Wartime production embroidery pattern Duchess set : Mrs B Sayers, South Perth

Calico based Duchess set pattern featuring a pair of doylies and a centre cloth for a dressing table, each displaying transfer Design No 234 - 'Pandora' garden wall. Printed along the base of the cloth are the following: 'Wartime Production' ; '3 Piece Set No LS234'. Two flowers and two stalks have already been embroidered, but the rest is unworked.

Australian made transfer embroidery pattern produced during the Second World War and purchased in Adelaide. Normally these embroidery sets were printed on fine linen or cotton poplin but due to the wartime austerity and rationing programs, these examples are printed on a coarse unbleached calico. This and the other examples (see REL35987, REL35988 and REL35989) were purchased in Adelaide by Mrs Beatrice Sayers of South Perth during the Second World War. Mrs Sayers and her mother were keen embroiderers, but appear to never have spent much time working these patterns, with only small sections of two examples done. Beatrice Sayers' husband, WX13367 Gunner Edward Ronald Sayers, enlisted on 21 May 1941 and served with 2 Australian Anti-Aircraft Regiment until his discharge on 26 October 1945.