WWI silk greeting card sent to wife from Daddy July 4 1916

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1916

Overview

Rectangular, cream coloured greeting card in vertical orientation with an embroidered silk insert. It was sent by a soldier to his wife, Daisy, and daughters, Ethell and Glayds, on July 4 1916.
The cover of the card has a rectangular void through which the embroidery can be seen. It features a blue bird flying downwards, holding ribbons in its beak representing the flags of the allies (United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Imperial Russia, as well as a spray of red flowers and green leaves.
There is a line of four pale blue crosses above the silk insert and two more lines of four below. There are a few scattered pink diamonds around the centre and also benetah the words 'To my dear Wife' which are printed in gold.
A red ribbon with white and blue stripes, representing the Empire, attaches the paper insert to the card.
Daddy has written his message in purple pencil on three of the four pages within the card. A poem is printed in black on the right hand page in the centre of the card.
The original envelope, made from see through, shiny brown paper, is with the card.

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, having been sent to the wife of a soldier who wrote regularly to her and both daughters.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00678

Item type

Themes

War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Width

90 mm

Height or length

140 mm

Inscriptions and markings

On front of card:

"To my dear Wife"

On inside of card:

"For you all the perfumes
For you all the roses
And that their thousand voices
Tell you a thousand things"

Transcripts

Page 1

France July 4/1916
Dear Wife
Just a few lines
love trusting to find you all well the only
thing i had a bad billious [sic] attack today
i am just feeling allwright [sic] otherwise
i am well Well Dear i am not in the trenches
yet but will be any day now as far as i know
my word Old Girl the guns going
of [sic] don't make one head and ears ring
for a start soon get used to that take
no notice of them going off now they
do hum going over you head Well Dear
they will be short letters now i
wont be able to wright [sic] big
ones but as long as i keep well
and you get news from me we
wont growl I recieved [sic] you letters
and papers allwright [sic] but no parcels
i could of done with some nice
Tabbaco [sic] at present i have plenty
but not to [sic] nice one gets all sorts
of Tabbaco I hope you have got
all the P cards and Han i have
sent i have sent a lot now

Page 2

Well Dais i was very tired
i had a heavy days work on
Saturday unloading big timber
i was real nocked [sic] up I then
had a big march with
full packs and blanket
Sunday and Monday
but i fell just about
recoverd [sic] now I hope
i don't have to carry
such a load for sometime
again but i got through
with the best of them
so i have not done
to [sic] bad concidering [sic] i am
not to [sic] good

Page 3

I will conclude
with love and
Best of wishes
from your loveing [sic]
husband and Daddy
XXXX
XXXXX
XXX
XX
X
X
XXXXXXXXXXX
X
I will drop a line as
often as ever i can so
you must let them all
know as i may not be
able to write to anyone
only you Love XXX