One from the collection: Ypres bullet crucifix

Hugh Jackman sings 'Bring him home' from the soundtrack to the film of Les Miserables

I have been remiss over the last few weeks at updating the blog, and over the last few months I have neglected what was ostensibly the reason for my creating it, namely, Trench Art. My New Year resolution for 2013 is to get back on track and keep the blog updated and bring new postings at least weekly with pieces of Trench Art, War Poetry, War Art, and pieces of music that I find appropriate.

In this endeavor, in this post, I am going to bring you a piece that I bought in France last summer. It is a bullet crucifix souvenir of Ypres. I have wanted to own one since I first came across photographs of them in books and on the internet, and really love it.

In spite of the fact that it is termed as Trench Art, it was actually made after the war. This does not make it a fake, or any less a piece of Trench Art as a piece made during the war. It was never intended to deceive, it's purpose was as a souvenir for pilgrims to the cemeteries and sites associated with the War. This is self evident by the plaque above the corpus (as can be seen in the detail below).

The plaque itself contains the legend 'Ypres' and an image of the Menin Gate, which commemorates those soldiers of the British Commonwealth who fell in the Ypres Salient during the First World War before 16 August 1917, who have no known grave. (As such, it could never have been created during the war, as the gate did not exist until after it).

The Menin Gate memorial to the missing

The form of the crucifix is created by two bullet casings, and three bullet heads mounted on a decorated metal base. In many ways, this epitomizes the Biblical quotation that I have given as the name of this blog.

Jane A Kimball in her fantastic book 'Trench Art an Illustrated History' tells us of these objects:

Crucifixes were made during the war by soldiers for their own use or to sell to other soldiers on their way to the Front. Similar pieces were also made after the war for sale to tourists. Many tourist pieces feature a commercially manufactured figure of Jesus with the cross made from rifle cartridges, sometimes with the German "Gott Mit Uns" badge as an additional decoration and usually mounted on a metal base.

For anyone who would like to read a little more regarding Ypres, and the Menin Gate, here is the link to an article in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres