Volume 40 · Issue 4

ARTICLES

Blake in the Marketplace, 2006

By Robert N. Essick

The 2006 Blake market began auspiciously with the January auction of a watercolor drawing, Oberon and Titania on a Lily (illus. 9). Sotheby’s New York placed a brave estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 on this small work, for many years in the collection of the great book and print collector Philip Hofer (1898-1984) and, since his death, apparently in the possession of one or more of his descendants. Not for the first time, my suspicion that a work by Blake was overestimated proved unfounded. Bidding began at $200,000, rose rapidly to $400,000, paused for about seven seconds at that level, and then jumped two more steps of $25,000 each to reach a successful bid of $450,000 ($520,000 inclusive of the buyer’s premium). The winner was John Windle, the San Francisco book dealer who specializes in Blake, acting on behalf of the artist and writer Maurice Sendak. The whole process took about ninety seconds. Given his earlier acquisitions, including copies of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, Sendak must be considered one of the major Blake collectors of our time.

Loyal readers of this journal will have learned of the dispersal of Blake’s nineteen watercolors illustrating Robert Blair’s The Grave from E. B. Bentley’s lively and insightful essay in the fall 2006 issue.¹↤ 1. Bentley, “Grave Indignities: Greed, Hucksterism, and Oblivion: Blake’s Watercolors for Blair’s Grave,” Blake 40.2 (fall 2006): 66-71. For the recent history of the watercolors, see also the sales reports for 2002, 2003, and 2005 in Blake 36.4 (spring 2003): 116; 37.4 (spring 2004): 116; and 39.4 (spring 2006): 154. For discussions of the designs, see Martin Butlin, “New Risen from the Grave: Nineteen Unknown Watercolors by William Blake,” Blake 35.3 (winter 2001-02): 68-73; G. E. Bentley, Jr., “William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2001,” Blake 36.1 (summer 2002): 13-16; and Alexander S. Gourlay, “‘Friendship,’ Love, and Sympathy in Blake’s Grave Illustrations,” Blake 37.3 (winter 2003-04): 100-04. For good overviews of the history of the designs since their rediscovery, see Martin Bailey, “Dealer’s Decision to Break Up William Blake Album Branded ‘philistine,’” Art Newspaper, posted 16 March 2006 <http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=216>; and R. M. Healey, “Grave Mistakes: ‘Discovered’ William Blake Set Broken Up at Auction,” Rare Book Review 33.2 (April/May 2006): 6-7, with three color illus. The May 2006 auction is summarized in Carol Vogel, “Rare Watercolor Collection Auctioned Piece by Piece,” New York Times 3 May 2006: B5; and in Martin Bailey and Georgina Adam, “‘The break-up could and should have been avoided,’” Art Newspaper, posted 1 June 2006 <http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=288>. This report will necessarily repeat information provided by Bentley, but will add a few new facts and speculations. Sotheby’s New York offered the drawings at a special auction, devoted exclusively to the Grave illustrations and with each design in its own lot, on 2 May 2006 (illus. 2-5, 8). This was the most spectacular Blake sale since the legendary auction of W. Graham Robertson’s collection at Christie’s London in 1949. The supposed sale of the Grave designs in 2005 to a firm in Switzerland was simply a way for the London dealer Libby Howie and her financial backers to get the designs out of Britain. If sold individually in a London auction, each would require an export license, and this might have had a chilling effect on any non-British bidders. That concern, combined with the fact that most important Blake collectors reside in North America, prompted the New York venue.

The pending auction attracted a good deal of attention in the press. The first news story, by Carol Vogel, appeared in the 16 February issue of the New York Times, complete with four illustrations, two in color. The title of the story, “Art Experts Protest Sale of Rare Set of Blakes,” indicates its general thrust. Vogel’s well-researched essay was followed by an unsigned editorial in the 20 February Times claiming that “to sell the watercolors one by one is, at the very least, to misconstrue Blake’s art.” The contentious relationship between art and commerce, so much a part of Blake’s life and writings, continues into our own time. John Windle also believed that the impending auction would mean the tragic dispersal of an integrated series of designs. Accordingly, in March he wrote to a number of Blake collectors, asking them to form a consortium to make a presale offer for all nineteen designs (or, failing that, bid on each at auction) and donate the series to an institution, such as the Tate Collection or the Huntington Library, which already had a significant Blake collection. This worthy effort came to naught.

Sotheby’s went all out to promote the auction. Selling nineteen highly valued Blakes at one time could easily overwhelm the niche market for such material. Thus, it was incumbent upon Sotheby’s to attract bidders from the much larger pool of collectors of British and Old Master drawings, most of whom had demonstrated no prior interest in Blake. In mid-March, potential bidders were sent a handsome brochure with color reproductions of five designs and of the red morocco case in which the entire group had been housed, possibly for over 180 years. The watercolors were displayed at Sotheby’s facilities in London (9-15 March), Paris (20-24 March), Chicago (27-28 March), New York (31 March-5 April), and Los Angeles (11-12 April). The catalogue for the sale, sure to become a collector’s item in its own right, was published as a hardbound book with all nineteen watercolors reproduced in color, supplementary illustrations of related designs, and a scholarly text by Nancy Bialler, Sotheby’s senior vice president for Old Master prints, drawings, and paintings.

On 1 May, a number of Blake collectors, dealers, and scholars assembled in New York to view the designs and witness the events of the next day. The group included Elizabeth B. Bentley, G. E. Bentley, Jr., David Bindman, Georgia and Morris Eaves, Alexander Gourlay, John and Mary Lynn Grant, Sarah Jones, Roger Lipman, Karen Mulhallen, Alan Parker, Joseph Viscomi and Maria Fernandez, Chris and John Windle, and your intrepid reporter. The auction opened precisely at begin page 117 | ↑ back to top 10:15 a.m. on 2 May. The sale began triumphantly—from the vendor’s perspective—with the title page (illus. 2) fetching a hammer price $390,000 above the high estimate.²↤ 2. The “hammer price” is the bid at which the auctioneer sells a lot, exclusive of the buyer’s premium or any other fees. In this discussion I am referring to these hammer prices at which a lot is “knocked down” by the auctioneer; the net prices, including buyers’ premiums, are given in the sales listings below. The estimate range of $180,000 to $260,000 for this lot seemed low to many interested parties. When I inquired about it, Sotheby’s told me that the presence of writing on the watercolor would depress its marketability to drawings collectors. A very odd reason, it seemed to me—and apparently to the several bidders who drove the work to $650,000 plus fees.

Healthy bidding continued for the second lot, The Meeting of a Family in Heaven, which fetched $140,000 over high estimate. The next lot, Death of the Strong Wicked Man, sold within the estimate range, but matters began to slip with the fourth lot, The Grave Personified, selling at a hammer price $200,000 below low estimate. The purchaser was probably simply bidding against the unannounced reserve price.³↤ 3. The “reserve” is the price below which the vendor and the auction house have agreed not to sell a lot. Given the below-estimate yet successful bids on several lots, it seems as though the reserves were roughly twenty percent below the low estimates. The suspicion that lot 5, Whilst Surfeited upon Thy Damask Cheek (illus. 3), was overestimated at $700,000 to $1 million proved prescient when the work failed to sell. The Reunion of the Soul and the Body, lot 6, was knocked down to a bidder on the telephone at the low estimate of $900,000. At this point, the auction went decidedly sour—again, from the point of view of the vendor and the auction house. No bidders stepped forward to meet the reserves on the next four lots, a group that included two of the most highly estimated works, The Day of Judgment at $1.5 to $2 million, and Death’s Door (illus. 5) at $1 to $1.5 million. Lot 11, The Soul Exploring the Recesses of the Grave, found a new owner, but at a price well below the estimate range. The next three lots failed to sell, but the final five watercolors all found purchasers. Of these, all but one failed to achieve the low estimate. The exception was the final drawing, Friendship, which exceeded the same low estimate range granted the first lot. The now-empty portfolio in which the designs were housed for many decades also went well beyond its high estimate to reach $4200, sold to Windle for stock.

Eight of the nineteen drawings were bought in; another six sold for less than low estimate. Thus, fourteen of the twenty lots (counting the portfolio) were very probably considered to be disappointments by the seller. The total hammer price for the sold lots was $6,184,200—considerably less than the roughly $8.6 million Howie is reported to have paid for the whole group. Of course she still had eight drawings to sell. By the end of June, Sotheby’s had arranged sales to anonymous private collectors for three of the works unsold at auction: The Soul Hovering over the Body Reluctantly Parting with Life, The Day of Judgment, and Death’s Door (lots 7, 9, 10). If I am right in estimating that the reserves were twenty percent below low estimate, and assuming that these three drawings were sold in the neighborhood of these reserve prices, then Howie gained roughly $2.5 million through after-auction sales (less Sotheby’s fees of about 20%). She was still short of recovering her initial costs by about $415,000. The remaining five unsold lots (5, 8, 12-14) were returned to Howie by early July 2006. Any profits would have to come from their future sale.

Lacking serious offers for the unsold drawings, Howie and her backers may decide to retain them for the immediate future. The rule of thumb is to wait at least five years before attempting another auction, although this is often honored in the breach in today’s hot art markets. If Sotheby’s retained for itself the $918,440 in buyers’ premiums, plus fees for arranging the three after-auction sales, that was probably sufficient to cover costs plus a little profit. The auction house may have also received a vendor’s premium from Howie, although some sales contracts waive that customary provision.

Did potential bidders demur because of the controversy surrounding the dispersal of the Grave watercolors? I doubt that this was a significant factor, at least for private collectors. Three of the five major Blake collectors active today participated in the auction; each took home at least one design. The absentees were Leon Black and Maurice Sendak: the former may have been one of the anonymous purchasers, while the latter was a bit out of pocket due to his purchase of Oberon and Titania on a Lily in January. Two drawings were acquired by Continental collections, thereby indicating Blake’s growing reputation as an artist beyond the Anglo-American community. Sotheby’s and its vendor simply overestimated the value of too many lots. The market could not absorb nineteen expensive Blake drawings at a single auction, even with the widening of the circle of Blake collectors through the addition of a few new participants. Perhaps the lesson to be learned from the proceedings is the old adage that investing in art for short-term profit is a risky business, even for professionals like Libby Howie.

The dispersal of the Grave watercolors, some into anonymous private collections, will make studying all the originals arduous, even impossible. Fortunately, the William Blake Archive, available online at <http://www.blakearchive.org>, has recently published all nineteen watercolors, plus one removed from the original group of twenty at an unknown time but now in the Yale Center for British Art. The 300 dpi enlargements in the Archive will make close study of details possible. The Archive also includes Schiavonetti’s engravings, published in R. H. Cromek’s 1808 edition of The Grave, and Blake’s white-line etching of “Deaths Door” (illus. 6).

The lively 2006 Blake market continued into the fall auction and catalogue season. On 23 November, Sotheby’s London offered one of Blake’s Tiriel illustrations, Tiriel Led by Hela (illus. 10). This was the first Tiriel wash drawing to come to market since two were sold at a Christie’s auction in 1971. The widely held opinion in the trade that the work was overestimated at £150,000 to £200,000 proved wrong, for the drawing fetched begin page 118 | ↑ back to top a hammer price of £145,000, just below the low estimate, but £170,400 when the auction-house fees are included. A few hours after the auction, I was informed by Emmeline Hallmark of Sotheby’s that “there is some confusion surrounding the sale of the Blake.” I was not able to unravel this mysterious “confusion” by January 2007, but will report any further information in my 2007 sales review.

At the end of November, Windle issued another in his series of impressive catalogues of Blake and Blake’s circle. Catalogue 42 is devoted exclusively to engravings and etchings by Blake, including some great rarities. Each of the ninety-three items is accompanied by at least one thumbnail illustration; every item is included in the listings below.

