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ARTICLES

Blake in the Marketplace, 1996

The year started propitiously for the Blake market with the early January sale of two drawings, An Encounter in Heaven and a sheet of two recto/verso preliminary designs for Commins’s Elegy. These works, all previously reproduced in this journal and thus not repeated here, were exchanged from one private owner to another through the New York dealer Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. The market then went flat. Very flat. The usual run of books with Blake’s copy engravings turned up in dealers’ catalogues at their normal rate, but nothing appeared through the spring and summer to excite more ambitious collectors. The fall brought forth a richer harvest. On 14 November, Sotheby’s in London offered, in a single lot, Blake’s 28 water colors from the Frick Collection illustrating John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (Butlin #829.1-19, 21-29)—see illus. 1-4. The lot also included a late water color illustration of the first temptation from Milton’s Paradise Regained (Butlin #546)—see illus. 5. Thus, the entire Frick holdings of Blake were placed on the market as a collection with a published estimate of £260,000-340,000. As far as I can determine, this was the largest deaccession of works by Blake from any institutional collection. My own pre-sale prediction (I keep trying to be a Blakean prophet, in spite of a poor track record) was decidedly negative: the lot would surely be bought-in (i.e., not sold). My reasons were several. Sotheby’s had been trying, on behalf of the Frick, to sell the water colors privately for about two years (promises of confidentiality prevented me from reporting this in earlier sales reviews). Every potential Blake collector was contacted. All said no. The major reason for the negative response was, I believe, the low quality of the work. Just compare Blake’s Milton or Job designs with the Bunyan series from a connoisseur’s perspective; the results are depressing. I suspect that Blake was feeling the effects of his fatal illness when he was sketching the Bunyan illustrations c. 1824-27. A shaky hand, awkward figures, poorly-balanced compositions. In spite of these problems, one Blake collector with the means to make an impact on the market was enthusiastic at first glance. He was then shown Butlin’s entry on the series; passion turned to disappointment in a matter of seconds. As Butlin points out, there are very good reasons to think that much of the coloring was supplied by Mrs. Blake, perhaps after her husband’s death. These sorts of issues seem to have no effect on literary scholars writing about the meaning of the designs—witness Gerda Norvig’s lengthy Dark Figures in the Desired Country: Blake’s Illustrations to The Pilgrim’s Progress (Berkeley: U of California P, 1993). But matters of aesthetic quality, particularly in comparison to other works by the same artist, and questions of attribution can be killers in the marketplace. Further, one of the time-honored rules of auctioneering is to avoid offering at auction anything that has been recently and aggressively flogged to most potential bidders. For once, my predictions proved prescient: the bidding failed to reach the “reserve”—that is, the price below which the auctioneer will not sell the lot (a price that may be lower, but by custom should not be higher, than the low estimate of £260,000). However, immediately after the auction two collectors—one English, one American—expressed considerable interest in the Bunyan designs at a price somewhat less than the low estimate. A brief post-auction bidding skirmish ensued. The anonymous English collector won.

There are, of course, a few other matters to report, mostly under the category of Blake’s paintings and drawings. Indeed, I have nothing at all to list under the illuminated books. I have as well several retrospective listings, including a colored copy of Young’s Night Thoughts and a major water color by Blake. My apologies for being so tardy in reporting the whereabouts of these works.

The year of all sales and catalogues in the following lists is 1996 unless indicated otherwise. 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 England is not included. Late 1996 sales will be covered in the 1997 review. I am grateful for help in compiling this review to E. B. Bentley, G. E. Bentley, Jr., David Bindman, Roger Cucksey (Newport Museum and Art Gallery), Detlef Dörrbecker (who supplied me with his own list of 1996 Blake sales, from which I have stolen shamelessly), Morris Eaves, Sandra Ericson (Muhlenberg College), Jenijoy La Belle, Thomas V. Lange, Nick Lott, Kimberly Orlijan, Giles Peppiatt of Bonhams, Lawrence Salander, William L. Schneider, Grant F. Scott, Miriam Stewart (Harvard University Art Museums), and John Windle. Once again, Patricia Neill’s editorial assistance and John Sullivan’s electronic imaging have been invaluable.

Abbreviations

BBA Bloomsbury Book Auctions, London
Bentley G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977). Plate numbers and copy designations for Blake’s illuminated books follow Bentley.
Butlin Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1981).
cat. catalogue or sales list issued by a dealer (usually followed by a number or letter designation) or auction house (followed by the day and month of sale)

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CE Christie’s East, New York
CL Christie’s, London
CNY Christie’s, New York
CSK Christie’s, South Kensington
illus. the item or part thereof is reproduced in the catalogue
pl(s). plate(s)
SL Sotheby’s, London
SNY Sotheby’s, New York
st(s). state(s) of an engraving, etching, or lithograph
Swann Swann Galleries, auctioneers, New York
# auction lot or catalogue item number

Illuminated Books

Nothing to report. I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone with information about Blake’s illuminated books, or individual plates from them, that were offered for sale in 1996.

