Vintage Hankies

I've had these for a couple of years now, and I just realized I've never posted them. I picked them up in a couple of local antique shops.

On this one, the flowers, which are hand painted, are actually more interesting than the tatting, but I was in the mood to buy anything tatted that day. I always wonder about the history of things. In this case, I'm curious about the fact that these are "Alaska Wildflowers", purchased in an antique shop in New Mexico. Perhaps a souvenir from somebody's vacation? Or a commemoration of Alaska's statehood in 1959?

The flowers in the corners of this one are hand embroidered. Who knows whether the embroidery and tatting were done by the same person, but one does wonder why no attempt was made to match the tatting thread to any of the colors in the embroidery (or vice-versa, depending on which was done first). Both the embroidery and the tatting are very nicely done, though.

A hen-and-chicks edging done in a lovely pink and blue variegated thread. The fact that the "All Linen, Made in Ireland" sticker was left on makes me think that this was made as a gift; the maker left the sticker on to let the recipient know that she was getting quality goods, and then the recipient never took it off because the hanky was "too nice to use". That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Does anyone know what "R.N. 16061" means?

Have I mentioned lately how cute Squijum is?