There is a type of schizophrenia that causes a very distinct art style. Several books of art by schizos all show the same weird styles. This cited book has this kind of art in it, so I lean towards this being fanciful imaginings of airships but not real ones.

This is not to say there were no airships in the 1800s - there are couple of reported, cited incidents that seem a lot like some advanced balloonships that never were mainstream public. One was of a farm kid who went out for water and disappeared but they heard his voice vanishing into the sky.