French souvenir/fund raising item ?

[QUEX]

Friend of mine owns a FWW 'thing' that he has been trying to identify for years - it is so far outside my knowledge that I can't even begin to help, so I'm trying the assembled wisdom of the GWF.  This is how he described it in a query to 'Britain at War' magazine, and some images. Any suggestions? 

--------

"It is made of thin aluminium in the shape of an artillery shell approx 16cm in height by 4 cm diameter.

The body is decorated with 3 pressed metal pieces attached by wires through the body of the ‘shell’.  These are, from the base: a silver badge depicting an artillery gun with the number 75 beside it and the dates 1914 and 1916 either side, a gilt laurel wreath and a bronze miniature Croix de Guerre, which I believe originally had a ribbon attached.

A glass tube, sealed at the upper end and splayed open (inside the ‘shell’) at the bottom, protrudes from the screwed on copper nose piece for approx. 4cm.  This tube will not stay in place without support so was probably held in place by whatever was originally inside the ‘shell’.

The body comes apart at the copper drive band to reveal a cylindrical cardboard tube, 8cm in length, open at the top and closed at the bottom, which was originally fixed into the bottom of the lower part of the ‘shell’ with some sort of brown resin.  The tube is white with a red upper edge and a red painted seam about 1.5 cm from the upper edge. When assembled it reaches just over half way up the body of the ‘shell’.

The object is French in origin, the base is stamped with the word DEPOSE which is the French equivalent of Registered design or Patent. It also has a small square shaped stamp with what looks like a crown inside it. I believe it was a commercially produced fund raising souvenir intended to raise money for arms production. The date suggests it was made in 1916.

My question is, what was its function?  The internal cardboard cylinder and the protruding glass tube indicate it had some function, most likely some sort of novelty, but what?  The glass tube suggests there was something to be seen, either directly inside the tube or light emitted through it, but there is no evidence of any internal fittings for bulb, wires or switch. Also it is quite a delicate object, the aluminium is too flimsy to put up with much handling."

 

 

[Chasemuseum]

Purely a guess

The glass fitting was originally inserted in from the top and is a vase holding a small amount of water to accept a small bunch of flowers or a single red poppy.

Cheers

[QUEX]

On 08/02/2023 at 00:35, Chasemuseum said:

Purely a guess

The glass fitting was originally inserted in from the top and is a vase holding a small amount of water to accept a small bunch of flowers or a single red poppy.

Cheers

Ta - that's an interesting thought - I'll pass it on.  I've not actually seen the 'thing' myself so don't want to offer an opinion.

[FROGSMILE]

Like you I thought perhaps a table lamp.  If a bulb was inside the main tube then it might emanate light from the glass piece on top.  If not electric light then perhaps oil with a wick, but there would need to be a vent somewhere.  The glass top is the principal clue as to function and I cannot seen any other purpose for it.

Edited 10 February , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[trenchtrotter]

The museum at Peronne on the Somme had a temporary display last year and they had one identical. Lovely thing.

 

[FROGSMILE]

4 hours ago, trenchtrotter said:

The museum at Peronne on the Somme had a temporary display last year and they had one identical. Lovely thing.

 

Perhaps they can throw light (pun unintended) upon what its purpose was.

[QUEX]

4 hours ago, trenchtrotter said:

The museum at Peronne on the Somme had a temporary display last year and they had one identical. Lovely thing.

 

Thank you very much - I'll point my mate at them.