Dig for Victory wartime sampler

An embroidered sampler no doubt dating from some time during World War II as it features one of the best known slogans/catchphrases of the time, Dig For Victory.  The top lettering says "Save vital shipping space" - it's an intriguing mix of the positive, bucolic and ominous.  It measures 22cm x 37cm.  Sold for nearly GBP85.00

If you know any more about this design - who designed it, how it was sold, whatever - please leave a comment to share your knowledge.

Post-war sampler, 1947 : Freedom, Justice, Peace

An embroidered postwar patriotic sampler, dated 1947, with guardsmen and symbols of Britain including cottage, castle and church and the Union Jack, celebrating the victories of 1945 and the war's end.

The frame measures 10 1/2inches by 12 1/2inches, so this image gives you a sense of the design size.  I would guess this design to be based on a transfer.

If you know any more about this design, please do leave a comment.

Map sampler: Festival of Britain 1951 (I)

In 1951, the Festival of Britain was staged.  To quote Wikipedia: " The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote the British contribution to science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts." (source, also for the progam below).

And if you look at all the prewar patriotic embroideries, it's hardly suprising that there was an embroider sampler design relating to the Festival of Britain.  The first three pictures here show one example.  The colours are I think a trifle faded, perhaps through exposure to light.

Below are pictures of a second example.  Much brighter colours.  As the festival celebrated aspects of British life and culture, so do the images on the sampler.  From the top down: a deer/stag, and a bagpipe-playing Scotsman; a lute or harp; coming in from Ireland, an aeroplane; a ?dancer on a stage, and what looks like a circus tent; a Welsh lady playing a harp, the bust of William Shakespeare, a Beefeater and kettle drums with a music book; a roundabout/merry-go-round; a ?Cornishman with ?a squeezebox/small accordion; a sailor on a boat or barge; and a mermaid (or else a topless lady drowning and waving her knickers in the air to get the sailor's attention, which seems both unlikely and indecorous).  Also, of course, flags and around the Festival of Britain logo on the top right, the floral emblems of the British Isles; and bunting, echoing the design on the program pictured below.

And, you will notice, colour and lots of it.  More and more I think the Kent and Leicester county map samplers are likely pre-war.

This one seems very likely to have been a transfer design too.  How things have changed - few designs from the first fifty years were counted cross stitch, most were embroidery and based on samplers.  Most British patriotic designs now are counted work based on charts, whether cross stitch or tapestry/needlepoint.  Are we somehow more afraid of embroidery (the early designs didn't boast many complex stitches)? Were transfers, cheap to post, the easy way to transport designs then, while now counted charts can be downloaded from the internet or printed in magazines with no need to fiddle with stamps and envelopes?  Is there a preference now, for the exactitude of counted work, and perhaps a flavour of 'getting it right' or 'making exactly the same thing, because I like that sample' ?  I wonder.  I don't know.

A few more images of the second example:

Here is an image of a Festival program, to show you that stylised Britannia-head logo:

I wonder too about the form of this sampler being a map.  It's not just about showing the country, but also I think showing the country which resisted and prevailed in the very recent war, the country that was not invaded, close though they might have come.  Maps, after all, are essential to war and a matter for secrecy during war.  I've tagged this blog entry with wartime even though it's six years after, as the shadow of World War II is undoubtedly present in the reason for the Festival.  Rationing, for example, did not finally end until 1954.

I've seen several other versions of this design, so it must have been quite popular.  Which argues that it must have been in a wide-circulation newspaper or magazine, seen by many, chosen by a number of embroiderers to make in celebration.  It could have been a transfer, but a couple of examples I've been able to look at more closely seem to be on remarkably similar fine evenweave fabric, so I'm more likely to believe it was sold as a transfer already ironed onto fabric.

But I don't know.  If you do, please leave a comment with any useful information or links.

In light of the many coronation embroidery designs from 1937, and the many more coronation designs from 1953, only two years after the Festival of Britain, I find it interesting that at the moment, this is the only Festival of Britain design I've come across.  Was it a category-killer, catching the imagination? Were there few or no competitor designs?

Whatever the story (I wish I knew more), this is a particularly delightful British patriotic sampler, in my opinion.

Wartime embroidery from World War II: four images

This embroidery was for sale last year.  It seems likely to date from the 1940s.  Would someone have stitched it much after the war had ended? But in wartime, would someone have had the thread and fabric to make this? Was it featured in a magazine or newspaper, and how would this have been affected by paper shortages?  It could have been based on a transfer, but that's guesswork only.

Anyway, it's a fascinating stitched insight to a particular time.

