shell base

Shell base; brass base plate of a German shell, recovered from a shell case picked up after the battle of Gaza in 1917 and subsequently adapted for use as a frame for a photograph. A brass ring, frames a glazed photograph of a British soldier wearing shirt, shorts and solar topee astride a motor cycle. Behind him are two more soldiers, similarly dressed. In the background are the legs of a fourth, standing in the open back of a lorry. The back of the frame consists of the base of a brass cartridge case marked "POLTE MAGDEBURG SEPT 1916" around a primer screwed into the centre and marked "Fried. Knipp A.G." On the bottom rim of the case is "Sp 406", a marking introduced for Magdeburg in 1915. Engen Polte took over Jurgens & Co. in 1885. His firm, Armaturen - Machinen - und Patronenfabrik, Polte, Magdeburg made electrical armatures, machines and pumps, but their principal work in the first half of the twentieth century was to become one of the largest makers of ammunition.