People
An Illustrated History of the Embroidered Silk Postcards is the standard reference book on embroidered silk postcards. It contains references to over 2600 different cards with over 270 illustrations. The Listings on this website list cards discovered since the book was published, plus an additional section on Greetings Cards. The new additions are shown in RED.
This section covers cards showing the image of a person or a name. The images mainly come from the First World War period. They can be fully embroidered or a photograph (or two) of the person appliqued to the embroidered silk panel. Most of the photographic images are of personalities from the Great War, but cards were available for people to stick their own photograph onto the silk panel to create a unique card of an unknown soldier and, possibly, their girlfriend. During the 1920s, these cards continued to be made in France, using studio posed photographs of (mainly) glamorous women, possibly with their sweetheart.
A few cards were produced using the surnames of Great War personalities. An extensive series of embroidered silk postcards were produced using a female or male Christian name or a Saint's name as the significant element of the design. The names are in English, French and Spanish and most of these cards were produced in the 1920s.
Images of a representative selection of cards are shown beneath the listings.
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.