Vintage Military Enamel 800 Silver Menin Gate Ypres Belgium Souvenir Spoon

Vintage Military Enamel 800 Silver Menin Gate Ypres Belgium Souvenir Spoon

This wonderful souvenir spoon is continental 800 silver with enameling, measures 4 1/8" long and is in excellent condition. The bowl has an image of Porte de Menin (Menin Gate) and the handle, emblems of the municipality of Ypres. Ypres is an ancient town that was the centre of intense and sustained battles between the German and Allied forces in World War I, including the Battle of Passchendaele . The Menin Gate Memorial at the eastern exit of the town, located in Flanders, Belgium, was opened in 1927 to honour 54,896 missing Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the one of the Battles of Ypres prior to August 15, 1917 and who have no known grave. UK soldiers killed after this date as well as those from New Zealand and Newfoundland are commemorated on other memorials.

Today Ypres, one of the first places where chemical warfare was employed, has the title of "city of peace" and has close ties to Hiroshima, who suffered the debut of nuclear warfare. Both cities advocate for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Ypres continues the tradition started in 1928 of stopping traffic around the Menin Gate Memorial while the Last Post is sounded by the local fire brigade as a tribute to the British Empire soldiers who fought and died there.

Item ID: RL2888

$55 USD

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