Drawings and Paintings

Illustrations to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. 28 water colors, each approx. 18 × 13.5 cm., datable to c. 1824-27. Butlin #829.1-19, 21-29. Plus The First Temptation, an illustration to Milton’s Paradise Regained. Water color, 17.2 × 12.6 cm., datable to c. 1820-25. Butlin #546. SL, 14 Nov., #253, from the Frick Collection, New York, sold at the direction of the Board of Trustees, all 29 designs illus. color (not sold; estimate £260,000-340,000). Acquired by an English private collector shortly after the auction. For comments and 4 color illus., see Henry Wemyss, “Blake Watercolours from The Frick Collection,” Sotheby’s Preview (Nov. 1996): 18-19. See illus. 1-5.

A Crowned Woman amid Clouds with a Demon Starting Away. Pen and wash, 13.2 × 11.4 cm., dated by Butlin, #92, to c. 1785-90. Acquired March 1993 by the Agnes Mongan Center for Prints, Drawings and Photographs, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, the bequest of Aimée and Rosamond Lamb, accession no. 1993.28. Christopher Heppner, Reading Blake’s Designs (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995) 92-98, argues that the subject of the design is “The New Jerusalem Descending.”

Alternative Designs for Commins’s Elegy. Recto pen, gray and light yellow-brown washes over pencil; verso pen and gray wash over pencil, sheet approx. 34 × 26.5 cm., datable to c. 1785-86. Jan. private offer, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries (acquired by R. Essick). For illus. and discussion, see

Christian Directed by Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, an illustration to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.   Water color by Blake and another hand, probably Mrs. Blake, 17.8 × 13.3 cm., datable to c. 1824-27. Butlin #829.7. Inscribed below the image in pencil, probably by Frederick Tatham, “7 [possibly over a deleted number] Mr Worldly Wiseman directs Xtian / to the house of Legality, in the village of Morality.” Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.
Martin Butlin, “Two Newly Identified Sketches for Thomas Commins’s An Elegy and Further Rediscovered Drawings of the 1780s,” Blake 26 (1992): 21-26.

An Encounter in Heaven. Pen and gray wash over pencil, sheet approx. 30.5 × 40.5 cm., datable to c. 1780-85. Jan. private offer, Salander-O’Reilly Galleries (acquired by R. Essick). For illus. and discussion, see the article listed above under Alternative Designs for Commins’s Elegy.

Head of a Man, attributed to Blake. Pencil, 5 × 4 cm. Discovered and acquired by David Bindman from Gallery Downstairs, London, Dec. 1995. See illus. 6.

Moses Striking the Rock. Water color, 36.5 × 30.5 cm., signed with Blake’s monogram and dated 1805. Butlin #445. On long-term loan from the Lutheran Church in America to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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Newton. Color print of 1795, 44.2 × 57.8 cm. Butlin #307. On long-term loan from the Lutheran Church in America to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

St. Paul Before Felix and Drusilla: “Felix Trembles.” Water color, 37.5 × 35.9 cm., c. 1800-03. Butlin #508. Acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Aug. 1995. See illus. 7.

Manuscripts

Receipt signed by Blake, 5 July 1805, to Thomas Butts for £5.7s., pasted to the inside front cover of A. E. Newton’s copy of Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of William Blake (New York: Grolier Club, 1921), from the Joseph Holland collection. Sold June by the book dealer John Windle to the autograph dealer Kenneth Rendell. According to Windle, Rendell intends to remove the receipt from the volume, offer it for sale, and retain Keynes’s bibliography as a reference volume.

Separate Plates and Plates in Series

“Carfax Conduit, Oxford,” possibly engraved by Blake. SL, 5 Dec., #21, on paper with an Auvergne watermark, some foxing, illus. (not sold; estimate £800-1200). For the attribution of this pl. to Blake, see Robert N. Essick, “A ‘New’ William Blake Engraving?,” Print Quarterly 2 (1985): 42-47.

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims.” Brick Row Book Shop, Jan. private offer, 5th st., printed in dark sepia on laid India, very probably a Colnaghi impression, good condition (priced at $9500 in 1995; sold Jan. 1996 to a private collector for $6000).

Dante engravings. CL, 27 Nov., #453, complete set on India paper, backing sheets 38.8 × 47.8 cm., printing uncertain but probably 1892, from the collection of George Goyder, pl. 4 illus. (bought-in at £9,500 on an estimate of £20,000-30,000). Heritage Book Shop, Dec. cat. 202, #30, complete set on India paper, backing sheets 40 × 54 cm., printing uncertain but probably 1892, from the collection of Philip Hofer, loose in a morocco folding case, pl. 4 illus. ($45,000).

“George Cumberland’s Card.” John Windle, March private offer, printed in black on laid paper, 9.9 × 15.8 cm., showing part of a watermark (PPS), good condition ($3500). The 1st impression I have seen with this watermark.

