Help with small pieces of cloths w/ embroidered shields.

These belonged to a woman who I bought a large lot of linen a while back. She came from a Charleston family who were fairly wealthy & I wondered if this could be a family shield. They are 8" by 5" & I think may be cotton or possibly a cotton blend.

Hopefully someone can help me with what these would have been used for & possibly even help me identify the shield.



Thanks for any & all advice or opinions!!!

 

Could they be church related?

 

wag...coasters

 

I guess you could put your glass on the side without the design. The design is raised so if you put a glass on top of it I am not sure it would not tip over.

Could be some type of communion cloth.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

Being cloth, if the glass were 'sweating' I would thing it would soak right through to whatever it was sitting on, so I would probably eliminate coasters......although it does look like a neat idea!! Then again 8" x 5" seems a wee big for a coaster to me too..........

 

not for large tankards ......heheeehehe!!!!!!

 

AH, but there was a time when not EVERY blessed beverage was served in a 100 oz glass with 90 oz of ice............................particularly at the luncheon table, where I use (because my family always did) like coasters with place mats as opposed to a tablecloth.

 

Notice that some are named; Slur-pees.

 

And some are named Sure-To-Pees................

 

These are called cocktail napkins, as opposed to cocktail mats which are round like coasters. I'm no help with the significance of the design other than to venture the opinion that it looks machine-embroidered (but a view of the back of the stitching would help in verifying that assertion).

 

I will get a close up of the back stitching & post it later today.

Thanks to everyone for your help!!