H.M.S. Illustrious

Reference Number:- Sprake Number:- Godden Number:-
st 298 unrecorded unrecorded
 

Image of small military ship resembling a gun boat

Words:
Woven on silk:-
 
RD: 384379
 

Printed at bottom of card-mount:-
 

WOVEN IN PURE SILK.

H.M.S. Illustrious.

Size:
Card-mount:
15.9cm deep by 22.5cm wide

silk:
7.2cm high by 13.5cm wide

Comments:
by Austin Sprake:
Certain back labels list "Battleship", which covers all the ships. STG181 to 184a [st280 to st324 on this site] are basically similar, depicting a late 19th-century, two-funnelled gunboat with red-coated marines and blue-coated sailors on the deck. The sea is bright blue, and the flags are red, white and blue.
H.M.S. Illustrious:
This title is not included in Sprake's listing.

by Geoffrey Godden:
A series of silks depicts six named naval vessels (and at least one unnamed); and the general title "Battleships" is to be found on some early twentieth-century labels from 33+33 of late 1901 or early 1902. These battleship Stevengraphs are very rarely found today. They were perhaps mainly sold at the naval ports, where they would soon have become "dated" or old-fashioned. The different titles are listed below in alphabetical order.
H.M.S. Illustrious.
This title is not included in Godden's book.

Other comments:
The ship is identified as a Majestic-class pre-dreadnought battleship. There were nine battleships in the class, and Stevens created a picture for each:
H.M.S. Caesar
H.M.S. Hannibal
H.M.S. Illustrious
H.M.S. Jupiter
H.M.S. Magnificent
H.M.S. Majestic
H.M.S. Mars
H.M.S. Prince George
H.M.S. Victorious.

All of the pictures are of very similar design, with H.M.S. Magnificent, H.M.S. Majestic and H.M.S. Victorious having two flags on the foremast, whilst all the others have only one flag.
Very occasionally the ship's name is woven on the silk, although usually it is simply printed on the card mount.

The images above for H.M.S. Illustrious is identical to that of H.M.S. Caesar, including having the same woven registration number.

 


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This page was created on 5 January 2013
new improved image added 6 January 2018

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