Antique Tramp Art Crucifix - France 1910s - Superb French Trench Art

Antique Tramp Art Crucifix - France 1910s - Superb French Trench Art Patinated Ceramic Corpus Christi - RC150

Standing at two feet high, an intricately designed Crucifix, bought from a gentlemen in central France. His Grandfather had created this whilst in the trenches in WW1. His Grandfather told him that the Corpus, or Body of Christ, together with the ceramic pins were found in a box hidden beneath some rubble in a derelict barn and so he created this tramp-art style, freestanding Cross as a way of taking his mind off the war, with some help from his comrades in the trenches alongside him. He made it from any small pieces of timber they could find in and around the areas where they were fighting.  We can see that at some point, probably long before the war, areas of the Corpus have had gold leaf or gilding applied; but through the years this has almost all rubbed off. The wood used seems to have more age than the crucifix it has made; it was probably from either some old furniture or perhaps Church fittings that had been destroyed by the war. Having spent many hours looking a this item we believe that it my be a lot older, perhaps mid to early 1800's and the grandfather repatriated this from the Germans who were creating this sort of thing in the early eighteen hundreds, but we will now never know.

The Crucifix is freestanding with a height of 24" or 61cm. The width is 10.5" and the depth is 5.5" (26.5 and 14cm). Where the cross meets the stepped base, it sits on the shape of a heart with a brass stud beneath it; a similar stud is in the centre front of each step. The base consists of five steps, each studded with a white ceramic dome at the corner edge. The wood of this base has great age and it can be seen how the layers of wood have been added on top of each other. At the back of the base, a wooden veneer has been added which over time has cracked - possibly from being damp at the time it was made. 

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