Stevengraphs: The Reference Book on Thomas Stevens' Mounted Silk Woven Pictures and Silk Woven Bookmarkers.

Limited edition of 1000 copies. Cloth, 8vo, 23 cm, vii, 156 pp, plates, ills. Contents: pt. 1. The mounted silk woven pictures and portraits, by Austin Sprake.-pt. 2. The silk woven bookmarkers, by Michael Darby. From the introduction: "The weaving of fancy silk ribbons began in Coventry around 1700 and almost came to an abrupt end in 1860 when the industry suffered a disastrous slump .Thomas Stevens had already been working in the silk weaving trade all his life, and in 1854 he had set up his own business. He was experimenting with new ideas and improved techniques before the slump, and when this came he accepted the challenge it presented. He succeeded in adapting the Jacquard loom to produce small multi-coloured silk pictures of infinite variety, and, in 1863, when most other Coventry weavers had packed up, he sold his first silk woven bookmarkers. These were an immediate success and soon afterwards he developed the idea of selling similar things made up in the form of Christmas and birthday greeting cards, Valentine cards, calendars, sashes and badges. In no time Stevens had created for himself an entirely new market, with sales through booksellers and stationers, as opposed to selling to the drapery trade, for which market all Coventry brocades and ribbons had previously been produced. The bookmarkers depicted contemporary scenes, portraits of royalty and notables, illuminated texts from the Bible, poems, seasonal and birthday greetings. In 1879 Stevens produced his gay little pictures in yet another form. He fitted them into simple cardboard mounts all ready for framing and hanging in the home. The striking three-dimensional effect of these mounted silk pictures helped to give them instant success, and over the ensuing thirty years thousands upon thousands were sold." Copy No. 496. A few pencil annotations to contents, top edge duststained and fore-edge fingersoiled, otherwise Good in used, somewhat torn and marked dustwrapper.…