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WWI English tank trench art money box. Awesome swiveling guns!

In Folk Art > Trench Art > Show & Tell and Military and Wartime > World War One > Show & Tell.
Recent activity189222 of 237900Mini k-bar style knife colonial Prov.RIGone With The Wind signed art.
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    Posted 12 years ago

    Dr_Rambow
    (88 items)

    This is an amazing little 6 1/2" tank that came over from England. I've seen a lot of "trench art" tanks and very few have convinced me on originality as much as this one has. It has everything, patina on the brass hinge, unique hand-made imperfections, old thick grain wood, and most importantly a convincing inscription on the bottom. Even the nails are mismatched, some are brass, others are typical steel. There is faint, yet beautiful gold paint outlining the treads, which you can see very well in the 3rd image.

    The guns have a really neat design where they are suspended from a nail inside round-edged holes in the tank. The soft edges allow the gun to be moved in all directions, even vertically. The hole in the cannon itself is much larger than the nail so it provides a lot of mobility. That is the reason the two on the sides probably fell off, there is only ~1/16th of wood holding it in place.

    I had to make replacement cannons for the two sponsons, but I think I did a very good job matching the patina. I'm very pleased by how it looks (4th image).

    I'm not sure about the inscription yet. It appears to be
    E Lou**n
    L Dorren
    R***

    All seem to be slightly different handwriting, which, if nothing else is convinces you, is probably the most significant clue to originality.

    I absolutely love this little guy. Once I can nail down the names I might do some more research on them. I'd love to find out who actually made it.

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    Comments

    1. Manikin Manikin, 12 years ago
      Love this ! Anything handmade to me has so much more meaning than store bought . It was made with a lot of hard work and love for someone . I wish they could tell us if some little boy got this for Christmas or a girl as to not be prejudiced :-) as a girl if my Dad made it I would have played with it and taught my dolls to drive it . Great Post Dr R
    2. Dr_Rambow Dr_Rambow, 12 years ago
      Thanks for the love everyone!

      Indeed Manikin, unique and handmade with love is something that really brings something special to an object. I really do wish this could talk. Who made it, what did they do, did they fight in a tank or did they just see them in the papers? It is as fun thinking about what it has seen and why it was made as it was finding it and admiring it.

      There is no shame in girls playing with tanks. In fact, I endorse anyone who plays with them! :)

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