|
Gabrian SILK POSTCARDS
LATEST RESEARCH ON EMBROIDERED SILK POSTCARDS (© Ian Collins 2009)
When An Illustrated History of the Embroidered Silk Postcard was published, no information was available on the manufacturing techniques used to make the embroidered panels incorporated into silk postcards. I took my reference from an earlier booklet on silk postcards by Radley and information from dated cards in my collection, and said: “The panels were embroidered at home by female members of peasant families, to augment their meagre incomes … the embroidery was worked by hand with the fabric stretched over a simple wooden frame, by 1915 machine embroidery had been introduced, though hand embroidery still predominated.” I now know this statement to be wrong. I never felt happy that the majority of silk postcards could be made from hand embroidered panels. It did not seem possible that hand embroiderers could produce such a quantity and variety of designs, in such consistent quality. It is now clear that the silk panels were not embroidered by hand, but were made on machines. The different effects produced in the embroidery depended on the type of machine used.
Brief history of machine embroidery
Josué Heilmann of Mulhouse in France invented the earliest “hand-embroidery machine” in 1828, and it had the capacity of four traditional embroiderers working by hand. It is important to realise that this was 18 years before Elias Howe patented the first functional sewing machine in 1846, and it was the 1850s before Isaac Singer produced the first commercially viable sewing machine. The Heilmann embroidery machine consisted of a frame to hold the fabric, a needle assembly and a handle to work the needle. It was operated by moving the fabric to meet the needle, which had a point at each end and an eye in the middle. A small clamp on each side of the fabric controlled the needle. The needle was held in one clamp, pushed into the fabric, picked up by the opposite clamp and drawn through. The frame holding the fabric was moved and the needle passed back. The process allowed stitching in any direction, and continued until the pattern was complete. The machine was such a threat to traditional hand embroiderers that Heilmann agreed to sell only two in Switzerland. Henry Houldsworth of Manchester, England purchased the patent rights in 1829. At the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace of 1851, his company displayed “specimens of patent machine embroideries”, which were multicoloured and on a variety of fabrics. By about 1850, Franz Vogler from St Gallen in Switzerland had improved the machine (though it is not known what these improvements were). The first embroidery factory was established there in 1854 and 120 of the improved machines were installed. The Heilmann machine continued to be developed and, by about 1870, it incorporated multiple needles to carry different coloured threads and was fitted with a pantograph to replicate the design. At this time, 14 companies were making hand-embroidery machines in the St Gallen region. Embroidery made on the hand-embroidery machine was more even and consistent than traditional hand made embroidery and the quality was unsurpassed. This is probably the reason why earlier researches into embroidery on silk postcards believed they were embroidered by hand. The name of “hand-embroidery machine” could also have added to the confusion. |
|
For further information contact Ian Collins on: |
|
A hand-embroidery machine at work in a factory in Calais in about 1905, taken from a contemporary postcard. This was a large piece of equipment, and there are others in the background. The embroiderer on the left operated the machine. His left hand guided the pantograph, moving it around the enlarged design and following individual stitches. The pantograph positioned the fabric in front of the needles. He used his right hand to crank the wheel on the end of the machine and push the needles through the fabric, whilst opening and closing the clamps holding the needles with his feet. It must have taken a lot of concentration. The female assistant checked the needles and threads worked properly, rethreaded the needles when the thread ran out, and repaired broken threads as the machine went along. Notice the continuous line of spools of silk thread at waist level and near the bottom. The thread from each spool was connected to a needle, which indicates how many needles were on the machine. Postcards with up to 12 different colours have been seen using this machine, though 6-8 is more usual. |
|
In 1863, Isaac Groebli of Oberuzwil, also in Switzerland, invented a different type of embroidery machine, which worked on the same principle as a sewing machine, with a normal needle. It required two threads for each needle, one of which was picked up from a shuttle behind the fabric. It was named the Schiffli machine, from the small boat-shaped shuttle that produced the backing stitch (German: Schiff – boat). The machine needed years of development before it became commercially viable. Its design borrowed the hand crank and pantograph from the hand-embroidery machine. It could also stitch in any direction. The automatic Schiffli embroidery machine was invented in 1898 by Isaac Groebli's eldest son. This dispensed with the pantograph and incorporated a Jacquard system of punched cards to create the design. By 1900, it was fitted with 312 needles, and electrically driven machines were becoming available. These machines were so massive they were only suited for factory use. By about 1900, St Gallen in Switzerland and Plauen in Saxony were the two main centres for the manufacture of embroidery machines of both types. There was also manufacture of embroidered goods in their vicinities, and in 1906 Plauen described itself as “the capital city of the embroidery industry”. By about 1910, France had become the major supplier of embroidered goods. By this time, hand embroidery had almost been replaced by machined embroidery, except for very expensive and individual articles of clothing. Although the “hand-embroidery machines” were large and heavy, they were just suitable for home use – provided the home had a large enough downstairs room to accommodate it. Consequently, home manufacture always competed with factory manufacture. At home, the whole family was involved. The father usually operated the machine, while his wife and children threaded the bobbins, checked the needles, rectified any breakages in the thread during the embroidery process, packed up the final product, etc. Now we know that the embroidered panels were made by machine, it explains why rolls of material have survived with up to 400 identical patterns on them. These are what remains of the embroidered fabric that was sent to the postcard publisher to be mounted on white card, and finished off with an attractive embossed frame around the silk panel. Most embroidery, of course, was for embellishing garments and decorative fabrics. Embroidered silk postcards were only a minor product except for the short period of the Great War. The embroidered panels for most silk postcards were made on one or other of the above two machines. In 1914, the men were called up to the army and the women took over the looms. The sales of embroidered silk postcards provided a useful addition to their production. It is believed that the designs were created by the main ateliers and publishers, usually based in Paris. If the paper pattern used on the pantograph was incorrect, it would be duplicated by the embroiderer. This accounts for spelling mistakes on silk postcards which are reproduced wrongly every time. The equivalent of the “hand-embroidery machine” no longer exists, though a few machines are known to have survived. Bernard Jacobs, an enterprising Englishman from Weybridge, has restored an embroidery factory in Cordes sur Ciel, near Toulouse in France. He claims it is the only operating hand-embroidery machine in France, and demonstrations are held during the summer months. He recovered it from a local cottage, where it occupied the whole of the largest downstairs room, and there were once over 300 machines in use in the village. Machines based on the Schiffli principle now dominate modern embroidery, except now they are fully automatic and computer controlled, and are capable of producing masses of the same design at a time. |
|
This is a Schiffli embroidery machine from about 1900. It has been fitted with a Jacquard punched card system on the left hand side, to replace the pantograph. The cranking wheel is still there, so this one is not yet fully automated. No doubt continual changes were made to all the machines over the years. The higher capacity of this machine can be seen from the double banks of thread, and that it is much longer than the hand-embroidery machine. The silk panels made on this machine had up to 6 colours, illustrating another disadvantage compared to the hand-embroidery machine. Though 3-4 colours was more common and some of these are particularly attractive. The vast majority of cards made on a Schiffli machine were greetings cards. They became available during 1915 and large numbers were made. It appears that Schiffli machines were only used for embroidered silk postcard panels when it was evident that the cards were selling in quantity. This probably reflects the more expensive set-up costs for the larger automatic Schiffli machines, and indicates longer production runs than the hand-embroidery machine. Even so, Schiffli production accounted for only about 22% of the total of embroidered silk greetings postcards made in the Great War period. |