WWI silk postcard sent for Christmas

c. 1915
Overview

Embroidered silk postcard, featuring the word 'Christmas' in pale blue thread on the top right, with holly leaves and berries and mistletoe foliage and flowers below. On the left is a colourful depiction of the flags of the allies with a central circular Union Jack with a red and gold crown above, surrounded by the flags of Italy and Imperial Russia on the left and Belgium and France on the right.
The surrounds are made from embossed cream card with a series of parallel lines 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.

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-RoW00647
Width
138 mm
Height or length
89 mm
Inscriptions and markings

On front of postcard:

"CHRISTMAS"

On reverse of postcard:

"DEPOSE"

Place made
France
Year
Primary significance criteria
Artistic or aesthetic significance
Social or spiritual significance
Comparative significance criteria
Interpretive capacity
Last modified
Thursday, 14 August, 2025
Completeness
100
Recollections of War

Recollections of War

WWI silk postcard sent for Christmas
WWI silk postcard sent for Christmas
Reverse of WWI silk postcard sent for Christmas
Reverse of WWI silk postcard sent for Christmas

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