WWI silk postcard sent for 'Happy New Year'

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c. 1915

Overview

Embroidered silk postcard in the form of an envelope featuring the words 'Happy New Year' in gold thread across the bottom.
The flap of the fabric envelope is bordered with white thread and has a a central motif with the flags of the United Kingdom and France with a spray of stylised bright green shamrock leaves with yellow centres to the left, right and underneath.
Below the flap is a spray of shamrock on the left and mistletoe on the right - traditional plants associated with Christmas in Ireland and England respectively.
Inside the lifted flap is a small cream coloured greeting card featuring the British Coat of Arms on the left and the words 'Merry New Year' on the right, all printed in black. The reverse of the card insert is plain.
The surrounds are made from embossed cream card with a series of shamrock flowers and leaves for decoration.
The reverse of the postcard is plain other than a line separating the areas for writing and address and lines for the address to be written on. The maker's details appear in the bottom left corner.

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-RoW00650

Item type

Themes