French WWI Trench Art Vase Pair — 75mm Arsenal 1912, Fine Engraved Floral, Dedicated F & L, 8.5"

These two began as weapons before the war even started. The base stamp — 75 DEC / EF / ARS / 192 / 12B — dates the brass to 1912, pre-war Arsenal production. Someone loaded them into a soixante-quinze sometime between 1914 and 1918. Someone else picked up the empty casings and spent hours with a fine needle, scratching something tender into the gold brass.

Swag garlands. Daisy sprays. Gothic chevrons at the rim. A bow. And on each body, a single engraved letter — F on one, L on the other. A matched pair made as a gift, almost certainly. Two names. Two people waiting somewhere far from the front.

The engraving is fine-line chasing — dotted fills, delicate curves, the kind of work you'd expect from a jeweler, not a soldier. It wraps consistently around each vase. Both sit on a stepped brass foot ring, with a gently flared rim. At 8.5" they're intimate in scale — mantle pieces, not floor pieces.

The F vase is in excellent condition, except for a small indentation on the rim. The L vase has permanent corrosive damage to the body — the brass is etched and pitted in that area. Both are disclosed and priced accordingly as a pair.