Trench Art Lamps and Sue Johnson Lamp Shades

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Mary Shilman created the curved mica lampshade specifically for this Trench Art lamp. The base of the lamp is a spent artillery shell left behind after World War I. Generally they were worked by recovering soldiers; a form of art therapy using available, "free" materials.

This lamp is 19" tall, 10 1/5" from table to bottom of shade. Only sold together, $787.50 SOLD

Trench Art

The brass base of this lamp was originally the casing for a World War I artillery shell created during or after the "War to End All Wars" in 1918. Used shell casings were decorated behind the front lines of the trenches along the Western Front in Belgium and France and belong to a unique genre of folk art called trench art.

Brass shell casings were popular canvases for soldiers with artistic skills to create souvenirs to send home to loved ones or to sell to other soldiers. Floral designs were especially popular because they allowed soldiers to forget the horrors of trench warfare, so convincingly portrayed in the recent film, "My Boy Jack."

The creators of most trench art objects will forever remain anonymous, but they leave a poignant legacy to the spirit of these talented artists who took scraps from the detritus of war and transformed them into a variety of beautiful objects.

The pairing of Sue Johnson's exceptionally beautiful lamp shades with decorated shell casings from World War I represents a further transformation in the life of these historical objects.

For more information on trench art, see "Trench Art: An Illustrated History" by Jane A. Kimball."

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Trench Art antique lamp, shell casing with Ivy design
Wired with 2 sockets, pull chains $375.00
2 small format 60 watt bulbs
Mica Lampshade “Ivy at Sunset” by Sue Johnson
Hexagon, 6x15x9, alkyd mica lightly mineral marked with red, hand-cut design with colorful liners $402.50
20” tall, 17” wide, 11” table to bottom of shade

$777.50
1 available

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Trench Art lamp, antique shell casing with Flower design
Wired with 3-way socket $345.00
75 watts max
Parchment paper lampshade with Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpaper border
by Jill Lawrence
6x16x 9.5 (slant), $185
20” tall, 16” wide, 11.5” table to bottom of shade

$430.00