WWI silk postcard 'A Happy Birthday'

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c. 1915

Overview

Embroidered silk postcard, featuring the words 'A Happy Birthday' sewn diagonally from lower left to upper right in pale blue thread on a broad white scroll background.
A dark pink, pale pink and red flower and some green foliage appear on the lower right, while a dark pink and red bud and more leaves are on the upper left.
The surrounds of the rectangular card are made from embossed cream card with decorative patterns of leaves and berries.
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 maker's details appear at the lower left.

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

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00659

Item type

Themes