by Austin Sprake:
by Geoffrey Godden:
This is one of the earliest Stevengraphs, being first introduced at the 1879 York Exhibition. The landscape picture shows the Lord Howe engine drawing two coaches - the same picture that was so popular when retitled THE PRESENT TIME [st476 on this site].
This early version has the sub-title or description 'The First train ran on September 27th, 1825, From Stockton to Darlington' below the picture on the card-mount, with the credit 'Thomas Stevens, Inventor & Manufacturer, Coventry & London' in the bottom right-hand corner, and in the bottom left-hand corner the wording 'Woven in the York Exhibition, 1879'.
Two versions of the card-mount are recorded - one of type A2 with printed Gothic-line border and fancy lettering to the main title, as above, and the other without the line-border and with plain lettering for the title STEPHENSON'S 'TRIUMPH', [see st564 on this site]. Both of these versions were made in 1879, after which the new title THE PRESENT TIME was used for the same picture.
Other comments:
Godden records this design as having been registered on 22nd October 1879. The Exhibition itself however opened on 7 May 1879, so this registration was very late in relation to the exhibition.
