I'd like to submit a theory about these hot water bottles to the sagacity of the forum.
A few months ago, during a trip to France, I managed to attend a flea market and ended up with these 2 water bottles, the first one caught my eye and was at a staggering asking price of 2 euros and the second 3 euros... Simply couldn't resist, but what is interesting is they both come from the same batch, they were made by MAI (Manufacture d'Issy les Moulineaux) in 1918 and it's the 767th lot.
Since then, I spotted 4 or 5 different sales of the very same item on Ebay. All are identical, except it seems there's 2 sizes: 300mm and 215mm.
I developped the following theory: could these cases be the last ones produced by this factory in 1918 and they were waiting to be loaded when the war ended and subsequently never were? And then could it be they have been either sold to someone who transformed them in to waterbottles or could this work have been done by the ammo factory?
And last but not least does any one know how many cartridges were in a lot? 10,000?
A few months ago, during a trip to France, I managed to attend a flea market and ended up with these 2 water bottles, the first one caught my eye and was at a staggering asking price of 2 euros and the second 3 euros... Simply couldn't resist, but what is interesting is they both come from the same batch, they were made by MAI (Manufacture d'Issy les Moulineaux) in 1918 and it's the 767th lot.
Since then, I spotted 4 or 5 different sales of the very same item on Ebay. All are identical, except it seems there's 2 sizes: 300mm and 215mm.
I developped the following theory: could these cases be the last ones produced by this factory in 1918 and they were waiting to be loaded when the war ended and subsequently never were? And then could it be they have been either sold to someone who transformed them in to waterbottles or could this work have been done by the ammo factory?
And last but not least does any one know how many cartridges were in a lot? 10,000?