Exposition Universelle
1889

Printed at top of card-mount:-
Exposition Universelle
1889. 

Printed at bottom of card-mount:-
La Tour Eiffel de 300 Metres 
Entièrement Tissée en Soie Pure
 de Six Couleurs. 

silk:
cm high by cm wide

by Geoffrey Godden:
PARIS VIEWS
The Stevens presentation book of unmounted silks in the Coventry Museum includes two silks depicting views in Paris:
a: An upright view of the Eiffel Tower, with the woven title SHA. MAISON DU PHENIX SHA [st524 on this site].
b: A landscape silk view of Paris with the Bon Marche building prominently placed in the foreground. This silk has the woven title PARIS-MAGASINS DU BON MARCHE [st452 on this site].
Both these silks show the Eiffel Tower, built in 1889.
Of these silks intended for the French market, only the first is at present known in an original mount - as shown above.
This, however, does not have the woven title (SHA. MAISON DU PHENIX SHA) and the mount does not have the normal printed credit. In this example, the back-label, although having the credit 'Printed in Coventry', is printed in French, and relates only to the French retailer. In view of the existence of the unmounted silk in the Stevens presentation book, there can be no doubt that this uncredited example is, in fact, a true Stevengraph.

Other comments:
It is intriguing that the framers of this silk should choose to expose the rear side of the silk to close inspection - and yet that is exactly what is done with the rear cut out oval on this mount.
On the left hand margin of this mount is printed the words " SMITH & JABET    COVENTRY, ENGLAND " (as seen below). I can find no reference to this company, although there is a suggestion that they might have been stationers in Coventry at the time.

It is just possible to make out that there is printing on the card in faded purple colour, stamped at the bottom margin. The words are: " ALGIER, 834 Rue St. Honore, PARIS ". Algier may have been the retailer that sold the card to the public at the 1889 Paris Exposition.