STEPHENSON'S "TRIUMPH"

Sixty Miles an Hour.

Reference Number:- Sprake Number:- Godden Number:-
st 564 STG193 62a
 

Very first steam train with two coaches
Card mount has "REGISTERED" printed in centre.
 
Very first steam train with two coaches
Card mount has "REGISTERED" printed on left hand side.
 

Words:
Woven on silk:-
 

Printed at top of card-mount:-

 
STEPHENSON'S "TRIUMPH."
SIXTY MILES AN HOUR. 
 

Printed at bottom of card-mount:-

 
 
 
WOVEN IN THE
YORK EXHIBITION,
1879 
The FIRST TRAIN ran on September 27th, 1825.
From STOCKTON to DARLINGTON. 
 
 
REGISTERED. 
 
 
 
THOMAS STEVENS,
INVENTOR & MANUFACTURER
COVENTRY & LONDON. 
 
Size:
Card-mount:
13.3 cm deep by 20.6 cm wide

silk:
4.8 cm high by 13.0 cm wide

Comments:
by Austin Sprake:
 

by Geoffrey Godden:
This is one of the earliest Stevengraphs, being first introduced at the 1879 York Exhibition. The landscape picture shows the Lord Howe engine drawing two coaches - the same picture that was so popular when retitled THE PRESENT TIME [st480 on this site].
This early version has the sub-title or description 'The First train ran on September 27th, 1825, From Stockton to Darlington' below the picture on the card-mount, with the credit 'Thomas Stevens, Inventor & Manufacturer, Coventry & London' in the bottom right-hand corner, and in the bottom left-hand corner the wording 'Woven in the York Exhibition, 1879'.
Two versions of the card-mount are recorded - one of type A2 with printed Gothic-line border and fancy lettering to the main title [see st560 on this site], and the other without the line-border and with plain lettering for the title STEPHENSON'S 'TRIUMPH', as shown above. Both of these versions were made in 1879, after which the new title THE PRESENT TIME was used for the same picture.

Other comments:
The version with " Registered " on the left has been seen with the reverse single title label belonging to the Royal Mail coach, not Stephenson's Triumph:
The Stephenson's Triumph design was registered on 22 October 1879. The York Exhibition closed on 31 October, so it is possible that there was insufficient time to print appropriate reverse labels, and simply used existing stocks:

single title reverse label, belonging to the Royal Mail coach, not Stephenson's Triumph
{single title reverse label, belonging to the Royal Mail coach, not Stephenson's Triumph}
 
It is interesting though that despite the Exhibition closing just nine days after registration, in that time Stevens moved the position of the printed " REGISTERED " from the left [of the second image above] to the centre [of the first, main image above].

 



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This page was created on 4 January 2002
additional image added 12 February 2006, and image of reverse label added 28 April 2015.
Framed image added 28 September 2015, and new image with REGISTERED in the centre, added 2 May 2019. Framed image replaced with new image with REGISTERED on the left on 12 April 2020

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