Silk Embroidered Postcard c1915 (accn3992/1/9 (6)

Working my way through the Erskine Hospital collection this week I came across a set of beautiful embroidered silk postcards, perfect for a Christmas themed blog!

These silk postcards first appeared at the Paris Exhibition in 1900 and became immensely popular during the First World War.  Originally hand-embroidered by women in their homes or at refugee camps, these ‘WW1 Silks’ became a unique wartime industry and as demand increased, production was moved to factories in Paris.  Batches of hand embroidered strips of silk were sent to the factories for cutting and mounting onto postcards ready to be sold.

The postcards were decorated with symbols of remembrance including forget-me-not and pansy flowers, patriotic messages, and Allied country flags and badges.  Some consisted of a piece of embroidered silk mounted onto a card, while others had the central portion cut as a flap so that a small…