Trench art: what soldiers made and what it is worth today
An engraved shell casing on a mantel is easy to walk past. People treat it as a doorstop. Some of these pieces are worth real money, and all of them carry a story worth keeping.
Trench art is the name we give to objects soldiers and prisoners made from the scrap of war. Spent shell casings, shrapnel, bullets, bits of aircraft. Men sitting behind the lines turned that metal into vases, letter openers, picture frames, and lighters. The term covers more than the trenches of one war, but the great age of it runs from the First World War through the Second.
What soldiers actually made
The classic piece is a brass artillery shell case worked into a vase. A soldier would hammer the rim into a flower shape, then chase a design into the body with a nail or a punch. You see regimental badges, the names of towns, dates, and flowers. Some are crude. Some are beautiful, done by men who were metalworkers in civilian life.
Beyond vases you find letter openers cut from shell driving bands, model aircraft built from spent cartridges, matchbox covers, and small boxes. Prisoners of war made their own kind, often from cans and scrap, and those have a following of their own.
What makes one piece worth more
Most trench art is decorative and sells for modest sums. A plain pair of shell vases might bring the price of a good meal. The pieces that climb in value share a few traits.
- Fine, detailed engraving rather than rough scratching
- A clear date, place, or regiment that ties it to a known campaign
- A named maker or recipient, especially with a story attached
- Unusual form, such as a model ship or a working lighter, over the common vase
- Honest age and wear, with no modern repairs or fresh paint
A vase marked with a soldier’s name and a battle he fought in is no longer just brass. It is a document. That is what lifts the price.
Telling old work from later copies
Brass shell cases were sold as souvenirs for decades after each war, and people kept decorating them well into peacetime. That is fine, but a 1960s craft piece should not sell as a 1916 relic. Check the headstamp on the base of the case. It carries the maker and a date of manufacture, which sets the earliest the piece could have been made.
Period engraving tends to be a little uneven and softened by handling. Sharp, regular machine work or modern lettering styles are a warning sign. Bright lacquer is another. Most genuine old pieces have a warm, dull tone that took years to settle.
The base of a shell case is a date stamp. Read it before you believe a story.
Caring for a piece you want to keep
Leave the patina alone. The brown and gold tone is part of the appeal, and a hard polish strips it and the value with it. Dust with a soft dry cloth. If a vase held flowers and water once, check inside for old corrosion and dry it out.
If you want to learn more about how museums treat this material, the Imperial War Museum holds a fine collection and writes about it in plain terms. A search of their online collection will show you the range of what survives, from rough souvenirs to small masterpieces.
Most of all, keep any note that came with the piece. A line in a relative’s hand saying who made it and where is worth as much as the engraving. Once that paper is gone, the object goes quiet.
Common questions
How can I tell when a piece of trench art was made?
Look at the headstamp on the base of the shell case. It shows the manufacturer and a date, which tells you the earliest the piece could have been made. Period engraving is usually a little uneven and softened by age.
Is trench art valuable?
Most pieces sell for modest sums. Value rises when the work is finely engraved, dated to a known campaign, tied to a named soldier, or made in an unusual form like a model or a lighter.