Judy sent in pictures of her rare Lenci Felt wall hangings, these spectacular examples of Lenci patchwork wall art are sized 30 1/2″ wide by 42″ tall and may have been intended for store displays.

The Lenci company began initially making dolls in 1919, they sourced local high quality fine felt from the Borsalino felt manufacturers, soon they began to diversify into making felt decor items such as these colorful wall hangings, and decor items, and wooden furniture for children, and a range of clothing, by the mid to late 1920’s before the depression years they had a delightful range of decor items to decorate a child’s bedroom or playroom.

Judy’s grandmother brought the wall hangings back from Italy sometime before the 1950’s. The Lenci wall hangings have a paper Lenci tag similar to the tags that were used in the pre-war products. The style of dress in the pictures is from the earlier era of the 20’s and 30s, it is not certain whether these were vintage stock from the 1920’s or 30’s at the time her grandmother bought them but they are evocative of the early Lenci period. The English words on the wall hangings suggest they were made for export and the wording “For Parties”,”for School”  “Birthday Gifts” suggests that these were intended for shop displays, or store window dressings. We do know that Lenci made wall hangings from the early years and that felt became scarce during the war years. Some of the early Lenci ads in trade magazines of the 1920’s mentioned that they provided displays for shop windows and promotions. The “Christmas Morning”  version features a little boy looking over the foot of his bed to see what Santa has brought. One of the items is a Lenci child’s coat seen just below the toy horse, this coat is in the style of the Lenci child coats that were made in the 1920’s.
Thanks to Judy for sharing these fine examples of Lenci artistry
Judy may be contacted at greenangel2261 @ gmail.com

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