Rust-colored linen printed from a steel engraving (44.5 x 67 cm), with hand-coloring. Margins and lower edge tacked down to a board; some minor thread loss at top. Very minor spotting and a few runs in fabric not affecting image. Generally very good and a remarkable survival.

A rare British printed textile with contemporary hand-color celebrating the victories of George III (ruled 1760-1820) during the Egypt Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars. “After the French Revolution, George became a much-loved figure: a bastion against anarchy, terror and mob-rule; the father figure of the nation, who stood up to Napoleon” (Baker). At the center of the textile, Britannia holds a large medallion with a profile portrait of George III as Neptune approaches from the left, while the Great Pyramids are depicted in the background. Neptune bears a ribbon connecting six smaller medallions of the king’s victorious naval generals, including Horatio Nelson (1758-1806), Richard Howe, 1^st Earl Howe (1726-1799), John Jervis, 1^st Earl of St. Vincent (1735-1823), Sidney Smith (1764-1840), Adam Duncan, 1^st Viscount Duncan (1731-1804), Charles Cornwallis, 1^st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805), Ralph Abercrombie (1734-1801), John Hely-Hutchinson, 2^nd Earl of Donoughmore (1757-1832). Much recent scholarship has focused on the medium of textile in the international transmittal of design and style (cf., A. Peck, Interwoven Globe), but here textile becomes the support for a transmission of but news and national pride.

The order of the heroes suggests that the image was produced before the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), as Nelson does not appear prominently, but is two places away from the king. Instead, General Howe appears to the left of the ruler. Howe was active in the Revolutionary War, but is said to have proved himself incompetent by indolently frittering away the pivotal winter of 1777 in Philadelphia. Howe was an illegitimate relation of George III, which may explain his favored position in the print, especially before Nelson’s post-Trafalgar renown. The print almost certainly dates before 1815, when Napoleon was routed at Waterloo, as the Duke of Wellington does not appear.

We have located no other copies of this print, either on cloth or paper.

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