Readers of the 2005 sales review may have noticed that works by Thomas Stothard, and particularly his book illustrations, were beginning to consume more space than Blake’s. To avoid having to change my title to “Stothard in the Marketplace,” I have instituted a new policy for that prolific artist. Beginning with this review, I continue to list sales of all drawings, separate prints, and prepublication proofs of book illustrations by Stothard that have come to my attention, but I include only those editions of books illustrated by Stothard that are not mentioned in the standard reference works: A. C. Coxhead, Thomas Stothard, R.A. (London: Bullen, 1906) and Shelley M. Bennett, Thomas Stothard: The Mechanisms of Art Patronage in England circa 1800 (Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1988). Thus, newly discovered book illustrations will still be recorded.

The year of all sales and catalogues in the following lists is 2006 unless indicated otherwise. Works offered online and previously listed in either of the last two sales reviews are not repeated here. In my 2005 review, I failed to include several works by Blake’s circle and followers offered in John Windle’s catalogue 40 of November 2005. These materials are listed below. The auction houses add their purchaser’s surcharge to the hammer price in their price lists. These net amounts are given here, following the official price lists. The value-added tax levied against the buyer’s surcharge in Britain is not included. Late 2006 sales will be covered in the 2007 review. I am grateful for help in compiling this review to Martin Bailey, Emma Baudey, Nancy Bialler, Martin Butlin, Alex Chappell, John E. Grant, Mary Lynn Grant, Emmeline Hallmark, Donald Heald, Barbara Hinde, Tim Linnell, Richard Nathanson, Alan Parker, Justin Schiller, Steven Tabor, Carol Vogel, David Weinglass, and John Windle. My special thanks go to Alexander Gourlay for his generosity in keeping me abreast of internet auctions. Once again, Sarah Jones’ editorial expertise and John Sullivan’s electronic imaging have been invaluable.

Abbreviations

Illuminated Books

The First Book of Urizen, pl. 9. Color printed with hand coloring, a single pen and black ink framing line approx. 8 mm. from the edge of the image. Wove paper without watermark, leaf 17.0 × 12.7 cm. Probably printed c. 1794-96, the framing lines added by Blake c. 1818 or later. BB 169, 184 (“untraced”); Butlin #279 (“Private Collection, U.S.A.”). On loan in 2006 from Dorothy Braude Edinburg of Brookline, Massachusetts, to the Chicago Art Institute as a promised gift to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection at the institute, accession no. 94.1998. Apparently Edinburg (and possibly a forebear) is the private collector who has owned the print since shortly after its auction at CL, 14 March 1967, #85, illus. (£770 to Agnew’s).

“Introduction” (pl. 30) to Songs of Experience. A posthumous impression in gray-black ink on wove paper without watermark, the leaf trimmed to 17.9 × 11.0 cm. to match the leaf size of a copy of William Pickering’s 1839 ed. of Songs of Innocence and of Experience, into which this impression is bound begin page 119 | ↑ back to top as a frontispiece. Sold Feb., still bound in the book, by John Windle to Roger Lipman. For further information on this impression, see Blake 39.4 (spring 2006): 150.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, posthumous copy o, 3 pls. only: “Nurses Song” (pl. 24) from Innocence (black ink, leaf 13.8 × 9.9 cm.), “Nurses Song” (pl. 38) from Experience (reddish-brown ink, leaf 27.9 × 18.7 cm.), and “The School Boy” (pl. 53, orange ink, leaf 28.0 × 18.4 cm.). Acquired Aug. by John Windle from N. W. Lott of Larkhall Fine Art; offered individually in Windle’s Nov. cat. 42, #77-79, illus. (prices on request). For additional information and earlier sales offers, see BBS 112, 129-30; Blake 24.4 (spring 1991): 118; 28.4 (spring 1995): 121; 29.4 (spring 1996): 111.

1. “Spring,” pl. 23 from Songs of Innocence, trimmed to the design only 2.8 × 7.5 cm. (including the vine extensions left and right).   Etched in relief 1789, color printed and hand colored c. 1794-96. One of only 3 pls. from Innocence with color printing; the others are the designs only of pls. 5 (“The Shepherd”) and 22 (the 1^st pl. of “Spring”), now both at the Yale Center for British Art. This is the only Blake etching known to me which has been cut along a design element—in this case, a vine—to create a decorative frame. Blake may have printed the designs only, and masked the texts, of these 3 pls. as part of, or as an experiment leading up to, his Small Book of Designs of 1796. I suspect, however, that someone else trimmed the pl. reproduced here to its present configuration, one which also eliminated the vine at the bottom of the pl. Provenance: sold “The Property of a Lady,” Sotheby’s Belgravia, 5 April 1977, #207 (£280 to a dealer on behalf of the American Blake Foundation); on consignment with John Windle, Sept. 2006; offered for sale in Windle’s Nov. 2006 cat. 42, #76, illus. color (price on request). The 2 color prints now at the Yale Center were also sold from the same “Property” in the same auction, #209-10. The previous 3 lots, all Blake materials, were sold “The Property of John Linnell, Esq.”—probably John Stainforth Linnell, a descendant of Blake’s patron. Perhaps the “Lady” was also connected with the Linnell family. Photo courtesy of John Windle.

This pl. has been consistently misdescribed, beginning with Sotheby’s 1977 auction cat. in which it was said to be the design only on the 1^st pl. of “Spring,” pl. 22. Bentley, not knowing who acquired the print and thus apparently relying on this erroneous cat. description, repeats the error in BBS 112, 130.

“Spring,” pl. 23 from Songs of Innocence, trimmed to the design only, 2.8 × 7.5 cm. Color printed with hand coloring. On consignment from the American Blake Foundation with John Windle, Sept.; offered in Windle’s Nov. cat. 42, #76, illus. color (price on request). See illus. 1.

There is No Natural Religion, copy G¹. Plates a4, a6, and b3 only, printed for the abridged issue in 12 pls. of c. 1794 in olive-brown ink on wove paper without watermark. With rudimentary color printing in reddish-brown and black. Leaves 13.5 × 11.5 cm. (pl. a4), 13.7 × 9.5 cm. (pl. a6), and 13.5 × 10.7 cm. (pl. b3). On consignment from the American Blake Foundation with John Windle, Aug.; offered individually in Windle’s Nov. cat. 42, #85-87, illus. (prices on request; all 3 acquired by Robert Essick). For further information on these impressions, see BB 80, 445; BBS 137.

Drawings and Paintings

Christ the Mediator. Tempera, 26.4 × 37.8 cm., datable to c. 1799-1800. Butlin #429. Acquired at auction in June 2005 by Leon Black, New York. For discussion and illus., see Blake 39.4 (spring 2006): 148, 151.

Nineteen Watercolors Illustrating Robert Blair’s The Grave. SNY, 2 May, in a sale devoted to just these works, all from the stock of the London art dealer Libby Howie. Each design, illus. in color, sold separately in the following lots. The designs in lots 1-3, 6-11, 13, 14, and 18 were engraved by Louis Schiavonetti for Robert Cromek’s 1808 ed. of The Grave. Lots 4, 5, 12, 15-17, and 19 were not engraved, but some (as noted below) were included among the 15 “subjects proposed to be engraved” in Cromek’s 1^st prospectus of Nov. 1805. The 2^nd prospectus, of the same date, alters the number of illustrations to 12 but does not include a list of subjects. Lots 1-19 are pen and ink and watercolor drawings over at least traces of pencil. See illus. 2-5, 8, a group that includes all designs not published in the 1808 edition of The Grave and not previously reproduced in this journal.

1. 1. Title Page, inscribed by Blake, “The Grave / a Poem / By Robert Blair / Illustrated with 12 Engravings / by Louis Schiavonetti / From the Original Inventions / of / William Blake, / 1806.” 33.2 × 26.6 cm. $744,000 to a bidder on the telephone; estimate $180,000-260,000. The only engraved design not included in the 1^st prospectus, but perhaps originally intended as the “characteristic Frontispiece” listed there; see also #4, 17. I have not been able to confirm the rumor in the New York art world that the purchaser was Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, acting for David Thomson, Toronto. David Thomson is the son of Kenneth Roy Thomson, 2^nd Baron Thomson of Fleet (1923-2006). See illus. 2.

2. 2. The Meeting of a Family in Heaven. 23.4 × 13.3 cm. $576,000 to a bidder in the room; estimate $280,000-360,000. According to Bailey and Adam (see my note 1), the purchaser was Hinrich Sieveking; if so, he was probably acting for the Winterstein Collection, Munich.

3. 3. Death of the Strong Wicked Man. 20.2 × 25.5 cm. $1,584,000 to La Société des Amis du Louvre, Paris, and at least one other supporter of the Louvre, Antoine Prat, for presentation to the museum; estimate $1,000,000-1,500,000. A record auction price for a Blake watercolor and the 1^st work by Blake to enter the Louvre’s collection.

4. 4. The Grave Personified. 20.3 × 29.7 cm. Possibly the “characteristic Frontispiece” listed in the 1^st prospectus, although the horizontal format argues against that notion; see also #1, 17. $912,000 to H. Charles and Jessie Price, Dallas, Texas; estimate $1,000,000-1,500,000. For illus., see Blake 35.3 (winter 2001-02): 73. The back of the cardboard mount bears a light pencil sketch, not recorded prior to the auction cat. The sketch pictures a Blakean figure in a posture similar to the woman’s on the recto, squatting and hunched over, with her(?) head between very prominent knees. Possibly by someone attempting to imitate Blake?

5. 5. Whilst Surfeited upon Thy Damask Cheek, the High-Fed Worm in Lazy Volumes Roll’d, Riots Unscar’d. 19.6 × 13.3 cm. Not sold; highest bid $520,000 on an estimate of $700,000-1,000,000. Returned to Howie in July. See illus. 3.

6. 6. The Reunion of the Soul and the Body. 23.7 × 17.5 cm. $1,024,000 to an anonymous bidder on the telephone; estimate $900,000-1,200,000.

7. 7. The Soul Hovering over the Body Reluctantly Parting with Life. 16.0 × 22.7 cm. Not sold; highest bid $520,000 on an estimate of $700,000-1,000,000. Sold by the end of June to a private collector.

8. 8. The Descent of Man into the Vale of Death. 23.4 × 13.5 cm. Not sold; highest bid $480,000 on an estimate of $700,000-1,000,000. Returned to Howie in July. For illus., see Blake 40.2 (fall 2006) front cover.

9. 9. The Day of Judgment. 27.0 × 22.2 cm. Not sold; highest bid $1,100,000 on an estimate of $1,500,000-2,000,000. Sold by the end of June to a private collector.

10. 10. Death’s Door. 23.9 × 13.8 cm. Not sold; highest bid $750,000 on an estimate of $1,000,000-1,500,000. Sold by the end of June to a private collector. See illus. 5-7.

11. 11. The Soul Exploring the Recesses of the Grave. 23.5 × 11.9 cm. $632,000 to Florence and Noel Rothman, Chicago; estimate $700,000-1,000,000. The purchasers are the husband and wife who have, over the last 25 years, assembled the finest Blake collection in private hands.

12. 12. The Gambols of Ghosts According with Their Affections Previous to the Final Judgment. 26.9 × 20.7 cm. Not sold; highest bid $520,000 on an estimate of $700,000-1,000,000. Returned to Howie in July. For illus., see Blake 35.3 (winter 2001-02): 69.

13. 13. The Counseller, King, Warrior, Mother and Child, in the Tomb. 15.0 × 23.4 cm. Not sold; highest bid $500,000 on an estimate of $700,000-1,000,000. Returned to Howie in July.

14. 14. The Death of the Good Old Man. 20.2 × 25.8 cm. Not sold; highest bid $420,000 on an estimate of $550,000-700,000. Returned to Howie in July.

15. 15. A Father and Two Children beside an Open Grave at Night by Lantern Light. 17.5 × 23.5 cm. $329,600 to an anonymous bidder in the room; estimate $350,000-550,000. See illus. 4.

16. 16. Heaven’s Portals Wide Expand to Let Him In. 23.7 × 12.8 cm. $329,600 to John Windle acting for Robert Essick; estimate $350,000-550,000. See illus. 8.

17. 17. Our Time Is Fix’d, and All Our Days Are Number’d. 23.4 × 17.7 cm. Possibly the “characteristic Frontispiece” listed in the 1^st prospectus; see also #1, 4. $318,400 to an anonymous bidder in the room; estimate $350,000-550,000. For illus., see Blake 35.3 (winter 2001-02): 72; 37.3 (winter 2003-04): 101 (where the design is titled “Friendship”); and 40.2 (fall 2006): 71.

