Trench-Art Tobacco Tins

So called Trench-Art items are some of the nicest finds to get. There is little more personal than something a soldier or prisoner of war spent hour after hour creating. It can be anything from a butterknife carved from wood, a name or decoration engraved on to a drinking cup, to sophisticated works of art. Some soldiers even set up a small cottage industry, producing and selling their items on the barrack. After the liberation the Soviet Ex-POWs produced a lot of different items to trade for food with the locals or give as gifts to people who had helped them.

The tools used to make trench art depended on what the maker could get access to, and would range from a primitive home made engraving pen to a full metal workshop.

I have found many of these things and wanted to share some of them, starting with tobacco or cigarett tins. Small (usually around 10 cm x 7 cm x 2.5 cm) decorated boxes made from aluminum. I might have bought one or two of them, but most I have found while metal detecting or rummaging through lofts and barns.

1:

This is the smallest box I have found, ca 7 cm x 5.5 cm, and is nicely decorated with flowers on one side and sea, mountain and a lighthouse on the other side. Found in a Gebirgsjäger camp.

2:

A very nicely made box, with romantic and maritime images engraved came out from a shed. There is no way to know, but I have a feeling this is made by a liberated Red Army soldier as there was a POW camp near the farm where it was found.

3:

Another tin with a romantic motive, and a framed horse on the other side. I found this in a Gebirgsjäger camp.

4:

Found in the same Gebirgsjäger camp as the previous tin, and it has the same imagery, romantic on one side, and a horse on the other.

5:

My father once picked up some car parts from a fellow, and he had this tin screwed to his workbench, and told it was from a Soviet POW.

6:

This beautifully engraved tin is clearly from a Red Army soldier. The front is showing a pilot, and perhaps Kreml in the background, St.George slaying the dragon on the back, and inside the lid a hot lady laying on the divan.

7:

I got this one from an auction and it is lovely made. The front has intricate patterns, 1945 engraved, a metal diamond with initials and in the corner a small frame with a piece of paper with a tobacco plant on has been slid in. On the back is a sailboat inside a nice frame.

8:

One of my favorite trench-art finds came out from a ditch near a field hospital. On the front is a person raising a glass of champagne. The backside has his name Hans Duppelhofer and Liinahamari 1944.

9:

This is my favorite tobacco tin. I found it in a Gebirgsjäger trash pit and it was clearly made by a Gebirgsjäger. The front has the initials H. G, 1944 and an Edelweiss on each side, in the middle is a rifle, an M43 cap and the Gebirgsjäger ice axe.

The whole backside is covered with the words Zur Erinnerung an die Eismeerfront.