to pay for their daily operations or to get things for their collections that they really want.

I think giving the really historical things to a museum that will honestly treasure and display it is the way to go for that class of artifacts, but that finding a committed collector who will care for the more common things is the best way to go. These shell casings are nice, but I would not put them in the really historical category so you might be best talking to smaller museums that are not on the financial brink (some smaller museums are struggling and they can and do go out of business from time to time and their collections are auctioned off), or talking with committed collectors.

ONEALM · 23 January 2009, 07:46 AM

John -

In order -

213th, 638th and 25th.

I'm working on a 213th Aero history as my NJ project winds up - any chance I could get a good shot of the 213th shells for the project ? Any chance you'd swap 'em for a painting ?

The mind boggles at the possibilities....

-Mike

Aerowallah · 23 January 2009, 08:11 AM

Thanks for that very thorough answer, Jim. I'll pass your advice along...

Yo, Mikey...the fine print disclaims you and your antecedents & precedents from qualifying for any of the big prizes, but I know you're happy just to spread knowledge around. Your paintings are nice, but the seasoning period a prosepctive buyer has to go thru is murder!!!

Actually, those 213th casings are Ron's. I'm sure he won't mind. Give him a shout. He's got a great footlocker that goes with it...