Here we have a hand carved trench art sweetheart frame with a nude photo dated 1917. Let’s have at it. The face worked entirely in dense pin pricked stippling and shallow chip carved florals, the kind of slow, repetitive handwork associated with trench art made to pass long hours during the First World War and send something handmade back to someone waiting at home. Ribbon like scrolls curl from the top corners, flanked by carved flowers and trailing leaves, with the date 1917 cut into the crest and the initials B and J set into cartouches on either side, likely marking a maker and the sweetheart this was made for.
The front holds the original photograph, a sepia toned studio image of a young woman in a partly unfastened chemise and laced boots, seated on a draped bench in the kind of playful, intimate pose soldiers often carried or displayed as a private comfort far from home.
Turn it over and there's a second image entirely. Set into a cut recess in the plain wood back and held at its corners with small nails is a pencil drawing of a standing nude woman, arms raised behind her head, wearing a beaded necklace and matching hip ornament, stockings gartered at the knee.
The folk art drawing shows real hand, cross hatched shading and careful contour, not the flatter naive quality you often see in amateur trench sketches. Whether the same hand carved the frame and drew this figure, or the drawing was added later by another owner who had this piece in hand, isn't something the object tells us on its own. I'm listing it as it survives, one frame carrying two women on two sides.
The WW1 trench art frame comes out of a collector’s estate in Minneapolis.
The trench art frame measures 9” x 6”. Condition is honest for a handmade object well over a century old. There is wear and loss to the varnish along the edges and raised carving on the front, with some old chipping visible in photos, though the carving itself remains crisp and the structure sound. Both the front's wire hanger and the back's brass hanging hardware are intact and usable. The photograph shows expected toning, and the pencil drawing has scattered surface wear consistent with age, protected under its old glass or celluloid sheet, itself worn at the edges. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
I ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO Boxes). Free shipping on the amazing WW1 artifact.
Just passing the time in the trenches.
