by Austin Sprake:
by Geoffrey Godden:
Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the Dominions, etc., she was born on the 24 May 1819, succeeded to the throne in 1837 and ruled until her death on the 22 January 1901.
Several Stevengraphs depict Queen Victoria under separate titles.
Portrait-size picture of the Queen, facing right, with the woven inscription "1837 Jubilee 1887". First listed on label 21+10+2 and found mounted on card-mount D [as image above].
It is probable that this version, with the dated commemorative wording, would have been saleable only in the Golden Jubilee year, 1887, and that from 1888 this official Jubilee portrait was reversed to face left and was issued with non-dated wording [see so 504].
This portrait silk was available, at least in samples for the trade, in December 1886 or January 1887, for the editor of The Stationery Trades Journal in his issue dated 27 January 1887 wrote in glowing terms of it. It is interesting to note that after describing the standard sixpenny version, as shown here, the editor continues to describe a more ornate version at double the price - vis: "and in plush frame with gilt corded edging, and strut back, to retail at 1/-". I have yet to discover such plush-framed example.
Other comments:
This same image was used on the 1837 Jubliee 1887 bookmarks [see sb20, and sb22 on this site].
Stevens evidently allowed other organisations to use his portraits to advertise their own companies. Below is just one such occation, and note the official Stevens credit printed below the portrait, confirming Stevens agreement to the replacement of the Queen's name with an advert for J. Wall.
