Collections News
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Collections news keeps you up to date with recent developments with our collections: new acquisitions and recent cataloguing.
Embroidered Postcards from the First World War
A small collection of around thirty embroidered cards from the First World War has recently been catalogued. Embroidered cards, or ‘silks’ are believed to have started in the early 1900s on the continent. It wasn’t until the First World War, however, that they gained popularity.
They continued to be made into the 1930s, but they never achieved the same mass popularity that they did during the First World War.
This wartime popularity can perhaps be explained by their bright cheery colours and their sentimental messages which allowed soldiers to take their minds off the horrors of the War.
The cards are made from a piece of embroidered mesh which is then stuck in between two pieces of card. Often the embroidered mesh forms a small pocket, inside which, is often placed a smaller single card, called an insert card.
The insert cards have their own message such as; ‘Kisses from France’ or simply ‘Remember’ and often depict a young lady. Many insert cards are by the artist Xavier Sager, who was well known in France for his glamour postcards.
The embroidery design on the cards falls roughly into three types. There are the seasonal festive cards, which have messages such as; ‘Happy Easter’ or ‘Happy Christmas’. Secondly there are cards with sentimental messages such as ‘To my dear Wife’ or ‘To my dear Mother’. These are often decorated with flowers such as pansies and forget-me-nots.
Lastly there are the patriotic cards decorated with the flags of the allies and messages such as ‘Wait till the boys come marching home’.
It was previously thought that the cards were made by hand by French and Belgian women as a way of supplementing their income whilst the men were at war. As so many cards survive, however, and they are of a uniformly high standard, it is now thought that they were manufactured.
The cards were sold in small shops in army camps for 1.75 or 3 Francs each (equivalent to 12-25p today). This would have been a lot of money to a soldier. It is thought that this explains why these cards were mainly bought by British and American soldiers, as French and Belgian soldiers were paid very little and therefore could not afford them.
The high cost may also explain why very few cards have much written on them. Perhaps they were considered too costly and too pretty to write much about the day-to-day drudgery of the war. Instead they simply let the embroidered message speak for itself or the soldiers wrote a cheery but short message on the back.
The cards often have an address on the back but have no stamps or postmarks. This is because the army were entitled to free postage. Today these cards are very collectable and are worth a lot more than the 3 Francs the soldiers paid for them almost a hundred years ago. Whatever their monetary value these cards provide a priceless glimpse of life in the trenches and the loved ones left behind.
Latest acquisitions
Post Office Closures, entry number: E10234
With 2,500 post offices due to close around the country in the next few years, the BPMA are keen to represent these post offices in the collection before they disappear. We have visited a selection of closing post offices to acquire objects and take photographs, most recently Torquay, Cwmbran and Worcester.
We acquired a number of objects from these offices, both contemporary and historic. They include handstamps, signage, posters, leaflets, staff awards, manuals and forms, counter equipment and furniture. The most significant
of these were signage and posters from Cwmbran with bilingual Welsh and English text, something which the collections previously lacked.
Mail Rail Car, entry number: E10246
With the closure of Mail Rail in 2003, the BPMA have been keen to collect material that represents this important service. Mail Rail was Royal Mail’s small underground railway which had carried mail between sorting offices and main railway stations in central London since 1927.
We were recently lucky enough to acquire a Mail Rail car. This car, made in 1962 and weighing around three tonnes was safely transported to our Museum Store and is now sitting under racking constructed especially for it.
Letter Boxes, entry number: E10218
We’ve also recently visited a small number of the locations scattered across the South East of England to view the various letter boxes that have been removed from use due to operational necessity.
It is always our wish that wherever possible historic boxes remain in use in their location, however some boxes will not re-enter service. Seven letter boxes that were no longer required by Royal Mail have now joined the national collection of post boxes at the Museum Store in Debden.
Included amongst these is one of the earliest Victorian ‘C’ type pillar boxes with the small seven inch wide apertures, two large ‘A’ type wall boxes with small and large George V ciphers and a metal and plastic box intended for a garage forecourt.
Swindon Mail Centre Display, entry number: E10244
For a number of years, the BPMA had loaned a number of objects to Swindon Mail Centre for display in their public area. With the building of the new Thames Valley Mail Centre on the Swindon site, the loaned objects have now been returned to the BPMA.
Accompanying these were nearly 20 new objects which had also been on display there and were kindly donated to the BPMA. These included letter box time tablets, postmen’s badges and armbands, a Ludlow box enamel plate, a Post Office Direction Sign, telegraph forms and test weights.
Go to the What's On section to find out about events at the Museum Store where the recent street furniture acquisitions and the Mail Rail carriage can be view.
Edward VII Registration Sheets
The King Edward VII registration sheets of stamps and overprints are now available on our online catalogue. This collection dating from 1901-1912 consists of
- 39 British registration sheets
- three booklet stamp sheets and
- 34 departmental overprinted sheets that were provided for the use of government departments on official mail.
In addition to this we have 122 foreign overprinted sheets inscribed with markings such as those for the Levant and Morocco Agencies that relate to the British Post Offices in the foreign countries the stamps were issued to. We have examples of some of the rarest stamps in the world in complete sheet form from within the reign of Edward VII.
1910 2d Tyrian plum, registration sheet, imperforate (not issued),
finding number: POST 150/948
These include a perforated and an imperforate 2d Tyrian plum (1910) and the 10d and 2s 6d values overprinted “Levant” (1907), none of which were issued to the public. 100,000 sheets of the Tyrian plum were printed and therefore prepared for issue until it was decided not to proceed with it following the death of the King on 6 May 1910. Almost all of the stock was destroyed leaving only a few examples surviving. As for the 10d and 2s 6d value stamps, as far as can be ascertained, apart from these, there only exists a mint pair of each in the Royal Philatelic Collection.
Within the collection we also hold nine examples of black proof sheets created during the preparation of the printing plate prior to the manufacture of the stamps. These provide an interesting insight into the design process involved in creating the issued stamps.
With each catalogue entry a scanned image is included online as a means to represent each stamp belonging to a perforated or imperforate sheet. It was imperative to emphasise that each item was in fact not a single stamp.
Browse the collection on the online catalogue.
All philatelic material is viewable by appointment only. Please call 020 7239 2570 or email info@postalheritage.org.uk to arrange and appointment.
