SILK CARD PUZZLES
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 book and this website are the main sources for information on embroidered silk postcards. This website lists cards discovered since the book was published, plus additional sections on Greetings Cards and Early (pre-1914) Cards. The new additions are shown in RED.
This page is dedicated to only three cards, but these cards have not been identified despite years of trying, by myself and many collectors of embroidered silk postcards. Many suggestions have been made, but none of them are satisfactory. What is needed is a quote from the back of one of these cards that can definitively identify what it is meant to represent, or some other reference from a reliable literature source.
There is a general belief among collectors of embroidered silk postcards that the initials R.T.A. refer to some military unit in the British Army. I have shown the card on the left to the foremost authorities on badges and units within the British Army, but without success. Nobody seems to know what the initials R.T.A. represent.
Most people seem to think that the R. must be an abbreviation for Royal, especially as there is a crown over the Fleur de Lys. Some people speculate that the T. may refer to Training, and the A. could be Association, but there is no definitive evidence for any of this, and no such unit is known or recorded.
The relevance of the Fleur de Lys is also a mystery. Many army regiments use the Prince of Wales's feathers in their badge, but not the Fleur de Lys, which is more associated with the Boy Scouts Association. Another card is known without the initials. In fact, the Fleur de Lys may be a red herring, as cards with the R.T.A. caption are also known where it is replaced with a star, as shown in the card on the right.
I am appealing to anybody out there. Is there an equivalent printed postcard from the First World War era? Has anyone got this postcard, or anything similar, with a message giving any indication of the name of the unit? Has anyone got any knowledge of the R.T.A. through a family member who served in it? I have been asking these questions for over 30 years with no success. The only thing I do know is that the initials must stand for something that was relevant during the First World War period.
Here is the second puzzle that I and many others have tried to resolve for years. There is even less information to aid the identification of this card, other than the design of a unicorn on a club shape, under a crown, inside a laurel wreath. These elements indicate that it has something to do with being a unit of the British Army.
The only information I can offer is that the unicorn's head was the insignia of the British Army's 50th Division in World War 1. At the time of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the 50th Division consisted of Regiments from: The Northumberland Fusiliers, The East Yorkshire Regiment, The Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment, and the Durham Light Infantry. Whether this information is of any relevance, I do not know.
Any information on this card would be welcome.