Descriptions

This coloured, printed handkerchief is well used. The figure may depict a French Red Cross nurse, but her high heels suggest a theatrical connection. A clue is the distinctive signature ‘Dolly Tree’ in one corner.

Dolly Tree (1899-1962) worked as an actress in silent movies during the First World War, but was also an accomplished illustrator. Born in Bristol, Tree developed her talents as a costume designer for stage and film. She worked in Paris at about the time that this handkerchief was made, and was the first woman and the first person from England to design for the famous stage shows of the Folies Bergère in the 1920s. This object could be a souvenir of a production or an example of some of her early work applied to textiles. It may have been used as a gentleman’s handkerchief or knotted as a neckerchief.

Dolly left London and Paris for the USA, working in New York and Hollywood where she went on to design for major MGM stars such as Myrna Loy and Mae West. The peak of her career spanned the 1920s and 1930s. She died in New York in 1962.



This object is not on display.