Trench art kitchen scoop : Sapper S K Pearl, 5 Field Company Engineers, AIF

Trench art kitchen scoop for flour, sugar or rice. The body of the scoop is made from a brass German 77mm shellcase cut away to form a decorative scalloped edge, which is further embellished with engraved lines. The shorter edge of the scoop nears a brass Royal Engineers' cap badge mounted on a cut out sheet of copper. A Hales rifle grenade forms the handle of the scoop which is attached to the scoop through a German helmet cockade. A small split pin is attached to the handle, with a loop of fine string, so that the scoop can be suspended from a hook.

This scoop is part of a collection of trench art made by 6756 Sapper Stanley Keith Pearl, a Tasmanian who served with 5 Field Compnay Engineers, AIF. He enlisted for service on 9 November 1915 and returned to Australia on 21 March 1919. Pearl subsequently moved to Canberra and was employed as a carpenter by the Australian War Memorial. He supplied the following information about the scoop, 'Made on the Somme in July 1917. Its body is a German 77mm shell-case found at Fremincourt, while the Royal Engineers' badge was taken from the cap of a sapper wounded by Richthofen's "Flying Circus" near Lagnicourt. The handle is a Hales rifle-grenade souvenired from the 20th Battalion, A.I.F., at Bullecourt, and the cockade from a battered German helmet found at Longatte.'