Oct 15, 2015 - Sale 2393

Sale 2393 - Lot 141

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(INDUSTRIAL)
Album with 19 photographs recording the manufacture of shells and compressed gas tanks at the Projectile and Engineering Company in Battersea, London. With an eye for composition and dramatic narrative the (unknown) photographer has exposed the workings of a British arms manufacturing company at the outset of WWII. Flat-cap adorned men smoke cigarettes as they smelt white-hot steel on the sweltering factory floor, exposed to thick, billowing smoke and roaring flames. Others scrutinize and fine-tune the precision tips of the shells while sharp, suited men in leather shoes inspect and seal the compressed gas canisters. Silver prints, measuring 9 1/2x7 1/2 inches (24.1x19.1 cm.), mounted recto only. Oblong small folio, hand-titled navy blue leatherette. 1939
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Additional Details

A Jack Boore (possibly the subject of pl. 13) recounts his memories of the factory in a BBC documentary, "I became a lathe machinist at the Projectile Engineering Co. [...] earning a fantastic average of £14 a week. […] Life those days were very grim […] after a while we ignored air raid warnings and carried on with our job until bells started ringing, warning us that bombs were dropping in our area, and only then we took shelter."