RAF Trench Art Dinner Gong and Period Photograph

On offer is a finely worked brass decorative plaque fitted with a rope hanging line. Whilst it has no striker we have assumed it may have been intended as a dinner gong when made although it makes an equally interesting wall plaque. Whilst its specific history has been lost down the years it came in a lot with a framed RAF squadron photograph showing all the chaps posed beside and on a Vickers Wellington Bomber. They are all dressed in khaki drill so seeing the engraving on the gong it is safe to assume this item originated in Egypt and was made using scrap recovered from the battlefield and sold as a souvenir to RAF personnel serving in Egypt in WWII.

Sadly no squadron codes are visible on the 'Wimpy' (so named after the portly character in the Popeye cartoons) so we have no idea when and where the photograph was taken but it safe to assume the original owner of this piece is featured in it. The photograph and frame show some age wear whist the gong is as good as the day it was made. It features standard Egyptian tourist images of the pyramids, sphinx, camels and palm trees whilst to the centre is a very fine RAF crest surmounted by a Kings Crown with the RAF motto 'Per Adua Ad Astra'. We have no doubt local craftsman in the souk would turn out similar objects featuring Luftwaffe badges equally proficiently depending on the current occupying forces and the state of the war in North Africa at the time! The gong/ plaque measures 9.5" diameter (24 cm) and the squadron photograph is 15.5" long (38 cm.)