by Austin Sprake:
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, 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. These rare early Turpin silks are mounted on a card which has the eight-line poem which can be seen printed below the picture.
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].
On the closure of the York Exhibition on 31 October 1879, the reference to York was deleted from the title, which thus took on more general interest (that is, the image above without the York Exhibition reference).
A later title, DICK TURPIN'S LAST RIDE ON HIS BONNIE BLACK BESS, was issued without the poem [see st 156 on this site].
Other comments:
Original design was registered on 28 May 1879
the image of this silk picture was kindly donated by John Hartwig, USA
