CROSS STITCH, HANDKERCHIEF

Very fine cross stitch on fine lawn fabric with floral embroidery design in each corner and a drawn thread lace edging, finished in buttonhole stitch.

This hanky from Estonia in 1960s sent to refugees who had migrated to Australia following occupation of that country by Russia and then Germany in WWII.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been part of the Russian Empire since the end of the 18th century, but after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union as a Soviet Republic in 1940. Estonia became independent in 1991.