I can only make out three of the four tag lines:

where the Navy reigns, guard the streets, ?? and plough the land.  Under REMEMBER there might be a date on the blue banner.  The tag line I can't make out looks to be something related to the services, judging by the badges - Army, Navy, RAF?

If you know any more about this design, please leave information and link/s in the comments.

Peace Sampler: 1945

Earlier this year on eBay this peace sampler was offered.  It is patriotic rather than royal, commemorating the end of World War II for Britain - VE Day and VJ Day, both in 1945.  The design features a lot of symmetry - the flags and searchlights; and balances different motifs representing the Allies in a pleasing way - the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, the kangaroo facing the elephant.  I particularly like the font on this.  I do not know if it was a commercially-available design/transfer or the work of a single embroiderer (if the latter, she certainly had design ability as well as stitching skill).  As the seller noted, if it was made when or soon after the war ended, materials to make it would likely have been in short supply.  I find the searchlights particularly poignant as a reminder of the constant danger of wartime life for civilians as well as those in the services.

A couple of pictures showing it in more detail:

There are quite a few samplers commemorating the jubilees and coronations of the 1930s and 1950s, many if not most from commercial interests and sewn by many many embroiderers and needlewomen.  I have seen fewer designs relating to World War II.  Partly, no doubt, because the nation was busy elsewhere - pattern designers and newspaper columns and magazines (paper shortages, too).  But there is a history of wartime needlework.  In quilting, the famous quilt by Jane Stickle known through Brenda Papadakis' Dear Jane book has, in the bottom corner of her immensely complex design (dozens and dozens of 4in blocks, all different), the evocative embroidered phrase, "In War-Time, 1863" - the US Civil War.  During World War II, the women interned (in terrible conditions) by the Japanese at Changi made three quilts - including one for their Japanese captors - from embroidered signature squares.  Read more about the Changi quilts here and here.  Possibly the most poignant square is this one:

Image source

There are so many records of war - in words and images and stitches.  These ones in stitches I find to have a particular and immediate impact.  The hands that stitched them were there with the needle and thread, and the stitched words and images feel as individual and close as fingerprints, humans connecting over time.

I think that's why I find these British patriotic samplers and embroideries so compelling and interesting and engaging, that sense of a connection to another individual life.  I wonder if, for some of these, the embroidered sampler is the only thing that survives of some of these people.  Clothes and possessions can be dispersed, household chattels dispensed with: but the samplers have the testament of an individual's  life, and a specific time in that individual's life when they committed themselves to the task of commemorating an event of importance to them.  There's a sadness in that so few of these have a record (either stitched on the sampler or noted on the back of the frame etc) of the embroiderer's name.  So they survive as testament to mind and heart, but to the mind and heart of someone anonymous.  I have asked for provenance for some of those I've added to my collection, but nearly always they've come from a fair or clearance sale, not from a known household or person. 

There's a curious quality to all these patriotic samplers, most particularly the royal ones - few if any of the embroiderers would ever have been likely to meet the monarchs whose jubilees and coronations they laboured for many hours and days to stitch and remember; and yet clearly they felt involved and connected, that these things were important enough to them to spend that time and create the artefact of their patriotism.

And if you look at the earlier blog entry about William and Kate's wedding, the patriotic sampler industry is alive and well and finding customers in 2011, as samplers and embroideries associated with Charles and Diana events did in the 1980s and 1990s.

As ever, if you know any more about the design/source of the peace sampler illustrated above, please do leave a comment. 



Defiant POW cross stitch from World War II

Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be. *

From this blog entry at Mr X Stitch, I learned about the upcoming Power of Making exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum.  Among the objects displayed is this:

After six months held by the Nazis in a prisoner of war camp, Major Alexis Casdagli was handed a piece of canvas by a fellow inmate. Pinching red and blue thread from a disintegrating pullover belonging to an elderly Cretan general, Casdagli passed the long hours in captivity by painstakingly creating a sampler in cross-stitch. Around decorative swastikas and a banal inscription saying he completed his work in December 1941, the British officer stitched a border of irregular dots and dashes. Over the next four years his work was displayed at the four camps in Germany where he was imprisoned, and his Nazi captors never once deciphered the messages threaded in Morse code: "God Save the King" and "Fuck Hitler".

