DICK TURPIN'S RIDE TO YORK,
ON HIS BONNIE BLACK BESS.
1739

Printed at top of card-mount:-
 
DICK TURPIN'S RIDE TO YORK,
ON HIS BONNIE BLACK BESS.
1739.

silk:
5.1 cm high by 15.2 cm wide

by Geoffrey Godden:
This long title (with or without the date 1739) was printed above the silk picture on the card-mount used on the early issues of this Stevengraph, which was the second of the first titles issued at the York Exhibition in 1879.
The basic design - Dick Turpin leaping over the toll-gate on his way to York - was registered on 28 May 1879 but was prepared before this date. The original in the official files does not have the signpost 'To York' near the right-hand edge of the picture. But this feature must have been quickly added, for examples without it are of extreme rarity and the omission is not in the Sprake-Darby list, although Mrs LeVan Baker had earlier illustrated an example as Figure 72 in her book. It is interesting to see that the bookmark incorporating this design is also without the signpost.
These rare early Turpin silks are mounted on a card which has the eight-line poem which can be seen printed below the picture [see seperate image below].
This first poem can also occur on card-mounts displaying the normal version of the silk picture (that is, the image of this page), with the signpost 'To York' added near the right edge; but all cards bearing this poem are very rare and can have been issued only for a few weeks.
Subsequent silks of this subject are mounted on a different card, including the credit 'Woven in the York Exhibition, 1879', but with a different six-line poem by Eliza Cook [see st 152 on this site].

Other comments:
Original design was registered on 28 May 1879
and the diamond mark is printed on the back label rather than impressed on the front card-mounts.

the image of this silk picture was kindly donated by John Hartwig, USA