E2BN Gallery

Decorated objects made from 1914 and into the post-war period are generally referred to as ‘trench art’. A few types of trench art could be made easily in a trench during lulls in the fighting, but the hammering involved in making many pieces would have been greeted with unwelcome hostile fire from the enemy. Items made during the war were usually created at a distance from the front line trenches either by soldiers ‘at rest’ behind the front lines, by skilled artisans among the civilian population, by prisoners of war, or by soldiers convalescing from wounds as handicraft therapy.