The making of dinner gongs from empty shell cases suspended in a frame started out in the trenches themselves, when they were gas gongs, hung at points along the trenches and banged furiously to warn of a gas attack.

Such a harrowing creation is totally at odds with the subsequent use as a gentle call to dine with the family back in the warm safety of home !! However many do exist, with nicely turned wooden frames, often also decorated with cap badges, bullets etc. The majority would have been made after the war, being an ideal use for ‘Daddy’s shell’, instead of it simply sitting on the hearth !

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Verdigris covered shell case hung in a nice turned oak frame.