'Souvenir of Egypt' embroidery

Souvenir embroidery on dark cream cotton and silk blend fabric. The embroidery is machine chain-stitched in a variety of coloured cottons, and is edged with cotton lace. It reads: 'Souvenir of Egypt 1915 From Sid to Mother' and bears decorative images of the Sphinx, the Pyramids and flowers. Each short side shows a hand holding two flags -on one side the flags of Egypt and France, and on the other of (Imperial) Russia and Australia. The fabric has a crinkled fortuny style finish.

This souvenir was made in Egypt in 1915 and was purchased by an Australian soldier named 'Sid' for his mother. Their identities are not known. These souvenirs were usually made from cotton sateen, however this one has been made from a combination of cotton and silk, using a cotton warp and silk weft and weaving in the same style as cotton sateen, so that the silk is visible on the front and the cotton on the back. This fabric finish is also unusual as it has been treated to achieve the fortuny style crinkle effect. These souvenirs were invariably embroidered with the words 'Souvenir of Egypt', and often had a year of manufacture as well, in this case 1915. Most have a distinctly Egyptian flavour and show the pyramids, camels or date palms. The embroideries were displayed on wooden racks beside small booths in the bazaars where the manufacture was undertaken. They usually had a paper backing tacked to them, which has not often survived. Normally the embroidery was then customised by the addition of an embroidered message of the customer's choice, and, in the case of the square cushion covers or table runners, by the addition of a coloured fringe or a cotton or metallic braid edge, also of the customer's choice. It was also possible for the customer to design the souvenir completely, in which case it would have to be ordered and collected later on. The embroidered souvenirs were easy to customise because they utilised a machine produced chain stitch that was created by a small hand held, free standing machine that was readily manipulated to produce any design.