MARQUIS OF SALISBURY, K.G.

Printed at bottom of card-mount:-
WOVEN IN PURE SILK BY T, STEVENS, COVENTRY. 
 
Marquis of Salisbury, K.G. 
 

silk:
cm deep by cm wide

by Geoffrey Godden:

The third Marquis of Salisbury was born on 3 February 1830.
As Lord Robert Cecil, he became a Member of Parliament in 1853 and showed a keen interest in foreign affairs. When his father died, in April 1868, he succeeded to the title and entered the House of Lords.
In 1877, Lord Salisbury followed Lord Derby as Foreign Secretary; and in 1880 he assumed the leadership of the House of Lords.
After the defeat of the Liberal government in June 1885 he became Prime Minister, only to be defeated in January 1886. But he returned to office within six months, remaining Prime Minister until 1892. He entered a third term in 1895 and continued to hold office until July 1902, after which he lived only until 22 August 1903.

The portrait silk shows him facing slightly left. This subject was first listed on label 21+9+2 of 1887, and it is normally mounted on card D. The title was included in a Stevens advertisement published in May 1887.

Three versions of this subject are so far recorded, the first of which does not include the normal spray of flowers arranged across the jacket [recorded as so448].

The second version [recorded as so452] differs in that a spray of red roses is woven across the jacket. A rare inscribed example in my [that is Godden's] collection includes the date 24 August 1887 written on the label.

The third and rarest version [that is the portrait silk above] has yellow and orange roses in place of the red roses. 

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