The "London & York" Royal Mail Coach

Woven on silk:-
 

Printed at top of card-mount:-

The "LONDON & YORK" Royal Mail Coach,
COMMENCED RUNNING IN THE YEAR 1706.

Printed at bottom of card-mount:-

	REGISTERED.
	From the "BLACK SWAN," HOLBORN, LONDON, To the "BLACK SWAN," CONEY STREET, YORK.
			WOVEN IN PURE SILK BY THOMAS STEVENS, INVENTOR & MANUFACTURER COVENTRY & LONDON.

Card-mount:
cm deep by cm wide

silk:
cm high by cm wide

by Austin Sprake:
Sprake does not record this version card mount.

by Geoffrey Godden:
Godden does not record this version of card mount.

Other comments:
The original design was registered on 14 May 1879, although the back label refers to ROYAL MAIL coach, not STAGE COACH.

The title of the image shown in [st415] is not mentioned by Godden, and as a result, to some extent there has to be conjecture as to the order in which these early titles appeared.

However, from Godden's description above, and the discovery of the title of st415, the order of the different titles would seem to be:

1. The silk started out with the title ' The "LONDON & YORK" Stage Coach ', and the credit ' Manufactured in York Exhibition, 1879 ' printed on the card-mount [st420].
2. For the general public, the same ' The "LONDON & YORK" Stage Coach ' title was available, but with the credit ' Manufactured in York Exhibition, 1879 ' replaced simply with ' Registered ' [st424].
3. With the discovery of the image of [st415], it would seem that the title was soon changed to ' The "LONDON & YORK" Royal Mail Coach ' with the previous credit ' Manufactured in York Exhibition, 1879 ' remaining.
4. Next, whilst the title remained as ' The "LONDON & YORK" Royal Mail Coach ', it would seem that the previous credit of ' Manufactured in York Exhibition, 1879 ' was changed to ' Woven in the York Exhibition, 1879 ', that is, the image of [st416]. Although the design of the actual silk remained unchanged, the size of the silk increased slightly, and this is evident in the size of the lead horses of these later silks.
5. It would seem that once the exhibition closed, the wording on the left side of the card mount was removed entirely, to give the version above [st418].
6. The old title though was short lived, and was replaced after a few months with the completely different one of ' The Good Old Days ' [st260]. The silk remained exactly as before.
7. The final evolution was to change the actual silk itself to include a winter scene, whilst still retaining the same ' The Good Old Days ' [st264] title. It was this final version which continued into the 20th century.