WWI silk postcard 'To My Sweetheart'

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c. 1915

Overview

Embroidered silk postcard in the form of an envelope. The flap of the fabric envelope is bordered with yellow green thread and features the words 'To my Sweetheart' mostly sewn in red thread. The letter 'S' is made up of ten small blue flowers with red centres with little pieces of yellow green foliage attached.
A larger blue flower appears on the 'T' of 'To' and another on the upper right corner. The lower part of the silk insert has a pair of the same blue flowers in each corner and a single flower in the centre, joined by leaves and red berries.
This card is unusual in having a gold printed border around the centre with rounded corners and the outer embossed cream card with a stippled pattern having scalloped rather than straight edges.
There may have been a small card inserted inside the flap when it was made and purchased, but this is not present.
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 'J.S. Paris Depose' are printed vertically to the left of the central line. There is a depiction of a dragonfly on the lower left centre. All of the printing is in a gold or sepia colour.

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-RoW00675

Item type

Themes