Lampshade made from MI9 Escape & Evasion map

Lampshade and stand. The lampshade is made from a brass frame which is divided into eight curved sections. A cross piece at the base connects the shade to the stand. The frame has been covered in a silk escape map, printed on both sides and showing parts of France, Switzerland and Northern Italy on the outside and France, Germany and Belgium on the inside. Four of the panels have been covered with a continuous piece of map; the remainder with two different sections of map. The silk is stretched over the outside of the frame with the loose edges tucked inside. The map around each frame has then been sewn into place. The outside of the frame, including the top and base, are overstitched with a thick cream thread sewn in a knotted pattern. The base of the shade is decorated with a length of apricot coloured synthetic fringe. The lamp stand is made from brass and is curved at the top with a decorative finial which can be unscrewed. The mechanism which attaches the light globe to the stand also unscrews. Protruding from the end of the stand is a length of wiring covered in yellow cotton cord. The sides of the square wooden base of the lampshade rise in a curve to a smaller square top. The stand screws into the base through a small hole at the back and the wire comes out the side through a small hole edged with black bakelite. Another hole in the centre of the stand once held in place a Royal Doulton figurine, called "Sweet Anne" which has since been removed. The bottom of the base is covered in red felt.

This lampshade was made by Mrs A K Blundell in Devon, England shortly after the end of the Second World War. Her son had served in the Royal Air Force during the war and gave the silk escape map to his mother after he was discharged. With material being scare in the post war years she used the map to recover an existing lamp shade. The Blundell family migrated to Australia in 1951, bringing the lamp with them.