Original Item: Only One Available. This is a fascinating post-WWI commemorative 75mm artillery projectile that originally formed the body of a Snead & Co. “Victory Lamp,” manufactured shortly after the Armistice from surplus U.S. Government French-American 75mm shells associated with the catastrophic 1918 explosion at the T. A. Gillespie Loading Company plant in Morgan, New Jersey. The projectile carries the distinctive VICTORY / Nov. 11. 1918 / 75 m/m Shell inscription and the biblical “swords into ploughshares” passage around its copper driving band. The original lamp fittings are now missing, leaving the decorated projectile itself as an evocative example of the transformation of wartime materiel into an American victory and peace souvenir.

Not Available for Export.

It is clearly stamped on the body:

VICTORY
Nov. 11. 1918
75 m/m Shell

The copper band that runs around the base of the shell is also stamped as follows:

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Swords to ploughshares (or Swords to plowshares) is a concept in which military weapons or technologies are converted for peaceful civilian applications.

The phrase originates from the Old Testament of the Bible in the Book of Isaiah:

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.—Isaiah 2:3–4

The ploughshare is often used to symbolize creative tools that benefit humankind, as opposed to destructive tools of war, symbolized by the sword, a similar sharp metal tool with an arguably opposite use.

French "Soisante-quinze" 75mm model 1897 field gun was the most universal weapon of the French artillery during World War I. Thousands were built and by the end of the war it had become the standard weapon of the United States Army. That prevalence in 1918-19 explains why its barely modified descendants still took part in World War II.

The shell is missing the fuze piece that would have the attachment for a light bulb. The shell measures 10 ¼” tall with a 2 ¾” base diameter.

As preserved today, this is no longer a complete Victory Lamp, but the projectile retains the elements that make the original piece historically distinctive: the VICTORY / Nov. 11. 1918 inscription, 75 m/m designation, copper driving band, and complete Isaiah 2:4 “swords into ploughshares” message. Rather than ordinary trench art, it represents a documented American postwar commercial project directly connected with the Morgan munitions disaster, the November 1918 Armistice, and the contemporary desire to transform the physical remnants of industrialized warfare into symbols of peace.

Totally inert, cannot be converted to an explosive device, not available for export. This item is completely legal within the USA. International Military Antiques, Inc observes all Federal, State and Local laws. Everything for sale on ima-usa.com is completely legal to own, trade, transport and sell within the United States of America.

All deactivated ordnance sold by IMA, Inc is engineered to be inoperable according to guidelines provided by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATF).