Rare Australian Militia Mess Tin with Matching Water Bottle

Rare Australian Militia Mess Tin with Matching Water Bottle A rare inter-war item made for the CMF/AMF Green enamel water bottle shortened to 950ml capacity. Bayonet tin screw cap. ( No cloth cover). The far rarer “Canteen Cup” has a folding handle and nests with the water bottle, in the same fashion of the US M1910 canteen, It is made of pressed or drawn sheet metal with a wired rim. There are no seams at all in the body of the pannikin. To the body of the pannikin in soldered a tinned metal plate which mounts the wirework handle.The outside surface of the pannikin is roughly dip-tinned rather than electroplate tinned. The wire handle of the pannikin folds under not unlike a modern Australian or a US 1910-to-Vietnam era canteen cup handle. It has a wire loop which is swing down and fitted into a tab, which holds the handle rigid while in use.The Pannikin has an “A” stamped on it above an inverted broadarrow. No other markings appear on the pannikin at all. While I have had plenty of the short militia water bottles I have only seen two of these cups before.