18. 18. Christ Descending into the Grave. 23.0 × 12.4 cm. $329,600 to Alan Parker, London; estimate $350,000-550,000. For illus., see Blake 40.2 (fall 2006): 71.

19. 19. Friendship (so inscribed on the mount). 23.8 × 17.6 cm. Listed as #10 in the 1^st prospectus. $318,400 to Alan Parker, London; estimate $180,000-260,000. For illus., see Blake 35.3 (winter 2001-02): 70; 37.3 (winter 2003-04): 103 (where the begin page 121 | ↑ back to top design is titled “There’s no bye-road / To bliss”); and 40.2 (fall 2006) back cover.

20. 20. The red morocco wallet-style case in which the designs have been housed, possibly for over 180 years. Stamped on the catch for the clasp, “Designs for / Blair’s Grave,” and lined with red paper showing a “Beilby & Knotts 1821” watermark. $5040 to John Windle; estimate $1000-1500. Sold July by Windle to a California private collector.

2. Inscribed Title-Page Design for The Grave (The Skeleton Re-Animated).   Pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over traces of pencil, 33.2 × 26.6 cm. The angel of the last trump recalls the skeleton to animate life. Although the design may have been executed along with other illustrations to Blair’s poem in the fall of 1805, Blake could not have added the text before he had learned, in late Nov. or early Dec. 1805, that Schiavonetti had been hired to engrave the designs. The “1806” date would in that case have been anticipatory or not added until that year. It is also possible that this watercolor was a later addition to the group, executed in the same year as the inscribed date. There is a small patch of abrasion just right of the second line (“a Poem”) of the inscription, but nothing further that might indicate an alteration in the wording. The leaf is larger than any of the other designs in the original group of 20 and is backed with stiff paper rather than mounted on a backing board with framing lines. An alternative title page in the Huntington Library and Art Collections (Butlin #616) is also dated “1806.” That work is inscribed “A Series of Designs . . . Invented & Drawn by William Blake” and may have been intended as a title page for a portfolio of drawings rather than prints.^[e]
[View this object in the William Blake Archive]

3. Whilst Surfeited upon Thy Damask Cheek, the High-Fed Worm in Lazy Volumes Roll’d, Riots Unscar’d.   Pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over traces of pencil, 19.6 × 13.3 cm., datable to the fall of 1805. Like The Widow Embracing Her Husband’s Grave (Yale Center for British Art, Butlin #633), once part of the series of mounted Grave watercolors, this is a contemporary scene, although the costuming of the man follows Blake’s predilection for tight-fitting (and partly see-through) jumpsuits. The subject of the design is indicated by the small, spiraling worm just above the man’s extended left foot. The woman gestures to her “damask cheek” with her right hand and to the worm with her left; the man strides towards and stares into the open grave. Perhaps the shadows extending behind his feet, executed with the same black wash picturing the depths of the pit before him, indicate the inevitable fate even for a robust youth. His arms and hands, crossed over and grasping his chest, suggest that he has just realized that binding truth. The gothic church, however, offers a different portal, one suggesting an alternative vision of death as a transition to immortal spirit. See the similar use of gothic motifs in illus. 8. Is the sun pictured just above the distant mountain setting or rising? The passage illustrated does not specify the time of day.^[e]
[View this object in the William Blake Archive]

4. A Father and Two Children beside an Open Grave at Night by Lantern Light.   Pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over pencil, 17.5 × 23.5 cm., datable to the fall of 1805. The design does not illustrate any specific passage in Blair’s Grave but would seem to form a contrastive pair with The Widow Embracing Her Husband’s Grave (Yale Center for British Art, Butlin #633). Like several of the Grave illustrations, Blake has recycled a composition he first executed years earlier, in this case Burial Scene, a wash drawing datable to c. 1780-85 (McGill University Library, Butlin #137 recto). John E. Grant and Mary Lynn Grant have suggested in conversation that the adult male in the design reproduced here might be a clergyman, rather than the father of the title, and the youthful but mature woman the mother of the boy to her right. The father would then presumably be in the grave to which the clergyman gestures. When in 1794 Blake used a similar composition to illustrate “The Garden of Love” in Songs of Experience, the adult male became a tonsured ecclesiastic. Sotheby’s catalogue of 2 May 2006, #15, comments interestingly on the style of this watercolor: “A Father and Two Children is more loosely executed than any of the other watercolors offered here. While the faces are worked up in some detail, the surroundings are indicated by quick brush strokes, thereby leaving the trees and the lantern rather two dimensional.” These features are similar to those in Churchyard Spectres Frightening a Schoolboy (Essick collection, Butlin #342), a design also illustrating The Grave (for discussion and illus., see Blake 33.4 [spring 2000]: 106-08).^[e]
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5. Death’s Door.   Pen and black ink and watercolor over pencil, 23.9 × 13.8 cm., datable to the fall of 1805. The mortal body enters the tomb; the ever-youthful spiritual body rises above.^[e] See illus. 6-7.
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6. “Deaths Door.”   White-line etching with touches of India ink, 18.6 × 11.7 cm., datable to the fall of 1805. Essick collection. This is probably the “Specimen of the Stile of Engraving” which was on display at “the Proprietor’s, Mr. Cromek,” according to the first prospectus of Nov. 1805 for his edition of Blair’s Grave. According to Robert T. Stothard, Thomas Stothard’s son, Cromek found Blake’s print “etched . . . so indifferently and so carelessly . . . that he employed Schrovenetti [sic] to engrave” the designs (BR[2] 219). In his white-line etching, reversed in comparison to the watercolor (illus. 5), Blake has replaced the small plants behind the old man’s back with a thorny branch and added some spiky leaves lower right (left in the watercolor). The slight indications of vegetation above the tomb have also been altered. These changes, however, are inconsequential in comparison to the quantum shift in sensibility and style. It is not difficult to imagine Cromek’s reaction to the etching, so different in feeling and mode of expression from the watercolor he probably had already approved for publication. Its aesthetic is more akin to the purposeful primitivisms of early modernism, such as Paul Gauguin’s and Edvard Munch’s wood engravings or the work of German expressionists, than to anything within the compass of early nineteenth-century tastes. Blake’s print is so foreign to those tastes that no publisher of the time would have included such a work in a book intended to make money. As is typical of his efforts as an experimental printmaker, Blake uses white-line etching as an opportunity for transformation and reinvention, not simply as a means of replicating an image invented and already executed in a different medium. Further, Blake allows the intrinsic properties of the medium to express themselves—darkness, crepuscular illumination, rugged forms that signal their production through the scraping-out of resist and the biting of acid. The image is caverned out of metal, like the recesses of the tomb. Blake’s work forces upon our apprehension its means of execution—overwhelmingly so, from Cromek’s perspective.
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7. “Death’s Door.”   Intaglio etching/engraving by Louis Schiavonetti after Blake, 2^nd published state with verses added below the title and dated May 1808 in the imprint, 24.3 × 13.9 cm. Essick collection. The earliest known proof bears a Feb. 1806 imprint and may have been the first Grave illustration executed by Schiavonetti. Perhaps Cromek wanted to see, before proceeding further with his project, the differences between Blake’s and Schiavonetti’s work. In contrast to Blake’s white-line etching (illus. 6), Schiavonetti’s print is an accurate graphic translation of the watercolor (illus. 5). His work is readily apprehended, with each motif clearly indicated, whereas Blake’s print disconcerts such easy “reading” of the image. To this day, many people to whom I have shown the two prints side by side prefer Schiavonetti’s.
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8. Heaven’s Portals Wide Expand to Let Him In.   Pen and gray and black inks and watercolor over pencil, 23.7 × 12.8 cm., datable to the fall of 1805. Essick collection. The figure of the ascending Christ is very similar to The Ascension (Fitzwilliam Museum, Butlin #505), one of the biblical watercolors Blake painted for Thomas Butts c. 1803-05. That work includes the apostles standing below Christ, replaced in the Grave design by “his train” of “followers,” as Blair’s text specifies. These include, from left to right, the (right?) hand of a figure otherwise not pictured (suggesting that the group is a small portion of a much larger gathering, as with the arms and hands of the marginal angels in Blake’s Job engravings, pl. numbered 14); a small female (or boy with long hair), probably younger than the larger figures; an embracing couple, similar to the father and mother in “The Meeting of a Family in Heaven,” a published Grave illustration, but the man is bearded and would appear to be older than the woman in this design; a woman with a bun or coil of hair on the back of her head; probably a male with wavy hair; a woman with two strands of loose hair dangling down her back; another woman with slight indications of the same coiffure; a female or male with long hair, symmetrically placed with the similarly sized (and youthful) figure on the left; and only the legs and a bit of the body and head of a figure cut off by the right margin. The sense of weightlessness is common to all the figures. The gothic arches above Christ, decorated with praying angels and (palm?) fronds, continue the portal imagery central to the entire series of illustrations. These architectural motifs hint at Blake’s concept that imaginative art is one of the routes to, or even one with, the spiritual world. This watercolor is free of the foxing that slightly mars others in the series; its delicate colors are particularly fresh and unfaded. A preliminary pencil sketch, on the back of a sketch for The Death of the Strong Wicked Man, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Butlin #624 verso).
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Oberon and Titania on a Lily. Watercolor, 21.1 × 16.2 cm. Butlin #245, dating the work to c. 1790-93. SNY, 25 Jan., #130, illus. color original size ($520,000 to John Windle acting for Maurice Sendak). See illus. 9.

Tiriel Led by Hela. Pen and gray washes, 17.8 × 26.9 cm., datable to c. 1788. Butlin #198.10. SL, 23 Nov., #192, “the Property of a Family [of Mrs. Louise Y. Kain],” illus. color (£170,400). See illus. 10.

Visionary Head. Pencil and black chalk, 36.0 × 26.0 cm. SL, 7 June, #320, illus. color (£9000 to John Windle). Sold July by Windle and Maggs Bros. to a British private collector. The auction cat. suggests that this may be the work sold from the Graham Robertson collection, CL, 22 July 1949, with 2 other works in #58, described as “a slight sketch of a head in a tall hat of the Italian renaissance” (£18.18s. to Maggs). That drawing, however, measured only “8 in. by 13 in.” (20.3 × 33.0 cm.); note particularly that its height is less than its width (just the reverse of the drawing sold SL). Previously offered Agnew’s, 130^th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, 5-28 March 2003, #18, illus. color (£15,000). For illus. and discussion, see Blake 37.4 (spring 2004): cover, 119-20.

Might this head of a sullen soldier bear some relation to Blake’s confrontation with John Scofield in August 1803 (see BR[2] 158-66)? Scofield was a private soldier in the 1^st Regiment of Dragoons. In his letter to Thomas Butts of 16 Aug. 1803, Blake states that Scofield “put himself into a Posture of Defiance” (E 732) when Blake evicted him from his garden. The phrase nicely fits the man’s expression in this Visionary Head. The incident and subsequent trial for sedition haunted Blake for decades, as indicated by the many references to those events and personalities in Jerusalem (1804-20). At the very least, I suspect that it would be difficult for Blake to draw a soldier’s head of this sort without calling to his mind some recollection of Scofield. The canted cylinder forming the upper structure of the man’s hat in this drawing resembles several varieties of helmets worn by horse-mounted soldiers during the Napoleonic era. The griffin decorating the hat recalls the eagle-headed and winged men in Jerusalem pl. 46.

Separate Plates and Plates in Series

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims.” Swann, 7 March, #167, 5^th st., thread margins top and on both sides, imprint and quotation from Chaucer (right of the imprint) apparently trimmed off, “cream wove paper . . . time stain[ed] and linen-backed with tears and handling creases,” possibly a much-abused Sessler impression, illus. ($1800). Clars auction, Oakland, California, 9 July, #6438, 5^th st., apparently a Colnaghi impression on laid India, “laid down to board, mat burn,” India paper becoming detached lower right, illus. color online ($900). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #7, 5^th st. on laid India, probably a Colnaghi impression, framed, illus. ($22,500).

