Original British WWI Trench Art Mk V Tank Model with Inscribed Ol’Faithful 1918 Plaque Original Items

Original Item: One of a Kind. Incredible Piece of Great War Trench Art consisting of a British Mark V Tank on a wooden base with an inscribed silver plaque that reads “Ol’ Faithful/ 1918”. The tank itself can almost be considered a Folk Art piece. It was quite obviously constructed of materials that were scavenged/salvaged from the battlefield or behind the lines. The tank is constructed from numerous types of materials, circular knurled cogs have been bent in to shape to form the sides and tracks, tin and zinc to create the body of the tank. The guns are made from either copper or rolled tin, The exhaust pipe is made of brass, the top cage from tin, etc.

The tank is secured to the wooden base by the means of one single-slot screw. The silver plaque is secured to the wooden base by two single-slot screws. The piece itself is unquestionably constructed during the period. The only possibly later addition is the relic piece of barbed wire, which could have easily been added by a veteran decades ago. The tank itself measures approximately 7″ x 3″ x 3″ and the plaque is 8″ x 4″.

Curiously enough, The actual “Ol’ Faithful” Mark V. Tank is on display at the Bovington Tank Museum in England!

Trench art is any decorative item made by soldiers, prisoners of war, or civilians where the manufacture is directly linked to armed conflict or its consequences. It offers an insight not only to their feelings and emotions about the war, but also their surroundings and the materials they had available to them.
 
Not limited to the World Wars, the history of trench art spans conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day. Although the practice flourished during World War I, the term ‘trench art’ is also used to describe souvenirs manufactured by service personnel during World War II. Some items manufactured by soldiers, prisoners of war or civilians during earlier conflicts have been retrospectively described as trench art. There is much evidence to prove that some trench art was made in the trenches, by soldiers, during war.

In With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, George Coppard tells of pressing his uniform buttons into the clay floor of his trench, then pouring molten lead from shrapnel into the impressions to cast replicas of the regimental crest. Chalk carvings were also popular, with contemporary postcards showing carvings in the rocky outcrops of dug-outs. Many smaller items such as rings and knives were made by soldiers either in front line or support trenches, especially in quieter parts of the line.

Wounded soldiers were encouraged to work at crafts as part of their recuperation, with embroidery and simple forms of woodwork being common. Again from With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, George Coppard recalls that, while recuperating from wounds at a private house in Birkenhead, “one kind old lady brought a supply of coloured silks and canvas and instructed us in the art of embroidery. A sampler which I produced under her guidance so pleased her that she had it framed for me.”
 
An example of therapeutic embroidery during World War I is the work of British military in Egypt, who were photographed sewing and embroidering for Syrian refugees. There was also the Bradford Khaki Handicrafts Club, which was funded in Bradford, UK, in 1918, to provide occupational therapy and employment for men returning from the trenches in France.