Description
Stevengraph, election badge, Thomas Stevens, Coventry. “The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone,” an original woven silk Stevengraph, still sewn onto the original trademarked Stevengraph paper mount 13 cm x 3.5 cm, with the original blue ribbon still pinned to Stevens’s mount. Measuring 6 cm x 2 cm, with the tassel, on cream silk with green and lilac silk, this election badge has Mr. William Ewart Gladstone’s face on it, in an oval frame, white on a black background. Godden, 721. Godden lists this signed Stevengraph as a “small-size political favour”, an election badge, pictured on p. 339 in Godden, “… all these objects are now rare.” There is an advertisement in The Stationery Trades Journal of August 1885 that mentions these “small ribbon favours.” Godden, Stevengraphs and other Victorian Silk Pictures, p. 338. As issued by the Stevens factory, with slight rust from the original pin, holding the portrait badge to its paper mount.
RICHMOND 1865 Vicksburg Fort Donelson GENERAL U.S. GRANT “I WILL FIGHT IT OUT ON THIS LINE.”