Dante engravings. CL, 20 Sept., #18, complete set, probably the 1892 printing, foxed, creases and a few tears in margins, illus. color (£20,400; estimate £8000-12,000). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #15, complete set, probably the 1892 printing, illus. color (price on request); #16-20, pls. 1-2, 4-6 only, offered individually, probably the 1892 printing, illus. (from $7500 to $17,500); #21-26, pls. 2-7, offered individually, 1968 printing, illus. (from $2750 to $5000). Sims Reed, Dec. cat., #33, complete set, “marginal indications of watermarks suggest that this set is from the first printing,” apparently not bound, illus. color (£35,000).

“Idle Laundress,” Blake after Morland. EB, Dec. 2005-Jan., imprint trimmed off (or at least not shown in the illus.) and thus st. not identifiable (probably 3^rd), color printed with additional hand coloring, marginal stains, framed, illus. color ($550).

“Industrious Cottager,” Blake after Morland. EB, Dec. 2005-Jan., imprint trimmed off (or at least not shown in the illus.) and thus st. not identifiable (probably 3^rd or 4^th), color printed with additional hand coloring, marginal stains, framed, illus. color ($550).

Job engravings. Ursus Books, April online cat., complete set, 1826 printing on Whatman paper after the removal of the “Proof” inscription, half Russia, rebacked and repaired, illus. color ($45,000). CNY, 1 May, #49, pl. numbered 7 only, 1826 published “Proof” impression on laid India, framed, illus. color (not sold; estimate $2000-4000). Swann, 4 May, #195, pl. numbered 16 only, 1826 published “Proof” impression on laid India, illus. ($3200). Edwin Epps, July private offer, pl. numbered 9 only, apparently a published “Proof” impression on laid India ($2500; sold to the University of South Carolina Library). Swann, 14 Sept., #101, pl. numbered 6 only, 1826 printing on Whatman after the removal of the “Proof” inscription, illus. ($1600). CNY, 26 Sept., #46, pl. numbered 7 only, published “Proof” impression on laid India, slight stains, illus. color (not sold; estimate $1000-1500). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #29, complete set, 1826 published “Proof” impressions on so-called “French” paper, some foxing, “original blue paper boards as issued,” illus. (price on request); #30, complete set, 1826 published “Proof” impressions on laid India, later full morocco “slightly faded,” illus. (price on request); #31, pl. numbered 5 only, 1826 published “Proof” impression on so-called “French” paper, 3 small creases, illus. ($2950); #32, pl. numbered 19 only, 1826 published “Proof” impression on so-called “French” paper, illus. ($3950); #33-54, complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, each pl. offered individually, illus. (from $1500 to $3500).

9. Oberon and Titania on a Lily.   Watercolor, 21.1 × 16.2 cm. Butlin #245, dating the work to c. 1790-93. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York, where the drawing was sold on 25 Jan. to Maurice Sendak. Clearly, the sleeping female reclines, and the alert male sits, on two separate lilies, not the single “lily” of the title first given to the work by William Michael Rossetti in his catalogue of Blake’s drawings and paintings in Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake (London: Macmillan, 1863) 2: 237, #213. A third, unopened flower rises above the female figure. Rossetti’s association of the design with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems reasonable. As Sotheby’s cataloguer points out, the nearest point of textual contact is in act 2, scene 2, when Oberon “has just sprinkled her [Titania’s] eyes with a potion that will cause her to fall in love with the first living creature she sees when she awakes.” There are many references to flowers, including one to “lily lips,” throughout the play, but there is no indication in this or any other scene that the king and queen of the fairies rest on flowers. Additional evidence supporting Rossetti’s title is provided by the similarity between the two figures and Oberon and Titania in Oberon, Titania, and Puck with Fairies Dancing (Butlin #161, dating the work to c. 1785), a design firmly connected with Shakespeare’s text. Oberon also wears a crown and a cloak, the latter fastened at the shoulder with a brooch, and holds a scepter in Oberon and Titania, Preceded by Puck (Butlin #246, dating the work to c. 1790-93). I suspect that most viewers will perceive the figures in the watercolor reproduced here as diminutive fairies resting on flowers of normal size, but Blake’s many transformations in perspective, from the minute to the cosmic, might also warrant our seeing the figures as humans in a world of gigantic plants.

Oberon and Titania on a Lily is William Blake’s variation on a design first executed by his brother Robert in the notebook they both used (Butlin #201.5[13]). In Robert’s pen and wash drawing, a man and woman, both probably crowned and neither asleep, recline on a poppy. A ring of hand-holding figures, hovering beneath a partly opened flower above and behind the couple, is probably a portrayal of the “roundel” of Titania’s attendants at the beginning of act 2, scene 2 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The relationship between poppies and sleep, such as Titania’s in act 2, scene 2, is a long-standing convention. The iconographic significance of William’s shift to lilies—traditional emblems of purity, the Virgin Mary, and the Bourbon monarchy of France—is not easily deciphered. A slightly altered version of William’s watercolor, reversed, appears as a full-pl. design in The Song of Los. That literary context offers little assistance to the interpreter. Perhaps the closest point of contact with the text of The Song of Los is the “valleys of delight” from which “Antamon call’d up Leutha” (E 67). In Europe a Prophecy, Antamon is “prince of the pearly dew” and Leutha the “Soft soul of flowers” (E 65); the latter is also intimately associated with flowers and female sexuality in Visions of the Daughters of Albion. Whatever the composition’s symbolic import, its connection with his beloved brother may have been its main attraction for William.

Blake’s method of composing pls. for his illuminated books did not require detailed preliminary drawings. Thus, it is highly unlikely that this watercolor was executed as part of the production of The Song of Los, dated 1795 on its title page. Butlin’s dating of the watercolor to c. 1790-93 suggests as much, and also implies that the design’s meaning in the context of the illuminated book may not be relevant to the watercolor. I see nothing in the style of the drawing, and in particular the rather careless handling of Oberon’s face, to prohibit an even earlier date than Butlin’s, closer to the execution of Robert’s version or his death in 1787. The figures in Oberon and Titania, Preceded by Puck are particularly crude and thus would warrant a date much earlier than Butlin’s c. 1790-93. Perhaps William and Robert began to work together in the early- or mid-1780s on images inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

10. Tiriel Led by Hela.   Pen and gray washes over pencil, 17.8 × 26.9 cm., datable to c. 1788. Butlin #198.10, then in the collection of Mrs. Louise Y. Kain, Louisville, Kentucky. The vendor at SL on 23 Nov., listed as a “Family,” probably inherited the work from Mrs. Kain. One of 12 finished illustrations to Blake’s poem Tiriel, and 1 of only 3 remaining in private hands (3 are untraced since 1863 when the entire group was dispersed at auction). Tiriel’s daughter, Hela, leads her blind father through a wooded but open landscape. Tiriel’s curse has caused some of Hela’s hair to turn into snakes that spring from the top of her head. Like all the finished Tiriel designs, this example was very probably prepared as a preliminary for an intaglio etching/engraving never executed. Blake may have had in mind for his illustrated poem a format similar to the one he describes at the end of the Island in the Moon manuscript: “Then said he I would have all the writing Engraved instead of Printed & at every other leaf a high finishd print . . .” (E 465).^[e]

“The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour,” SP impression 2L. Sold July by John Windle and Maggs Bros. to a British private collector.

“Morning Amusement” and “Evening Amusement,” the pair, Blake after Watteau. CL, 20 Sept., #17, 2^nd sts., printed in brown, “touches of hand-colouring in blue and rose,” margins (including the imprints) folded over the backing cards, margins water stained, other minor defects, folded portions in very poor condition, “Evening Amusement” illus. color (not sold; estimate £800-1200). Acquired immediately after the sale by John Windle for stock; offered in Windle’s Nov. cat. 42, #90, restored, “Evening Amusement” illus. ($7500 the pair).

“M^rs Q,” Blake after Villiers. EB, Jan., framed, poorly illus. color ($202.50); Jan., stained, illus. color (offered only at the “buy it now” price of £240). Either or both of these prints may be the convincing lithographic reproduction of 1906.

Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, Including Prints Extracted from Such Books

Allen, History of England, 1798. John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #1-3, pls. 1, 3, 4 only, offered individually, illus. ($350 each).

Allen, Roman History, 1798. John Windle, Aug. private offer, pl. 1 only, a prepublication proof (acquired by Robert Essick). For details, see Appendix: William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations.

Ariosto, Orlando Furioso. Grant & Shaw, Dec. 2005 cat. 68, #3, 1783 ed., 5 vols., contemporary calf, joints repaired (£325). EB, Dec. 2005-Jan., 1785 ed., 5 vols., slight browning of the pls., contemporary calf, illus. color ($346.87); June, 1783 ed., vol. 3 (with Blake’s pl.) only, contemporary calf worn, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $499.99); same copy, Oct., offered only at the “buy it now” price of $499.99; June-July, 1799 ed., 5 vols., some browning, contemporary calf very worn, some covers loose, illus. color ($136.50); Sept., same copy(?), but now with modern calf spines and labels, illus. color ($306); Oct., 1785 ed., 5 vols., a few leaves loose, contemporary calf very worn, some covers detached, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $195). Bernard begin page 131 | ↑ back to top Shapero, Oct. online cat., 1783 ed., 5 vols., contemporary calf ($1680). North American Rarities, Oct. online cat., 1785 ed., 5 vols., full calf worn ($700). James Cummins, Oct. online cat., 1799 ed., 5 vols., contemporary calf worn ($600). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #4, Blake’s pl. only, 2^nd st., illus. ($200).

Bible, The Royal Universal Family Bible, 1780. Victoria Bookshop, Oct. online cat., apparently vol. 1 only, “leather . . . boards detached” (£205). Only 1 of Blake’s 5 pls. is in vol. 1.

Blair, The Grave, colored copies. John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #5, pl. 1 (title page) only, 1^st published st. from the 1808 folio issue, tinted with watercolors, illus. (price on request). The hand coloring shows some skill on the descending figure, but amateurish carelessness in the coloring of the flames. This colorist would not seem to be the same as the artist who colored all the Blake pls. in a copy of the 1808 quarto issue now in the Huntington Library.

Blair, The Grave, uncolored copies. EB, Dec. 2005, 1813 quarto, browning or foxing on some pls., particularly the engraved title page, near-contemporary quarter calf, illus. color ($787.99). Skinner auction, Boston, 7 Jan., #699, pl. 12 only, 1813 imprint, foxed and stained, illus. color online ($300). Book Alley, Jan. private offer, 1870 ed., publisher’s cloth, hinges worn ($800). James Cummins, March cat. 95, #64, 1813 quarto, some slight foxing on pls., half calf, illus. ($2000). EB, April, pl. 9 only, 1813 imprint, illus. color (£49.99). BA, 15 June, #517, 1808 quarto, a few pls. foxed, no description of the binding, illus. color (£714). Thomas Goldwasser, June private offer, 1808 quarto, uncut in original boards with cover label, recased with new endpapers ($5000). Jeffrey Stern, Oct. online cat., 1808 quarto, slight foxing, uncut in original boards with cover label, engraved portrait of Schiavonetti by Cardon inserted (£1450). Lipper Books, Oct. online cat., 1808 quarto, some foxing and darkening of pl. margins, contemporary calf restored ($2496). Contact Editions, Oct., probably the 1870 folio, damp staining, publisher’s cloth worn ($1350). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #6, pl. 5 only from the [1870] ed., “margins slightly soiled and worn,” illus. ($275). EB, Nov.-Dec., pl. 8 only, 1813 imprint, illus. color ($100).

Bonnycastle, Introduction to Mensuration, 1794. Acorn Bookshop, April online cat., full calf worn ($125).

Boydell, Graphic Illustrations of . . . Shakspeare, c. 1803. EB, Jan.-Feb., with “nearly 100 Fine Engravings,” no mention of Blake’s pl. but presumably present, margins of pls. water stained, no description of binding other than “cover is quite tatty,” illus. color (£102—plus £50 for shipping if destined for the United States). Eveleigh Books, Oct. online cat., slight foxing and damp staining, “original boards” rebacked ($3324.09).

