#ww1 is my suspiciously cishet male interest but i swear im normal about it lol

[ardate]

hi random ask coming through look around you what's the closest item you have there that you want to talk to me about. like a cool poster or a mug or something!!!!!!

Saw your post when I was in my kitchen, and this was the coolest item next to me, resting on my shelf.

What looks like a simple tiny vase of some sort, is actually a shell from the first world war. Soldiers would recuperate shells that had fallen all around on the battlefield, empty them of any remaining gunpowder, and use them to create art - carving intricate decorations as a way to pass time when they were stuck in the dug-outs for days.

Decorated shells are the most famous exemples of trench art.

At the bottom of this one you can see this specific shell was manufactured on september 1917, for infantry use (the grenade symbol on the right, as opposed to marine or anti-air use for instance)

My friend gifted this to me after we spent a week visiting the area around Verdun last winter, as a strange sort of pilgrimage. It was odd and emotional, and this week felt like it lasted a month, but it was good.