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This listing is for one vintage damask linen napkin from the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club, associated with the New York Stock Exchange.
The napkin has the words “Stock Exchange Luncheon Club” woven directly into the damask along the top and bottom of the napkin along with the date 1938. The club insignia \"SELC\"is woven into the fabric in the center of the napkin.
I contacted the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum in Northern Ireland and provided photographs of this napkin for comparison with material in their historic linen collections.
After reviewing the photographs, the museum advised that “the patterns look identical” to a Stock Exchange Luncheon Club pattern represented in the Liddell archival material.
The museum also explained:
“Patterns were used and re-used. Often, only small details, such as dates, were changed.”
This is particularly interesting because the archival example I located is dated 1937, while this napkin is clearly woven with the date 1938.
The museum further explained that they cannot state with certainty where the napkin itself was manufactured. Liddell produced a great deal of damask for the American export market, including linens for hotels, cruise lines, gentlemen’s clubs and other organizations, and the photographic glass plates for this pattern were found at the Liddell factory. However, some manufacturing may have been contracted out, and archival collections were later combined following company mergers.
For that reason, I am describing this as a Stock Exchange Luncheon Club napkin associated with the Liddell archival design, rather than stating that it was definitively manufactured by Liddell.
This is an unusual piece of New York Stock Exchange and American financial history, as well as an interesting example of fine damask made for the American institutional market during the 1930s.
Please look closely at all photographs for the woven lettering, date, insignia, damask pattern and condition. I have photographed the details as clearly as possible because much of the design becomes more visible as the light catches the damask weave.
There are two spots on this napkin as shown in the last picture.
The napkin is just under 22\" x 22\" in size.
I have additional matching examples from the same group, but this listing is for one napkin only.