Bryant, New System . . . of Ancient Mythology. Richard Smith, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed., 1774-76, 3 vols., light foxing and browning, modern half calf (£630). The Bookshop (Chapel Hill, NC), Oct. online cat., 1^st ed., 1774-76, 3 vols., scattered foxing, calf very worn ($850). Hoffman’s Bookshop, Oct. online cat., 2^nd ed., 1775-76, 3 vols., modern buckram ($650).

Cumberland, Thoughts on Outline, 1796. John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #8-14, pls. 1-5, 7-8 only, offered individually, pls. 7-8 with stains, illus. (from $350 to $550).

Darwin, Botanic Garden. Grant & Shaw, May cat. 70, #48, 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 1^st ed. of Part 2 (1789), 2 vols. in 1, pls. foxed and some trimmed into, contemporary calf, hinges repaired (£2750); another copy, Sept. cat. 71, 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 4^th ed. of Part 2 (1794), foxed, contemporary quarter morocco worn (£600). Lyon & Turnbull auction, Edinburgh, 11 July, #1345, 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 4^th ed. of Part 2 (1794), 2 vols. in 1, foxed, contemporary quarter morocco worn, binding illus. color online (£269.50). Hordern House, Oct. online cat., apparently 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), no indication for Part 2, 2 vols. in 1, light foxing, contemporary calf ($5026). Thomas Macaluso, Oct. online cat., 3^rd ed. of Part 1 (1795), 3^rd ed. of Part 2 (1791), 2 vols. in 1, slight foxing, boards rebacked with calf ($1350). ASP Art & Science Projects, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 2^nd ed. of Part 2 (1790), 2 vols., moderate foxing, half calf (£1200). Second Time Around, Oct. online cat., 2^nd ed. of Part 1 (1791), 4^th ed. of Part 2 (1794), 2 vols. in 1, lacking 1 (non-Blake) pl., contemporary calf rebacked (£800). Barter Books, Oct. online cat., 3^rd ed. of Part 1 (1795), no indication for Part 2, 2 vols. in 1, some browning, “leather” worn (£720). Peter Grosell, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 3^rd ed. of Part 2 (1791), lacking subtitle to Part 1, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf worn ($868). Gaston Renard, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 3^rd ed. of Part 2 (1791), 2 vols. in 1, light foxing, contemporary Russia ($12,257—a record asking price). Argosy Book Store, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed. of Part 1 (1791), 2^nd ed. of Part 2 (1790), 2 vols. in 1, scattered foxing, modern three-quarter morocco ($1500). EB, Oct., 1799 ed., apparently Part 1 only, “an excellent candidate for repair or re-binding” (i.e., a wreck), illus. color (£103). For a preliminary drawing for the frontispiece to Part 1 (“The Economy of Vegetation”) of The Botanic Garden, engraved by Anker Smith, see Flora Surrounded by the Four Elements under Fuseli, below.

Earle, Practical Observations on the Operation for the Stone, 1793. Staniland Booksellers, Sept. online cat., pls. browned and stained, original boards uncut, rebacked with paper (£245). The 1^st copy to come on the market since 1990.

Enfield, The Speaker, 1781. John Windle, Oct. online cat., contemporary calf worn ($678.50).

Flaxman, Classical Compositions, 1870. Heritage Book Shop, Oct. online cat., contemporary morocco worn ($1500); same copy and price, Dec. cat., #120.

Flaxman, Hesiod designs, 1817. EB, Feb., bound with Flaxman’s designs for the Iliad (1805), Odyssey (1805), and Aeschylus (1831), presentation inscription dated 1864, 19^th-century calf worn, illus. color ($999). BA, 24 Aug., #460, with Flaxman’s designs for the Iliad (1793), Odyssey (1793), and Aeschylus (1795), all foxed, uniformly bound in contemporary calf very worn, some covers detached (£520). W. Hornby, Oct. online cat., foxed, quarter calf worn (£350). Sotheby’s Devon, 24 Oct., #291, cloth, with “twenty-five facsimiles of drawings by Flaxman, selected by J. H. Foley, RA privately printed (50 copies only) 1863” (£168).

Flaxman, Iliad designs, 1805. EB, March-April, Blake’s pl. 1 only, water stained in upper margin, illus. color ($18.63). PBA, 29 June, #111, bound with Flaxman’s designs for the Odyssey (1805) and Aeschylus (1795), foxed and damp stained, later quarter calf very worn, front cover detached, illus. (not sold; estimate $800-1200). Lyon & Turnbull auction, Edinburgh, 11 July, #1013, bound with Flaxman’s designs for the Odyssey (1805) and Aeschylus (date not recorded but possibly the c. 1818 ed.), foxed, half calf very worn, illus. color online (£98). EB, July, apparently bound with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs (1805), foxed, heavily on some pls., 19^th-century quarter calf worn, illus. color ($102.50). See also Flaxman, Hesiod designs, above.

Gay, Fables, 1793. EB, Jan., 2 vols., described as lacking the pl. for fable 17 in vol. 2, but no pl. was published for that concluding fable, contemporary calf worn, illus. color (£243); another copy, 2 vols., contemporary calf very worn, parts of backstrips missing, covers loose, illus. color ($212.50). BA, 5 Oct., #115, 2 vols., foxed and browned, contemporary calf rebacked, worn (£180); #116, foxed and browned, contemporary morocco worn (£110). Heritage Book Shop, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., half calf ($1250). Staniland Booksellers, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., small water stains, modern half morocco (£600). Wittenborn Art Books, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., contemporary quarter calf ($1100). Truepenny Books, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., full calf ($825). Thornton’s Bookshop, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., contemporary calf (£250). Hermitage Bookshop, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., full calf worn ($1250). A Book By Its Cover, Oct. online cat., 2 vols. in 1, light foxing, “leather-bound” ($1200). Sanctuary Books, Oct. online cat., 2 vols. in 1, scattered foxing, contemporary sheep worn ($750). Argosy Book Store, Oct. online cat., 2 vols., contemporary calf worn ($1200).

Hayley, Ballads, 1805. Ursus Books, April online cat., sts. of the pls. not recorded, later morocco ($2250).

Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803-04. EB, Dec. 2005, pl. 2 only, st. uncertain but probably 2^nd, imprint trimmed off, illus. color (£19.50); pl. 3 only, 2^nd st., imprint trimmed off, slight foxing, illus. color (£62); Dec. 2005-Jan., pl. 1 only, title and imprint trimmed off, st. not identifiable, illus. ($129); another impression, with title and imprint, st. not identifiable, illus. color (£19.99). Lyon & Turnbull auction, Edinburgh, 11 July, #1225, 2^nd ed., 3 vols., foxed, contemporary half calf worn, with The Private Correspondence of William Cowper, 1824, 2 vols., bindings illus. color online (£98). Second Life Books, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed., 3 vols., light foxing, contemporary calf rebacked ($1100). Aquila Books, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed., 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked ($500).

Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. PBA, 17 Aug., #35, imprint trimmed off Blake’s pl., some soiling, later half morocco worn, illus. color online ($175). Heritage Book Shop, Oct. online cat., contemporary calf ($1350). Powell’s Books, Oct. online cat., contemporary calf very worn, damaged ($500). James Fenning, Oct. online cat., slight foxing, half morocco (£650). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #27, Blake’s pl. only, illus. ($450).

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803. Grant & Shaw, Feb. cat. 69, #40, apparently the small-paper issue, pls. foxed, contemporary calf rebacked (£395). EB, Sept., small-paper issue, some foxing, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of £175). James Fenning, Sept. cat. 231, #117, small-paper issue, contemporary calf (£450). Bohemian Bookworm, apparently small-paper issue, pls. offset, no information on binding ($850). EB, Oct., contemporary calf rebacked, slight foxing on pls., illus. color (£139). BA, 16 Nov., #375, large-paper issue, some foxing, A. E. Newton’s bookplate, uncut in original boards rebacked and worn, later slipcase, illus. color (£420). See also Lavater, Aphorisms, below.

Hoare, Inquiry, 1806. Sims Reed, March cat. of “British Illustrated Books,” #49, half cloth (£285).

Hogarth, The Beggar’s Opera by Hogarth and Blake, 1965. John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #28, original folding case “slightly worn,” illus. ($975).

Hogarth, Works. Sims Reed, Feb. cat. of “Sixty Books,” #11, undated Boydell issue of “c. 1790,” 107 pls., no mention of Blake’s pl. but presumably with the 2^nd or 3^rd st., contemporary calf repaired (£9000); same copy and price, March cat. of “British Illustrated Books,” #51. EB, Feb., Blake’s pl. only, probably 5^th st., slight foxing in the top margin, water stained along the lower edge, illus. color (a bargain at £14.99). CSK, 6 June, #69, 1822 ed., water stained, a few tears, contemporary half roan very worn, covers detached (£720).

Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793. CSK, 13 April, #187, quarto issue, later quarter roan worn (£840). Grant & Shaw, May cat. 70, #83, quarto issue, later half calf (£3200). Peter Harrington, Oct. online cat., quarto issue, occasional foxing, recent calf (£4750). Time Booksellers, Oct. online cat., quarto issue, recent calf ($5855). James Cummins, Oct. online cat., quarto issue, contemporary calf rebacked ($4250). St. Mary’s Books & Prints, Oct. online cat., octavo issue, minor soiling, begin page 133 | ↑ back to top contemporary calf worn (£1800). Berkelouw, Oct. online cat., octavo issue, modern half calf ($2674).

Josephus, Works. EB, April, issue “E” in BB, scattered foxing, contemporary calf worn, nicely rebacked, illus. color (£160). Swann, 24 April, #150, issue “B” in BB, some stains and browning, marginal foxing on pls., contemporary calf worn ($550). EB, July, issue “E” in BB, contemporary calf worn, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $775); probably the same copy, Sept., same result. Second Story Books, Oct. online cat., possibly issue “A” in BB, some foxing, contemporary calf rebacked, “leather slipcase” worn ($2000).

Lavater, Aphorisms. EB, Feb., 1789 ed., 1^st st. of the pl., contemporary calf very worn, half of spine missing, illus. color (£37). SL, 13 July, #435, 1794 ed., st. of the pl. not recorded, contemporary calf very worn, head of spine missing; with Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803 ed., contemporary calf rebacked, and Salzmann, Elements of Morality, 1792 ed., 3 vols., lacking 3 leaves of text and 2 pls., spotting and browning, contemporary calf very worn (£240).

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy. EB, Jan., pl. 2 only, foxed, illus. color (£28). Ursus Books, April online cat., 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, later three-quarter morocco, illus. color ($3500). Gallery at Knotty Pine auction, West Swanzey, New Hampshire, 27 May, #2090, 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, 19^th-century quarter calf worn, illus. color online ($300). Thomas Goldwasser, June online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, half morocco very worn, spines damaged and covers detached ($1250). EB, July, pl. 2 only, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $199). Antiquariat Nikolaus Weissert, Oct. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary calf restored ($3762). Abbey Antiquarian Books, Oct. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, later half calf worn (£1705). John Gatch, Oct. online cat., 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, marbled boards with new “leather spines” ($2750). B & L Rootenberg, Oct. online cat., vols. 1-2 (1789, 1792), vol. 3 (1810), 3 vols. in 5, minor foxing, contemporary calf ($2750). Austwick Hall Books, Oct. online cat., 1789-98 ed., number of vols. not given, boards rebacked (£1400). Asher Rare Books, Oct. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, 19^th-century calf ($2460). Thomas Goldwasser, Oct. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, leaves uncut, three-quarter morocco very worn, spines defective and covers detached ($1289). Wittenborn Art Books, Oct. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary calf ($950). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #55-58, Blake’s 4 pls., offered individually, illus. (from $125 to $200).

