WWI silk postcard 'Sacred Alliance'

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c. 1915

Overview

Embroidered silk postcard, featuring the words 'Sacred Alliance' in gold thread. Above this is a colourful depiction of a large flag made up from the flags of the allies. The Union Jack is positioned at the top left, with the flags of Imperial Russia and Belgium to the right, and the flags of France, Italy and Serbia on the bottom row. The large flag is on a bright blue flagpole with a gold finial.
The surrounds are made from embossed cream card with decorative patterns.
The reverse of the postcard is plain other than two parallel lines separating the areas for writing and address, and lines for the address to be written on. The maker's details are printed vertically on the left, and the words 'Carte Postale' across the top..

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-RoW00665

Item type

Themes