The Mr X Stitch blog entry has a link to a longer article in the Guardian, Nazis, needlework and my Dad by Patrick Barkham, from which the above quote is taken.  The Guardian article has this photo of Major Alexis Casdagli's son, holding one of his father's cross-stitch pieces that illustrates his father's WWII POW cell:

...and here is what the article says about this piece:

In a bleak, claustrophobic part-map and part-diagram, his father created a needlework of "Room 13, Spangenberg castle". The stitching depicted inmates' cells, a few lumps of coal, a sign saying "bath every 14 days", and a menu: "soup, potatoes, wurst, bread, semolina". At the bottom was a Union flag. National flags were forbidden in the camp, so Casdagli sewed a canvas flap over it with "do not open" written on it in German. "Each week the same officer would open the flap and say, 'This is illegal,' and Pa said, 'You're showing it, I'm not showing it.'"

Here is the information from the end of the Guardian article:

Power of Making is at the V&A from Tuesday until 2 January 2012, www.vam.ac.uk. A Stitch in Time: God Save the King – Fu*k Hitler! by Captain A Casdagli, available from lulu.com. Tony Casdagli is participating in a free workshop at the V&A. Crafting the Collection: Power of Making, 17 September, 11am-4pm.

About the Power of Making exhibition:

The V&A and Crafts Council celebrate the role of making in our lives by presenting an eclectic selection of over 100 exquisitely crafted objects, ranging from a life-size crochet bear to a ceramic eye patch, a fine metal flute to dry stone walling. Power of Making is a cabinet of curiosities showing works by both amateurs and leading makers from around the world to present a snapshot of making in our time.

The exhibition showcases works made using a diverse range of skills and explores how materials can be used in imaginative and spectacular ways, whether for medical innovation, entertainment, social networking or artistic endeavour.

Making is the most powerful way that we solve problems, express ideas and shape our world. What and how we make defines who we are, and communicates who we want to be.

For many people, making is critical for survival. For others, it is a chosen vocation: a way of thinking, inventing and innovating. And for some it is simply a delight to be able to shape a material and say ‘I made that’. The power of making is that it fulfills each of these human needs and desires.

Those whose craft and ingenuity reach the very highest levels can create amazing things. But making is something everyone can do. The knowledge of how to make – both everyday objects and highly-skilled creations – is one of humanity’s most precious resources.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/power-of-making/power-of-making/

The Guardian has a slideshow of some of the other works in this exhibition:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2011/sep/08/power-of-making-craft

Not quite the same work as the more usual royal/patriotic fare I find for this blog, but just as important to document and include as British patriotic needlework.  Glad to have found it to share.  And I like the discussion/explanation of the importance of making.

* source of quote

1939 George VI peace sampler

This one has been offered on eBay UK for several months at 149GBP or best offer.

Here is the seller's description:
This unique vintage sampler dates from 1939. It is unusual in that it depicts hopes for peace, but must have been completed only months before the start of the Second World War. Across the top of the sampler is sewn: 'Peace and Goodwill Toward Mankind'. On the left-hand side at the top is sewn: 'Chamberlain Munich Sept. 1938', and on the right-hand side: 'King George VI Queen Elizabeth Canada America. 1939'. I believe this sampler to be commemorative of the Munich Peace Conference of 1938 and the Commonwealth visit of the King and Queen to Canada and America in 1939.


In the centre of the sampler at the top is depicted the Coventry City crest. Beneath the wording and crest there are scenes of a 1930s American ranch, and beneath this a 1930s house and garden. Across the bottom of the sampler there are depicted various garden tools and implements. In the bottom right-hand corner the initials B.A.N. are stitched. The whole piece has a blue stylised border.

The sampler appears to have been professionally mounted onto a card backing. It is contained within its original frame (not glazed). On the back board of the frame there is the name and address of the person who we believe did the needlework - Beatrice A. Nelson, 71 Kennilworth Road, Coventry. The mounted textile and back board are loose in the frame and need re-pinning.


Condition: The sampler is well-crafted and the colours are still bright and vibrant, with only some slight fading. However, unfortunately the piece is quite heavily foxed and has some brown patches. Some of this may be due to the card that the sampler is pinned to, but the fabric itself is also badly foxed. There are no visible rips and no moth damage that I can see. The frame has some wear and light scuffing to its corners and edges, and as was mentioned above the sampler and back board are loose in the frame. The metal hanging rings have been screwed through the frame so that the ends poke through at the front. An unusual and unique piece of pre-war memorabilia.

This is the auction link from August 2011:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1938-1939-PRE-WAR-KING-GEORGE-VI-PEACE-SAMPLER-COVENTRY-/140516958608?

And this is a link to the seller:
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/sladesantiques/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

It may of course be sold/gone by the time you read this.

A curious design, which seems more likely to be the ?adapted design of an individual needlewoman than a standard published pattern.