Malkin, A Father’s Memoirs of His Child, 1806. Frontispiece only, designed in part by Blake, a proof before all letters intermediate between the 2 previously recorded proof sts., acquired July by David Bindman from a print stall on Portobello Road, London. The central portrait medallion corresponds to the image in the 1^st proof st., but the surrounding design corresponds to the 2^nd proof st. (design finished, but lacking all letters). For the previously recorded proofs and information on the engravers who worked on the pl., see Blake 34.4 (spring 2001): 120 (illus. 5, 6), 126-27. Johnnycake Books, Oct. online cat., foxed, original boards heavily soiled and worn, 2 impressions of Blake’s pl., presentation inscription by Malkin to “M and L Ellis” ($1575). Holybourne Books, Oct. online cat., uncut, later cloth worn (£275).

Novelist’s Magazine. Adrian Harrington, Oct. online cat., vol. 8 only, 1782, contemporary roan worn (£350). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #59, vol. 9, pl. 2 only, 1^st st., illus. ($100); #60, vol. 8, Blake’s 2 pls. only, pl. 1 trimmed to the image (1^st st.), pl. 2 full leaf (2^nd st.), illus. ($150 the pair); #61, vol. 8, pl. 2 only, 2^nd st., illus. ($100); #62-66, vol. 10, Blake’s 3 pls. only, offered individually, 3 impressions of pl. 3 (1 trimmed to image), all 1^st st., illus. (from $75 to $100); #67, vol. 9, pl. 3 only, 1^st st., illus. ($100); #68, vol. 9, pl. 1 only, 1^st st., illus. ($100).

Olivier, Fencing Familiarized, 1780. Second Life Books, Oct. online cat., later calf rebacked, worn ($1368). Roger Middleton, Oct. online cat., rebound in “leather” (£525). John Price, Dec. cat., #86, recent pigskin (£950).

Rees, The Cyclopædia, 1820. CSK, 16 March, #421, “46” (an error for 45?) vols. including all pls. vols., some browning, contemporary half calf worn (£2880; estimate £800-1200).

Remember Me!, [1824] for 1825. SNY, 12 Dec., #41, publisher’s calf, lacking some pls., Blake’s pl. illus. color ($10,200 to John Windle for stock; estimate $3500-5000). The auction cat. failed to point out that this copy lacks 1 leaf of text.

Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. EB, April, vols. 1-2 of 3 only, contemporary calf very worn, illus. color (£107.55); same copy?, Sept., illus. color ($127.50). Bonhams auction, Oxford, 6 June, #885, 3 vols., contemporary calf worn, covers detached (£47); #886, 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked (£141). Galerie Bassenge auction, Berlin, 12 Oct., #1194, 3 vols., contemporary calf worn, illus. color online (no bids on a required minimum bid of €400). Travis & Emery Music Bookshop, Oct. online cat., 3 vols., recent quarter leather (£386). Kenneth Karmiole, Oct. online cat., 3 vols., contemporary calf worn ($1250). Argosy Book Store, Oct. online cat., 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked ($750). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #69-73, Blake’s pls. 1, 4, 6-8 only, offered individually, illus. ($75 each). Blake’s pls. are in vols. 1-2.

Salzmann, Elements of Morality, 1792. Adrian Greenwood, Oct. online cat., 3 vols., lacking 2 pls. (1 attributed to Blake), and pp. xiii-xiv, 9-16, some browning on pls., later calf, vols. 1-2 rebacked, front cover of vol. 3 loose (£295); same copy, EB, Oct., illus. color (£195). See also Lavater, Aphorisms, above.

Scott, Poetical Works, 1782. John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #74-75, Blake’s pls. 1 and 3 only, offered individually, illus. ($100 each).

Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802. SL, 13 July, #87, 9 vols., pls. spotted, contemporary Russia (£3360). Peter Harrington, Oct. online cat., 9 vols., scattered foxing, contemporary Russia rebacked in calf (£8750). Bookhouse, Oct. online cat., 9 vols., foxed, with a few annotations by the actor Henry Irving (1838-1905), three-quarter “leather” ($25,000).

Shakespeare, Plays, 1805. EB, Feb.-March, vol. 10 only, described as containing “engravings” and thus presumably including Blake’s pl. 2, pls. stained, contemporary calf very worn, illus. color (£0.99); Nov., 31 (of 37) pls. only, including Blake’s pl. 1, marginal stains, illus. color ($249).

Stedman, Narrative, colored copies. Reg and Philip Remington, July cat. 37, #91, 1806 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf rebacked (£8500). EB, Sept., pl. 9 only, hand colored (but not the publisher’s coloring) on the monkeys’ faces, stained and foxed, illus. color (£10.50). CL, 27 Sept., #71, 1806 ed., 2 vols., contemporary Russia rebacked, 2 pls. illus. color (£3840). EB, Oct., pl. 12 only, partly hand colored (not the publisher’s coloring), margins stained, illus. color (£7.95). The coloring in the copy sold CL is in the earlier of 2 styles, originally executed for the 1^st ed. of 1796. There seem to have been some remainder impressions bound into a few 1806 copies.

Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies. Peter Harrington, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1796 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf ($7875). The 19^th Century Shop, March cat. 110, p. 16 (no item #), 1796 ed., 2 vols., “one minor tear, one repair,” contemporary half calf, illus. color ($7000). BA, 24 May, #601, 1796 ed., 2 vols., some foxing, contemporary calf worn, rebacked, illus. color (£1190). CL, 7 June, #214, 1796 ed., 2 vols., 1 pl. torn, some imprints cropped, marginal foxing, contemporary half calf worn, illus. color (£1800). Christie’s Rome, 15 June, #495, 1796 ed., 2 vols., scattered foxing, later calf, illus. color (not sold; estimate €2000-3000). EB, July, 1813 ed., 2 vols., some pls. lightly foxed, contemporary quarter calf very worn, illus. color ($775). Krul Antiquarian Books, Oct. online cat., 1806 ed., 2 vols., some pls. browned, full calf ($7451). Antiquariaat Gert Jan Bestebreurtje, Oct. online cat., 1806 ed., 2 vols., later half calf ($5216). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #80-84, pls. 3, 4, 9, 11-12 only, offered individually, all from the 1813 ed., illus. (from $100 to $150).

Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, vols. 1-3, 1762-94. CNY, 15 Dec. 2005, #549, worm holes in vol. 2, browning and staining throughout, later half calf “broken,” illus. ($6600; estimate $2000-3000). SL, 9 May, #176, a few pls. with minor damage, contemporary Russia rubbed, binding illus. color (£10,200; estimate £3500-5000). Donald Heald, Oct. online cat., modern buckram ($17,500). Tim Bryars, Oct. online cat., with vol. 4 (1816), occasional spotting, modern half calf (£15,000). SL, 16 Nov., #198, 1 pl. torn, contemporary Russia worn, “covers becoming detached,” binding illus. color (£8400). Blake’s 4 pls. are in vol. 3.

Varley, Zodiacal Physiognomy, 1828. CL, 15 Nov., #153, pls. 2-3 in 1^st sts., corner repairs on a few leaves, with the “Balcarres” book label of the Earls of Crawford, later half morocco, original wrappers bound in, pl. 3 illus. color (£6000; estimate £2000-3000). The same copy was sold SL, 12 Dec. 2002, #246 (£2032 to Arthur Freeman).

Vetusta Monumenta, c. 1789. Hugh Pagan, June cat. 55, #99, with the Ayloffe essay, 19^th-century boards rebacked (£850).

Virgil, Pastorals, 1821. CL, 29 March, #57, 16 of the 17 wood engravings designed and executed by Blake, lacking the 1^st engraving, so-called “Linnell impressions” printed after publication in the 1821 book, each on a separate leaf of thin wove paper, some slight staining and other minor defects, in 4 frames, illus. color (£3600). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #88, Blake’s 6^th wood engraving only, with a copy of Essick, A Troubled Paradise, 1999, 1 of 13 deluxe copies, cloth box, illus. ($3500).

Virgil, The Wood Engravings of William Blake for Thornton’s Virgil, 1977. Larkhall Fine Art, June online cat., publisher’s box, prospectus laid in, from the collection of Raymond Lister, illus. (£3200). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #89, publisher’s box, illus. ($6500).

Whitaker, The Seraph. EB, Sept., vol. 2 (with the pl. after Blake’s design) only, issue “A” in BB, dated to c. 1818-28, contemporary quarter calf very worn, backstrip missing, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $75). John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #91, the pl. after Blake’s design only, 2^nd st., from issue “C” in BB, dated to c. 1825-28, illus. ($125).

Wit’s Magazine, 1784. John Windle, Nov. cat. 42, #92-93, pls. 4-5 (pls. 3-4 in CB) only, offered individually, illus. ($400 each).

Wollstonecraft, Original Stories, 1791. Phillip Pirages, cat. for the Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, #153, 2^nd sts. of the pls., modern calf ($5500).

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797, uncolored copies. Maggs, Dec. 2005 cat. 1384, #290, with the “Explanation” leaf, a few marginal tears repaired, “a very good and unusually generously-margined copy in twentieth century brown half morocco with brown cloth sides by Riviere & Son,” top edge gilt, others uncut (£5000). Gateway Galleries, Jan. online cat., “excellent margins,” with the “Explanation” leaf, contemporary or near-contemporary vellum, illus. color ($18,500). Bonhams & Butterfields auction, San Francisco and Los Angeles, 19 Feb., #1056, lacking the “Explanation” leaf, “some mild offsetting, . . . partially untrimmed,” modern half calf, illus. color ($7170). Sims Reed, March cat. of “British Illustrated Books,” #9, no mention of the “Explanation” leaf (because not present?), recent half morocco, illus. color (£7000). Heritage Book Shop, April cat. for the New York Book Fair, p. 1 (no entry #), no mention of the “Explanation” leaf, half morocco, “an exceptionally nice copy” ($10,000); begin page 135 | ↑ back to top same copy and price, Oct. cat. 219, #32, now described as containing the “Explanation” leaf, top edge gilt, others uncut, illus. color. Sotheby’s Paris, 11 Oct., #64, no mention of the “Explanation” leaf, no description of condition, “binding by Zaehnsdorf,” illus. color (not sold; estimate €6000-8000).

Interesting Blakeana

J. Meyer, miniature portrait of William Hayley. Oval, 5.1 cm. high, datable to c. 1765 (when Hayley was 20 years old). Judy & Brian Harden, as advertised and illus. color in Country Life (1 Dec. 2005): [32], “in the original gold locket” (not priced). Jeremiah Meyer’s son, William, apparently helped Blake learn miniature portraiture—see William Hayley’s letter to George Romney of 21 April 1801 (BR[2] 106-07).

J. Basire (Blake’s engraving master), “The Encampment of the English Forces near Portsmouth,” 63.0 × 190.5 cm., published 1778. CSK, 3 Oct., #261, illus. color (£1200; estimate £600-800). One of the large panoramic prints engraved in Basire’s shop during Blake’s apprenticeship that may have influenced the format of his “Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims” (30.6 × 94.9 cm.) years later.

J. and A. Taylor, City Scenes, 1818. Hobbyhorse Books, Sept. cat. 48, #222, quarter roan worn ($450). Contains Blake’s “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence, illus. with an engraving which, although showing the children being led out of the church by beadles, is not directly related to Blake’s design.

Old Wyldes, the house where John Linnell lived, 1824-28, then known as Collins’ Farm and frequently visited by Blake (see, e.g., BR[2] 395-96, 448; E 775, 779, 780, 785). North End, Hampstead, London NW3. Listed grade II*, in excellent order, much of the original timber framing of c. 1593 intact, 5 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen/breakfast room, secure parking for several cars, “large stunning gardens.” Offered by Goldschmidt & Howland property company, Hampstead Village office, web site <http://www.g-h.co.uk/> accessed March, illus. color (guide price £2,750,000 for the leasehold).

G. Cumberland, An Essay on the Utility of Collecting the Best Works of the Ancient Engravers of the Italian School, 1827. E. M. Lawson, Feb. cat. 316, #29, light foxing, original boards with hinges repaired (£165). Cumberland records in his notebook that he “Lent Blake [his] Catalogue to read” in November 1823 (BR[2] 388).

