WWI silk postcard 'A Kiss from France' sent in 1916

1916
Overview

Embroidered silk postcard, featuring the words 'A Kiss from France' in gold thread in an arc across the top. Below this is a colourful depiction of two crossed French flags with two red triangular pennants attached to the outer edges.
A pink flower is located under the middle of each flag and a pale blue, purple and yellow pansy in the centre with sets of three green leaves above and either side.
The surrounds are made from embossed cream card with a series of parallel lines for decoration.
The reverse of the postcard has a line separating the areas for writing and address, and lines for the address to be written on. The words 'Fabrication Francaise' are also printed vertically adjacent to the centre line in black ink.
The inscription 'From France 1916' is written in black pen. An old sale price is written in pencil.

Historical information

According to the Australian War Memorial, woven silk postcards were first produced in Krefeld, Germany in 1898 as a combination of printed postcards and large woven silk pictures, known as Stevengraphs. The early cards were woven on machines. Being machine made, the woven cards always maintained a high standard.
Embroidered silk postcards were first made in 1900 for the Paris Exposition. The popularity of silk postcards peaked during World War One. A thriving cottage industry began around 1915 and the quality of the early silks was quite high. However later, to satisfy demand, the workmanship was often not quite as high.
Postcard companies began to employ women to produce silks on a rough assembly line basis. The cards were generally hand embroidered on strips of silk mesh with as many as 25 on a strip. They were mostly embroidered by French women in their homes and then sent to the factories for cutting and mounting on postcards.
Some postcards were made with little envelopes which could contain a smaller card with a sentimental message.
Production continued steadily through World War One, declining substantially in 1919, until ending around 1923. An estimated 10,000,000 hand made cards were produced from 1915 to 1919.

There are a large number of silk postcards in the collection, including several groupings relating to individual soldiers and their families.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-119-RoW00654
Width
139 mm
Height or length
89 mm
Inscriptions and markings

On front of postcard:

"A Kiss from France"

On reverse of postcard:

"From France
1916"

"Fabrication Francaise"

"£4.50 p"

Place made
France
Year
Primary significance criteria
Artistic or aesthetic significance
Social or spiritual significance
Comparative significance criteria
Interpretive capacity
Last modified
Saturday, 16 August, 2025
Completeness
100
Recollections of War

Recollections of War

WWI silk postcard 'A Kiss from France' sent in 1916
WWI silk postcard 'A Kiss from France' sent in 1916
Reverse of WWI silk postcard 'A Kiss from France' sent in 1916
Reverse of WWI silk postcard 'A Kiss from France' sent in 1916

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