a most unusual Canadian first war piece of trench art desk piece
with heart detail within large maple leaf base
with trees and nesting birds
copper and brass desk ornament with two tree trunks forming hinged lidded ink wells
feet are made from four reshaped rifle bullets
measuring approx 20cm x 20cm and 11cm high
unpolished age toned no damage as made
nesting birds might seem a strange thing to make from the waste of war but quiet observation before a advance or during a rest made the madness disappear all but for a few brief moments as
. John McCrae, May 1, 1915; quoted in Macphail, In Flanders Fields, 79.
Although McCrae was a war veteran and trained doctor, nothing could have prepared him for the trauma and devastation of that bloody battle. The short account of those long days that his letters and diary provide allude not only horror of watching helplessly as bodies were blown to pieces, but to the gruelling exhaustion and psychological torment of living amid constant torment. McCrae also noted the irony of the natural landscape attempting to carry on as if its beauty wasn’t under assault by the ravages of war: “Yesterday in the press of bad smells I got a whiff of a hedgerow in bloom. The birds perch on the trees over our heads and twitter away as if there was nothing to worry about.
weight 910 grams
boxed postage at cost with refund if required