J. T. Smith, Nollekens and His Times. EB, Jan., 1829 ed., 2 vols., contemporary quarter calf very worn, spine missing and covers loose, illus. color ($0.95); Feb., 1828 ed., 2 vols., later quarter calf very worn, some covers detached, illus. color ($57). E. M. Lawson, Feb. cat. 316, #30, 1828 ed., 2 vols., light foxing, contemporary half calf (£125). EB, Aug., 1828 ed., 2 vols., contemporary half calf worn, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of £59.99). Vol. 2 contains an important early biography of Blake; see BB #2723.

William Twopeny (or Twopenny, antiquary and barrister, 1797-1873), letter of 19 Nov. 1828 to John Thomas Smith asking “Can you tell me where the Widow of Blake the artist lives?” BH, 28 March, #105, included as part of an extra-illus. copy of Smith’s Nollekens and His Times, 1828, with “numerous prints, drawings,” and letters from Henry Fuseli, Thomas Frognall Dibdin, John Varley, Ozias Humphry, and others, “loose in bundles” (£3120; estimate £300-600).

A. Cunningham, Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters. EB, March, New York ed., 1835, 3 vols., publisher’s boards worn, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $19.95); May, New York ed., 1833, 3 vols., publisher’s boards worn, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $25.99); July, London ed., 1829-33, pls. foxed, later half calf, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of £165). Contains an important early biography of Blake.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Pickering ed., 1839 (1^st letterpress ed.). Manhattan Rare Book Company, April online cat. and advertisement in Rare Book Review 33.2 (April/May 2006): [14], issue without “The Little Vagabond,” full calf, binding illus. color ($8000). Even rebound copies are becoming pricey.

A. Gilchrist, Life of William Blake. Sims Reed, March cat. of “British Art Reference Books,” #150, 1863 ed., 2 vols., extra-illus., including 26 pls. by Blake, contemporary calf rebacked, publisher’s front covers bound in, illus. color (£1800). The same copy offered EB, Nov. 2003 (not sold) and Feb.-March 2004 (not sold)—see Blake 37.4 (spring 2004): 127 for a list of the added pls. The 19^th Century Shop, March cat. 110, p. 16 (no item #), 1880 ed., 2 vols., publisher’s cloth and dust jackets, “we have never seen or heard of another example in the original dust jackets,” jackets with minor tears, illus. color ($7500—an extraordinary asking price). At least 1 other copy with the dust jackets has been recorded—see Blake 24.1 (summer 1990): 231.

W. Blake, Poems of, ed. R. H. Shepherd, published by Pickering, 1874. John Hart, March cat. 14, #44, with a presentation inscription from the editor to John Ruskin dated 6 Aug. 1874, publisher’s cloth (£450).

B. M. Pickering, William Blake and His Editors, 1874. Charles Cox, Aug. cat. 53, #48, inserted in a copy of the 1874 Pickering ed. of Blake’s Poems, publisher’s later blue cloth stamped “Pickering & Chatto” on the spine (£85). Pickering’s 4-page pamphlet criticizing the Rossetti brothers’ editorial methods begin page 136 | ↑ back to top (see next entry) is rare; I have seen only 2 other copies on the market in the last 35 years.

Blake, Poetical Works, ed. W. M. Rossetti, 1874. Charles Cox, Aug. cat. 53, #49, publisher’s cloth, presentation inscription by Rossetti dated 1875 to “the mountaineer Charles Edward Mathew” (the uncommon 1^st issue, but aggressively priced at £180—because of the mountaineering connection?).

Hamilton Palace Libraries, the collection of William Beckford, auction cats., Sotheby’s, 1882-83. Forest Books, Jan. cat. 105, #21, 1^st through 4^th parts in 1 vol., contemporary quarter morocco repaired (£375). Important works by Blake were sold as lots 950-57 in the 1^st part and as lot 764 in the supplement to the 4^th part.

W. Muir facsimiles of Blake’s illuminated books and prints. EB, Dec. 2005, “The Ancient of Days” or “The Act of Creation,” c. 1885, watercolor without a lithographic base and thus without printed framing lines, leaf 30.5 × 25.0 cm. pasted to a backing mat, Muir’s signature and number (if ever present) trimmed off, matted close to the image, framed and glazed, illus. color (£47 to Robert Essick). Book Alley, Jan. private offer, There is No Natural Religion (1886) bound with On Homers Poetry [and] On Virgil (1886), modern cloth, original wrappers not retained ($1450). See comments on “The Ancient of Days” in the appendix.

The Rowfant Library. A Catalogue of the Printed Books, . . . Drawings and Pictures, Collected by Frederick Locker-Lampson, 1886. Forest Books, May cat. 106, #285, with the Appendix of 1900, 2 vols., original quarter morocco rubbed (£295). Important works by Blake are listed in the 1886 vol., pp. 138-41; the 1900 vol. lists a few engravings by Blake, p. 180.

W. Blake, Illustrations of Milton’s Comus, 8 chromolithographs by W. Griggs, published by Quaritch, 1890. BA, 20 July, #13, modern quarter morocco, original wrappers bound in (£360). Rare, and getting expensive.

W. Blake, Blake His Songs of Innocence, printed by H. Daniel, Oxford, 1893. William & Nina Matheson, Feb. cat. 13, #31, 1 of 100 copies, original wrappers worn ($700).

W. B. Yeats, ed., The Poems of William Blake, 1893. James Jaffe, July cat., #11, large-paper issue, light foxing to frontispiece and title page, publisher’s quarter vellum, covers “a bit dust-soiled” ($2250). A new record asking price.

The Savoy, 1896. James Cummins, March cat. 95, #61, 8 issues in 3 vols., publisher’s boards (issues 1-2) and wrappers (issues 3-8), a complete run ($3500). Sims Reed, March cat. of “British Illustrated Books,” #215, 8 issues (in 3 vols.?), “original boards or wrappers,” a complete run, illus. color (£2000). Issues 3-5 contain W. B. Yeats’ essay, “William Blake and His Illustrations to the Divine Comedy” (BB #3051A).

W. Blake, Ausgewählte Dichtungen, translated by Adolf Knoblauch, Berlin: Oesterheld & Co., 1907. CNY, 28 June, #680, 2 vols., “bound by the Wiener Werkstatte Bindery in tanned frog skin,” cover illus. color ($7800; estimate $2000-3000). A record price for a translation of Blake’s writings, although the binding was the crucial factor.

J. R. Smith, A Complete Catalogue of Plates Published by Him. A Facsimile of the Only Copy Known, 1914. Sims Reed, March cat. of “British Illustrated Books,” #399, half morocco, illus. color (£425). Items 195-96 in Smith’s cat. (of c. 1800?) are “Industrious Cottager” and “The Idle Laundress,” engraved by Blake after Morland.

William Blake’s Illustrations to the Pastorals of Virgil. Platinotype enlargements by Frederick H. Evans, [London], 1919. Larkhall Fine Art, Sept. private offer, signed by Evans, 1 of 12 copies, from the collection of Raymond Lister, original portfolio (£850).

The Writings of William Blake, ed. Keynes, 1925. Collinge & Clark, summer cat. 29, #226, 3 vols. in 1, Oxford India paper issue, inscribed by Francis Meynell of the Nonesuch P, “Out of series, for the file of N.P.” Full morocco, spine slightly darkened (£850). In the view of many, the handsomest letterpress ed. of Blake ever produced.

L. Binyon, manuscript of an unpublished lecture titled “William Blake; Painter, Poet, Seer.” James Cummins, Nov. cat. 97, #10, written out by Binyon’s wife, Cicily, and signed by Binyon. Rectos only of 19 leaves, approx. 5000 words, dated by Cummins to c. 1932-35. Housed in a cloth slipcase, 1^st page illus. ($2000). Formerly thought to be autographic, this manuscript has been in Cummins’ stock for about a decade.

L. Powys, The Book of Days, illus. by Elizabeth Corsellis, Golden Cockerel P, 1937. BA, 9 June, #199, with an extra set of the etched pls., publisher’s morocco, 1 pl. illus. color (£238). The illus. were clearly influenced by Samuel Palmer’s Shoreham period work.

Jerusalem, Trianon P/Blake Trust facsimile of copy E, 1951. BA, 11 Nov., #475, “publisher’s dummy or specimen copy,” 48 of 100 pls. only, publisher’s wrappers and folding case, “with a companion volume to one of the Trianon Press editions” (£420).

L. Baskin, “Portrait of William Blake,” wood engraving, 1964. EB, Dec. 2005, signed by Baskin in pencil, illus. color ($224.72); Jan., another impression, signed by Baskin in pencil, illus. color ($152.50); Feb., another impression, signed by begin page 137 | ↑ back to top Baskin in pencil, illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $120); Feb., same impression ($120). This portrait was published in Baskin’s ed. of A Letter from William Blake, 1964. I have not recorded further EB sales of this print, all from the same California vendor who appears to have a near-inexhaustible supply. Or is the vendor buying the same impression from himself to give the appearance of sales at good prices?

W. Blake, Poems from William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, illus. Maurice Sendak, 1967. Jo Ann Reisler, Jan. cat. 73, #450, original wrappers, illus. color ($4500).

Francis Bacon (British artist, 1909-92), William Blake. Color lithograph, 1991, signed and numbered 178 of 180. CL, 10 Feb., #451, illus. color (£8400; estimate £1500-2500). The auction cat. claims that this portrait is based on Blake’s life mask, but there is only a slight similarity between the two. The cat. also quotes Bacon as follows: “I do find that his [Blake’s] poetry is better than his painting or drawing, which I really don’t like at all. . . . I loathe his mystical side. . . . I don’t like anything which comes too close to Religion.”

Miniature blank book, 1.9 × 1.3 cm., probably produced 2005, the cover and spine reproducing the decorations on Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 1880 (but lacking the vol. number on the spine). EB, March, illus. color (offered only at the “buy it now” price of $6).

Blake’s Circle and Followers

Works are listed under artists’ names in the following order: paintings and drawings sold in groups, single paintings and drawings, letters and manuscripts, separate plates, books by (or with plates by or after) the artist.

PALMER, SAMUEL

Crossing the Common—Sunset. Watercolor, 18.4 × 40.6 cm., datable to 1848. Lowell Libson, Sept. cat. “Of the Moment,” #39, illus. color ($85,000).

Dolbadarn Castle, Llanberis, North Wales. Watercolor, 34.8 × 47.0 cm., datable to c. 1835-36. W/S Fine Art, June cat., #45, illus. color (£55,000). Previously offered Agnew’s, 128^th Annual Exhibition of English Watercolours and Drawings, March 2001, #93, illus. color (£75,000).

The Goatherd. Watercolor, lightly squared in pencil, 19.2 × 27.7 cm., date uncertain, but perhaps 1860s-70s. CL, 5 June, #58, from the collection of George Goyder, illus. color (£21,600). Previously offered CL, 3 June 2004, #72, illus. color (not sold; estimate £50,000-80,000).

Palmer, portrait of. See Portrait of Samuel Palmer under Richmond, below.

A Poet. Watercolor and body color, 19.5 × 42.0 cm., signed, datable to the early 1860s. SL, 7 June, #414, illus. color (£45,600). Previously sold SL, 9 April 1992, #115, illus. color (£33,000); previously offered SL, 29 Nov. 2001, #14, illus. color (not sold; estimate £40,000-60,000).

The Rising Moon. Pencil and watercolor with gum arabic, heightened with touches of body color, 32.5 × 70.8 cm., signed on the artist’s label pasted to the back of the original gilt-composition frame and inscribed “[Ri]sing Moon,” datable to c. 1857. CL, 5 June, #57, illus. color (£96,000 to John Windle acting for Robert Essick; estimate £40,000-60,000). See illus. 11-12.

A Sailing Vessel in a Squall off a Headland. Gray wash, 9.0 × 9.8 cm., datable to c. 1821. CL, 5 June, #29, from the collections of George Cumberland and George Goyder, illus. color (£7800; estimate £4000-6000). Previously offered CL, 3 June 2004, #73, illus. color (not sold; estimate £10,000-15,000).

The Shearers. Oil and tempera on panel, 51.5 × 71.2 cm., datable to c. 1833-34. Richard Nathanson, April private offer (price on application). One of Palmer’s finest paintings still in private hands. For a color illus. and discussion, see Samuel Palmer 1805-1881: Vision and Landscape, exhibition cat. by William Vaughan, Elizabeth E. Barker, and Colin Harrison (London: British Museum P, 2005) 160-61.

