Trench art table napkin ring : Sapper S K Pearl, 5 Field Company Engineers, AIF

Trench art table napkin ring set on a stand. The copper ring is made from the driving band from a German 210mm shell. A narrower piece of driving band, from a German 155mm shell is set around the ring on a hourglass shape, holding it to the base. The base is a German minenwerfer fuze, which is set on a brass plate cut from a 77mm shell case. The upper section of the fuze is impressed '1917J L.W.Zdr.2.'

This table napkin ring is part of a collection of trench art made by 6756 Sapper Stanley Keith Pearl, a Tasmanian who served with 5 Field Company 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 by the Australian War Memorial as a carpenter. He supplied the following information about the napkin ring, 'Fashioned on the Somme in July 1918. The ring is a piece of 8-inch [210mm] German shell driving-band. The loop is a 5.9 inch [155mm] German shell driving-band and the base a minenwerfer fuze on a piece of 77-mm shell-case. All were picked up near Villers-Bretonneux.'