In the summer of 1918, a fad for carrying tiny yarn-doll good luck charms arose in France, supposedly inspired by story about two orphaned children rescued and adopted by a French regiment. “It is taking a long chance in these wild days of war… to go about unprotected by a Nennette and Rintintin.… if you have the one without the other, the charm is broken…” This design depicts the little dolls, linked by a length of yarn. The manufacturer noted that for each yard of the design they sold, five cents would be donated to the relief fund of the orphaned children of Alsace and Lorraine—two French provinces that were occupied by Germany during the war. The design is printed in 6 colors on a dark blue ground on Mallinson's popular "Pussy Willow" silk, from the second La Victoire series produced by Mallinson during the Peace Conference at Versailles in early 1919 that ended the First World War.
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