Thanks very much Cl1. People where laughing at me for buying it. It's a great piece of history I think I had the last laugh for a £1
Certainly agree that it has a WW1 feel about it. If you rotate the image 90 degrees to the right, the flags of Belgium, France, UK and England are easy but the flag of Russia is absent - it was 'always' included in earlier War mementos - which would make it very late WW1 post Russian Revolution. That makes the presence of England slightly puzzling: possibly it was going to be the Russian flag but that lot then left the War and promoted a design rethink? The H and B patches are more difficult and don't, to the best of my knowledge, match any UK corps, divisions, brigades or Regiments. That's not my speciality so I could easily be wrong.
Don't think so. The stripes/bands go the wrong way if it follows the orientation of the other flags. Tim
If you compare that 'white' with the white on the Union, French and English flags - which come across as 'proper' white - I think that part of the embroidery is simply faded yellow (making it the correct vertical black/yellow/red stripes of the Belgian flag).
There's a heck of a lot of work gone into that. I wonder if it has been made by following a specific pattern? It is a lovely piece - is it made with cotton silks or wool, I cannot quite see? I would have paid more than that; it's a very good buy. (I make similar things like that in cross stitch with silks, eg. cards and bookmarks, so I know how much time it would have taken). Lesley
I would also like to know more about it. I was looking the other day at some POW artwork made by British soldiers during WW1 whilst held in Turkey. The image below shows a handmade snake in glass beads.