A View of Modern Rome during the Carnival. Watercolor, 40.6 × 57.2 cm., signed and dated 1838. Lowell Libson, May cat., #5, illus. color (not priced).

La Vocatella near Corpo di Cava in the Neighbourhood of Salerno and Naples. Watercolor, 26.8 × 37.5 cm., datable to 1838. SL, 23 Nov., #245, illus. color (not sold; estimate £20,000-30,000). Previously offered Agnew’s, Feb.-March 2002 “Watercolours and Drawings” cat., #53, with the dimensions given as 27.3 × 37.8 cm., illus. color (£30,000).

A Windmill near Pulborough, West Sussex. Watercolor, 12.0 × 16.3 cm., datable to c. 1851. Lowell Libson, May cat., #4, illus. color (not priced). Previously sold CL, 21 Nov. 2002, #31, illus. color (£6572).

“The Cypress Grove,” etching. EB, Aug., 2^nd st., illus. color (£205).

“The Early Ploughman,” etching. Swann, 12 Jan., #75, 5^th st., illus. color online ($700). EB, Feb., 5^th st., probably removed from P. G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers, 1868, illus. color ($610). C.G. Boerner, Feb. online cat., an unrecorded proof on heavy wove paper between sts. 1 and 2, leaf 29.0 × 42.1 cm., illus. (price on request). Rachel Davis Fine Arts auction, Cleveland, 17 June, #1458, st. not indicated but probably 5^th, illus. online ($720). Swann, 22 June, #83, 5^th st. ($550). EB, Sept., described as “final state” but probably 5^th, illus. color ($499.99).

“The Herdsman’s Cottage,” etching. Allinson Gallery, April online cat., 3^rd st. from the Portfolio, 1872, illus. ($850). EB, July, 3^rd st., illus. color (no bids on a required minimum bid of $749.99).

“Moeris and Galatea,” etching. EB, April, 2^nd st., full margins, illus. color (£250).

“The Morning of Life,” etching. Rachel Davis Fine Arts auction, Cleveland, 17 June, #1459, 7^th st., margins trimmed and with some stains, illus. online ($570). EB, Sept., 7^th st., illus. color ($651).

“Opening the Fold,” etching. EB, Sept., 8^th st., illus. color (£335).

“The Sepulchre,” etching. EB, Sept.-Oct., 2^nd st., illus. color (£185).

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11. Samuel Palmer.   The Rising Moon. Pencil and watercolor with gum arabic, heightened with touches of body color, 32.5 × 70.8 cm., signed by Palmer on a damaged label attached to the back of the original frame and inscribed “[Ri]sing Moon,” datable to c. 1857. Essick collection. Unrecorded until its offer at auction, CL, 9 June 2005, #45 (not sold; estimate £50,000-80,000). Provenance: Given by Palmer to George Richmond (according to Christie’s 2005 and 2006 cats.); William Fothergill Robinson, who married Richmond’s daughter, Julia, in 1869; by descent to the vendor at CL, 5 June 2006, #57. The gilt-composition frame, damaged top left but now repaired, was probably selected by either Palmer or Richmond. Palmer referred to works of this size as his “large long” watercolors; this may be one of the earliest examples. The building on the left recalls Ightham Mote in the Shoreham Valley, while the reclining shepherd, lower right, may owe something to Colinet’s posture in Blake’s 3^rd Virgil wood engraving. The rocky mountains on the left show the influence of the Devonshire tors; the highest peak, oddly tilted on its axis, may also be indebted to the outcrop supporting Tintagel Castle in Cornwall. Palmer visited Devon several times, beginning in the summer of 1834, and drew views of the Tintagel promontory in 1848. Although an idealized English pastoral, the design incorporates the cypress trees Palmer encountered on his extended honeymoon trip to Italy, 1837-39.

This watercolor is similar to, and possibly the basis for, Palmer’s 1857 etching of the same title (see illus. 12). A presumably related watercolor, also titled The Rising Moon and measuring 19.7 × 42.5 cm. (Palmer’s “little long” format), has been untraced since 1928; see Raymond Lister, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Samuel Palmer (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988) #552. Palmer produced several other variants on the basic composition: The Sunset, datable to 1857 (Lister #546); Sheepfold at Sunset, signed and dated 1871 (Lister #658); and a c. 1880 brown wash drawing illustrating Virgil, Eclogue II: Homeward from Labour’d Furrows (Lister #V4).

The watercolors with gum arabic and the use of body color are confined to the landscape and figures. The sky is a watercolor wash with little if any thickening agent. Palmer was evidently trying to combine the density of oils for the landscape with the translucency of watercolors for the sky. Like several other Victorian artists, Palmer has moved far from the eighteenth-century tradition of watercolor drawing to create watercolor painting with a wide variety of effects carefully deployed.

Why did the work reproduced here fail to sell, on an estimate of £50,000-80,000, in June 2005 but achieve a hammer price of £80,000 a year later in the same auction rooms? One significant factor may be the Palmer exhibition at the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 21 Oct. 2005 through 28 May 2006. After viewing the exhibit, several collectors changed their minds about the course of Palmer’s artistic career. The show demonstrated that the differences in quality between his famous “Shoreham” period work and the best of his later watercolors are not as great as previously surmised. This is a good example of how well-mounted scholarly exhibitions can influence the market.

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12. Samuel Palmer.   “The Rising Moon.” Etching, 11.7 × 19.0 cm., 7^th st. (but lacking the inscribed “10” bottom center), datable to 1857. Essick collection. There are many differences between the recently rediscovered watercolor (illus. 11) and this print, including the substitution of the standing shepherd on the right for the 2 reclining shepherds, the addition of a square tower and the reconfiguration of the background mountains upper left, the enlargement and rearrangement of the sheep and their feeding trough lower right, and the elimination of the white bird and evening star (center left and upper left in the watercolor).

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“The Skylark,” etching. BA, 27 Oct., #409, 7^th st., illus. color (£900).

“The Sleeping Shepherd,” etching. BA, 27 Oct., #408, 4^th st., illus. color (£950).

“The Weary Ploughman,” etching. CSK, 12 April, #16, 8^th st., scattered foxing, illus. (£360).

“The Willow,” etching. CSK, 25 Oct., #172, 2^nd st. (not sold; estimate £200-300).

A Book of Favourite Modern Ballads, published Ward, Lock, & Tyler, n.d. EB, Feb., page with pl. 1 (wood engraving by Evans after Palmer) only, color printed, illus. color (£9.50).

P.G. Hamerton, Examples of Modern Etching, 1876. Sims Reed, March cat. of “British Illustrated Books,” #44, with Palmer’s etching “The Herdsman’s Cottage,” half morocco (£850).

A. H. Palmer, Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer, 1892. John Windle, Nov. 2005 cat. 40, #422, large-paper issue, original cloth with “minor wear” ($975). EB, Dec. 2005, pl. foxed, small-paper issue, original cloth rehinged, illus. color (offered only at the “buy it now” price of £375). Allinson Gallery, April online cat., small-paper issue, original cloth ($650). Contains Palmer’s etching, “The Willow,” 2^nd st.

S. Palmer, English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil, 1884. CSK, 12 April, #17, “The Cypress Grove” and “The Sepulchre” only, 2^nd sts. (£168).

S. Palmer, The Shorter Poems of John Milton, 1889. Cheffins auction, Cambridge, 26 Oct., #304, small-paper issue, with A. H. Palmer, Samuel Palmer: A Memoir, 1882, and 2 other works about Palmer, illus. color online (£1600). EB, Oct., small-paper issue, publisher’s cloth badly stained, illus. color (£142).

Appendix: New Information on Blake’s Engravings

Listed below are substantive additions or corrections to Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (1983), and Essick, William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations (1991). Abbreviations and citation styles follow the respective volumes, with the addition of “Butlin” according to the list of abbreviations at the beginning of this sales review. Newly discovered impressions of previously recorded published states of Blake’s engravings are listed only for the rarer separate plates.

The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue

Pp. 125-31, “Morning Amusement” and “Evening Amusement,” after Watteau. For previously unrecorded impressions of these companion prints, see Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above.

Pp. 258-60, “The Ancient of Days.” The main purpose of this entry in the cat. is to demonstrate that there is no copperplate of “The Ancient of Days” distinct from the one Blake used to print the frontispiece to Europe a Prophecy, and that the two examples of the design, then in the collections of Geoffrey Keynes (now Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) and George Goyder, long thought to be original impressions from the presumed second copperplate, are actually facsimiles produced by William Muir c. 1885. Their coloring is modeled on the frontispiece in Europe copy D, since 1859 in the British Museum. In the cat. I further claim, or at least imply, that the Keynes and Goyder works are lithographs, extensively hand colored. A careful examination of another example of the Muir facsimile, sold on EB in Dec. 2005 and now in my collection, prompts me to revise that claim. The recently acquired Muir was executed completely by hand, as a watercolor drawing, without any lithographic base. A reexamination of color reproductions of the Keynes and Goyder works leads me to conclude that they were also executed completely by hand by Muir. These three examples vary considerably among themselves, including differences in portions of the image that are printed in Blake’s original impressions. In the latter, these printed passages are close to identical, except for slight inking variations. Further, these three Muir facsimiles vary—in their supposedly printed but actually hand drawn passages—from the printed image in original impressions, from the lithograph of the frontispiece Muir included in his 1887 facsimile of Europe, and from a version of Muir’s “The Ancient of Days” in my collection printed in golden-yellow ink from the same lithographic matrix as Muir’s Europe facsimile but colored like the completely hand-drawn examples. This last print, like those in Muir’s Europe, includes printed framing lines about 6 mm. outside the image. I suspect that all the Muir facsimiles of “The Ancient of Days” with framing lines have a lithographic base, while those lacking the framing lines were executed completely by hand. In all completely hand-executed examples I have seen, the figure’s windblown beard does not extend beyond the left side of the circle surrounding him. In copies with a lithographic base, the beard is much longer and extends beyond the circle, as in Blake’s originals and Muir’s Europe facsimile. Both the Keynes and Goyder works are of the short-beard type and lack framing lines.

William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations

P. 75, The Monthly Magazine, 1797, only plate by Blake, “the late M^r. Wright of Derby.” In William Bemrose, The Life and Works of Joseph Wright, A.R.A., Commonly Called “Wright of Derby” (London: Bemrose & Sons, 1885) 106, the author states that “amongst the effects of the late Mr. Geo. Cumberland, who was an intimate friend of Blake’s, was found an etching, evidently the one that served Blake as his copy [in the Monthly Magazine], on which is written, ‘Wright, of Derby; etched by himself.’ This is the only instance known of Wright having used the etching point.” This self-portrait etching, rather crude in its execution, is reproduced on the same page, lacking the “written” inscription but with the letterpress caption “Joseph Wright. Etched by himself.” Although the attribution of the etching to Wright might be questioned, it seems very probable that Bemrose is right about the etching in Cumberland’s possession being the basis for Blake’s etching/engraving in the Monthly Magazine. I have not been able to locate Cumberland’s print, or any other impression of the etched portrait. I am grateful to Martin Butlin for pointing out this reference to me.

P. 77, Allen, A New and Improved Roman History, 1798, pl. 1, “Mars and Rhea Silvia.” A proof, now in the RNE collection, has Blake’s signature but lacks the title inscription below the image and “P. 2.” top right. The proof is trimmed 1.1 cm. below the lower edge of the image, thereby including the position of the title but not the imprint.

Pp. 117-18, Memoirs of Hollis, 1780. David Wilson has found that impressions of the bust of John Milton, engraved by J. B. Cipriani and given by Hollis to the Society of Antiquaries in 1762 and to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1765, are identical to impressions published in the Memoirs. Thus, there is no possibility that “Cipriani’s plate . . . was reworked in Basire’s shop . . .” (117). See Wilson, “An Idle Speculation by Samuel Palmer: William Blake’s Involvement in Cipriani’s Portrait of John Milton,” British Art Journal 6.1 (spring/summer 2005): 31-36.