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. Hannibal is listed by Sprake.
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. Hannibal.
Here, the title is woven below the bow. Only one flag is flying on te foremast. This battleship was completed in April 1898.
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, as in the image above, although usually it is simply printed on the card mount.
