Plain postcards were introduced in Austria in 1869 as a cheap and easy method of postal communication. Britain followed in 1870. The first picture postcards began to appear in continental Europe in the mid-1870’s, but were not permitted in Britain until 1894. At first, the picture and message appeared on the same side and it was not until 1902 that the picture could occupy the front fully, with the message and address on the divided back.
The years of the First World War, from 1914 to 1919, were the Golden Period of the embroidered silk postcard. This is the period most associated with them and most cards that are available to collect come from this time. This means that most of them are now over one hundred years old and genuine antiques.
In fact, embroidered silk postcards originated in 1899, when picture postcards were becoming popular, building on earlier ideas and designs. In this early period, they were just expensive novelty items, and many postcard publishers attempted to introduce their own ranges, with mixed success. At least 21 named publishers have been identified from this period, together with other un-named ones. This makes the early period very complex and the subject of a separate section in the listings. A series of articles is under development to give in-depth information on these cards and will be published on this site in due course.
After about 1920 the popularity of embroidered silk postcards waned and they reverted to being expensive novelty items. There was resurgence in the Second World War but the cards never reached the popularity they commanded in the First World War. They were probably in continuous production until the1950s. The last card seen embroidered with a date was issued in 1956. Some unsuccessful attempts to resurrect them were made later.
It is estimated that about ten million embroidered silk postcards were produced overall, and it is likely that as many as 20,000 different designs were created, but nobody really knows. At its peak, my collection contained over 10,000 different designs and I have seen plenty of other cards which never reached my collection. At the time of their manufacture, the cards were treasured and a good proportion of those produced seem to have survived, so it is still possible to assimilate a good collection.
My book - The Illustrated History of the Embroidered Silk Postcard (ISBN 0-9540235-0-1) is the standard reference work on embroidered silk postcards. It includes everything known about the cards at the time of its publication. It explains their history and development, and establishes them in the context of their time. It lists over 2600 cards known with over 270 illustrations.
I would be pleased to hear from any person who has further knowledge to add to that either published in the book or on this website. You can contact me on: gabrian@btinternet.com.
The listings are divided into categories of different types of embroidered silk postcard. I established this format in my book and the listings follow the same arrangement and use the same headings. They are essentially the captions on cards arranged in alphabetical order to aid searching.
The captions are printed in the upper case, which is the most common on the cards, although many are actually in lower case. The captions are reproduced exactly as they appear on the card. Any additional information is in lower script, enclosed in brackets. The Latin word "sic" after an entry indicates that it is a known spelling mistake - these are rare and are usually consistent.
It must be borne in mind that there is usually more than one design associated with a particular wording or caption on a card. Also, many designs are repeated using different captions and they can be collected to make a "set", despite there being no evidence that it was the original intention. However, it is remarkable just how many unique designs were produced with a specific caption.
In addition, the same caption can be on both vertical and horizontal cards. Many cards, especially the horizontal ones, have an envelope front to insert a small printed greetings card. Some vertical cards are designed to take a folded silk handkerchief specifically created for the purpose. A few cards have an appliqued silk embroidered flap that lifts to reveal a secret message, or a space to attach a photograph.
It would be impossible to discover every card produced, but I believe that most of the significant cards have now been recorded either in my book or on this website, and new discoveries are getting much less frequent.
The listings are printed in the upper case, which is the most common on the cards, although many are in lower case. The wordings are reproduced exactly as they appear on the card, some are misspelt and the Latin word "sic" after an entry indicates that it is a known spelling mistake, which are rare but consistent. Some cards do not have any wording or need a bit of additional information and this is given in brackets.
It must be borne in mind that there is often more than one design associated with a particular wording or caption on a card. Also, the same caption can be on both vertical and horizontal cards - about 80% of military cards are in the vertical format.
Images of a representative selection of cards are shown beneath the listings on each page of the site.
Information and images on this site are © Ian Collins 2021.
No part may be reproduced, stored, transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the author.
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