Hand-coloured lithograph inscribed 'Dawson's Diorama no.4. The British Queen, a first rate Steam Ship, which on holding it up to the light changes to her majesty Queen Victoria, attired in her Robes of State'. On either side of the inscription are small sketches of both images (the ship and the monarch).

The ship is depicted starboard-broadside on choppy seas, and the young queen seated with drapery around her on a verandah with stone balustrades and a landscape behind. The British Queen was the first ocean steamship ever built. She made her maiden voyage in 1839. In 1841 she was sold to the Belgian government, and in 1844 she was broken up. Dioramic prints were introduced in London in 1821 by Joseph Daguerre. (info from webpage of Richard M. Ford Bookseller, catalogue no. 7473).