Chats on Military CuriosJohnson, Stanley C. (Stanley Currie)
History
Chats on Military Curios
Johnson, Stanley C. (Stanley Currie)
Military art and science
The chief settlement was at Norman Cross, near Peterborough, and,
though the huge and dingy buildings which served as prisons no longer
stand, the place is marked by a cross which was unveiled on July 28,
1914. The craft of the Peterborough prisoners ranked high, as visitors
to the local museums will readily acknowledge. Their wares were chiefly
made out of the beef-bones left over from their rations. The writer
treasures a most exquisitely made set of dominoes carved from bone and
ornamented by brush, quill, and knife which came from this settlement.
A photograph of the set is given among the illustrations of the present
work, but the delicate tracery and the coloured panels of the box
have lost much of their charm in the process of reproduction. There
is nothing unfinished about the dominoes; each is perfectly squared
and the dots are scooped out and coloured with black enamel. When one
remembers that the tools at the disposal of the workers were few
and primitive, their productions must be accepted as truly marvellous.
Another example of the work of these men which is worth mentioning is
to be seen in the Peterborough Museum; it consists of a miniature bone
or perhaps ivory guillotine, perfect in every detail.
[Illustration: OBSIDIONAL HALF-FRANC NOTE OF EPERNAY.]
[Illustration: OBSIDIONAL FRANC NOTE OF EPERNAY.]
Perhaps it will be well to mention that the inhabitants of Peterborough
displayed much interest in the Frenchmen's art, and a regular market
was held daily within the prison walls from ten to midday, whilst
history records that as much as two hundred pounds was given in a week
for these curios.
At Perth, another of the concentration centres, the products of the
prisoners consisted of carved boxes, wooden and bone puzzles, toys
and strawplait goods. Indeed, the skill which the men displayed in
this latter class of production was so high that it outclassed all
local work of a similar nature. From straw which was dipped in various
coloured dyes these clever workmen made tableaux of a most gorgeous
nature and framed them with carefully shaped pieces of wood. They
also dug up the clay in the courtyards and modelled it into little
statuettes of sailors, soldiers, and people of notoriety, whilst they
cut pieces from their clothes and worked them into ornamental slippers.
Their ingenuity did not stop here, for they forged bank-notes to while
away their tedious hours, and foisted them on to those who came to the
prison market. In this matter the following quotation from the _Perth
Courier_ of September 19, 1813, is interesting:[30]--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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