WWI Silks

This past weekend I was visiting my husband's brother and his wife and admired something interesting they had in a frame. I had never seen these before! (please excuse the poor quality photos, the photographer wasn't so hot!)

 

 

 

 

My fascination with these led me to do a little research. According to my sister-in-law, these little embroidered gems were post cards from World War I. They came from her grandfather who fought overseas. Some of them have little pieces of paper with notes on them behind the embroidered designs. Thanks to Google I learned that they were created by French and Belgian women, embroidered on patches of silk and then sent to factories to be mounted on cards. They were very popular with British and American service men and often sent home to a loved one adding a little beauty to an otherwise grim situation.

 

When I saw examples of well preserved post cards I was surprised to see how colourful they were. I guess putting them in a frame was not a good idea since it caused a great deal of fading. (While the well preserved ones are nice, I kind of like the softness of the faded ones!) Below is an example of what they looked like about a hundred years ago. Check out the link for the Toronto Public Library!

 

View more cards from the Toronto Public Library

 

This video describes the history of WWI Silks and the popularity of them as collector's items.

 

Video about WWI Silks