Beaded & Embroidered U.K. Flags & Emblem I.D.Help??

I picked this today...Any information appreciated...Thanks.

 

Can't help at all, but it looks pretty cool.

 

WWI patriotic stuff? It looks awfully familiar.

 

The 2 flags flanking the center badge are called ensigns. Both are emblems of the British fleet - the white, military, and the red, merchant. Each of those flags has been adapted by various countries as their national flag, but since none of those adaptations are shown, I would guess a basic naval association.

 

This may trace its roots to late Victorian era. According to the following website Queen Vic was an "... amateur practitioner of textile arts, who thought that soldiers might find quilting or needlepoint a great distraction while far from home. Soldiers made beaded pincushions during the Boer War from cloth taken from wool uniforms." The soldiers made not only pincushions but many other items. Most of them involved beading. The beading, quilting, needlepoint or combination became "gifts and keepsakes that were sent by sailors to their loved ones at the beginning of the 20th century." Usually one assumes the woman folks at home did this type of work, but it seems the soldiers and sailors did also. Many of the beaded pin cushions are pictured on the web.

Scroll down a little to the Sweet Heart PinCushion.
http://helenanslow.wordpress.com/tag/sweetheart-pincushion/

https://www.google.com/search?sclie.....0...1c.1.53.tablet-gws..1.7.746.hGIaCYyDLrs

Whether this was done by a soldier or a woman at home, I don't know, but do agree it probably dates at least to WWI and possibly to the Boer War.

--- Susan

 

Thank you both, for your very informative replies.

 

I'd say a sailor, because of the ensigns, not something a soldier would think of first.