WWI silk postcard sent from France by George

« Prev Item Next Item »

c. 1915

Overview

Embroidered silk postcard in vertical orientation sent home as a souvenir from France by a soldier named George during World War One. It is one of three sent by the same man.
The silk insert has the date '1914-15' sewn in blue thread in the lower right corner, with an arc of yellow lines radiating upwards from it like a sun. Below this are four individual red white and blue flowers separated by green leaves. The use of these three patriotic colours representing the Empire is significant.
A branch of green leaves with yellow buds or berries extends from the lower left to the top left. From the centre of this are four blue flagpoles with gold finials supporting flags of the allies. The French flag with 'RF' (Republique Francaise) in the centre is the lowest, then the flags of Imperial Russia, the United Kingdom and Belgium moving upwards.
The surrounds are made from embossed cream card with a decorative pattern 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 words 'Paris Depose' are printed on the lower left. The greeting from George is written in pencil where the address should be.

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. This card is an example of that, being one of three sent by George (Geo.) from France as souvenirs.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00672

Item type

Themes