Embroidered Postcards (4) and Frame
Date1917
DimensionsOverall: 1 x 14 x 36 cm
Credit LineCollection of Museum London, 2006
Object number2006.025.006
Label TextThis is a First World War (1914-1918) silk embroidered postcard, a souvenir a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force sent home to a loved one. Although silk postcards enjoyed enormous popularity during the First World War, they first entered production in Austria and then France in the early 1900s. By 1910 they were in great demand, often featuring flowers. With the start of war in 1914, the themes of the embroidery changed to appeal to a new market, Allied soldiers stationed in Great Britain, France, and Belgium. Now the postcards featured sentimental messages to loved ones at home, flags, and regimental badges. Many sources state that French and Belgian women undertook the embroidery in their homes, applying multiple designs to rolls of silk, which they then sent to a factory to be cut up and applied to cardboard. While this may be the case in some instances, in others, machines in factory settings did the embroidery. The postcards continued to be manufactured well after the war’s end in 1918.
NamePostcard