Job engravings. Estates of Mind, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, complete set of published “Proof” impressions on laid India, backing sheets untrimmed, clean set, loose in morocco folding case ($50,000); pl. 15 only, 1874 printing on laid India ($1000). SL, 23 May, #264, complete set of published “Proof” impressions on laid India, slight spotting, loose in paper wrapper inscribed “Proofs from the possession of George Richmond RA very rare,” pl. 15 illus. (£35,600 on an estimate of £15,000-20,000). SNY, 3 May, #10, pl. 10 only, 1826 printing on “drawing paper” after removal of “Proof” inscription, some browning in margins, stitching holes in left margin ($920). Heritage Book Shop, June cat. for the London Book Fair, #21, complete set of the 1826 printing on “drawing paper” after removal of “Proof” inscriptions, some leaves watermarked “J Whatman 1825,” others “J Whatman Turkey Mill 1825,” leaves trimmed, late 19th-century morocco, half morocco case ($45,000). Buddenbrooks, June London Book Fair, complete set of published “Proof” impressions on laid India, loose in morocco folder ($49,000). John Windle, Aug. cat. for the San Francisco Book Fair, #21, complete set of published “Proof” impressions on laid India, backing sheets trimmed to 32 × 25.4 cm., light marginal foxing, early brown cloth rebacked ($38,750). CNY, 6 Nov., #252, pl. 2 only after removal of “Proof” inscription, wove paper, illus. ($1840). CL, 27 Nov., #452, complete set of published “Proof” impressions on laid India, backing sheets uncut at 42.3 × 33.3 cm., interleaved, “original buff boards, letterpress paper label on upper cover,” binding recased, modern cloth box, from the collection of George Goyder, pl. 13 illus. (£26,450). Bromer Book-sellers, Dec. cat., #15, complete set, 1826 printing on Whatman paper after removal of “Proof” inscription, pls. tipped to stubs and interleaved, marginal tears in pls. 13 and 15, edges rubricated, 19th-century calf worn ($36,000). Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 4 Dec., #301, complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, loose in portfolio, tissue guards, pl. 5 illus. (IR£5000). Sims Reed, Dec. cat., #1278, complete set of published “Proof” impressions on laid India, “minimal foxing,” loose in morocco box (£28,500).

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

Allen, New and Improved History of England, 1798. Wilsey Rare Books, Oct. private offer, with the folding chart (not by Blake) at the end, some foxing in text, contemporary calf worn (price on application).

Ariosto, Orlando Furioso. BBA, 14 Dec. 1995, #74, 1783 ed., 5 vols., some foxing, later calf worn (not sold; estimate £150-200). Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #15, 1799 ed., 5 vols., contemporary calf (£200). CNY, 13 Nov., 1799 ed., 5 vols., “some light browning,” contemporary calf by William Mackenzie, some wear ($322).

Blair, The Grave. Bauman Rare Books, Jan. cat. “Paradise,” #34, 1808 “folio” (but probably the quarto), later ¾ calf begin page 103 | back to top over contemporary marbled boards ($2200). BBA, 25 Jan., #184, 1808 quarto issue, minor foxing, contemporary quarter morocco very worn, modern slipcase (Robert Clark, £437); same copy, Robert Clark, May cat. 43, #172 (£750). Argosy Book Store, Nov. cat. 816, #57, 1813 quarto issue, half morocco worn ($1500); #64, 1926 reprinting of the plates, Twelve Designs for “The Grave,” by Robert Blair, Phoenix Press, loose in original folder ($150). Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 4 Dec., #263, “1813” [1870] ed., original cloth, spine torn (estimate IR£300-450). Swann, 19 Dec., #24, 1808 quarto, uncut in “contemporary”[e] (but actually modern) boards with later spine label, recased, joints cracked, new endpapers ($2800 on an estimate of $1000-2000. A surprisingly high price for a sophisticated copy).

Bryant, New System . . . of Ancient Mythology. Adam Mills, April cat. 36, #30, 1st ed., 1774-76, 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked (£575); same copy, Dec. cat. 39, #162 (£455). SL, 24 Oct., #848, 2nd ed., 1775-76, 3 vols., some spotting, contemporary half morocco worn, joints weak (not sold; estimate £200-250).

Catullus, Poems, 1795. Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #14, 2 vols. in 1, some light spotting, contemporary marbled boards, modern calf spine (£450).

Cumberland, Outlines from the Antients, 1829. Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #20, large-paper copy with the pls. on laid India (only the 2nd copy of this issue I’ve encountered), some spotting, bookplate of John, Duke of Bedford, contemporary calf worn (£1750).

Cumberland, Thoughts on Outline, 1796. SL, 18 Dec. 1995, #536, inscribed “from the author,” uncut and unopened in original boards restored, perhaps the copy on offer for the last few years by Phillip Pirages, pl. 6 illus. (not sold; estimate £1000-1500); same copy?, Phillip Pirages, Sept. cat. 37, #238, pl. 2 illus. ($2000).

Darwin, Botanic Garden, 1791. N. W. Lott, March private offer, a proof of pl. 6 (“Tornado”) only, lacking finishing work in the image but with all letters, from the collection of Raymond Lister (acquired by R. Essick). Grant and Shaw, April cat. 31, #47, 1st ed. of Part 1, 2nd ed. of Part 2 (£695). Poetry Bookshop, May cat. 7, #6, 1st. eds. of both Parts, 2 of the Portland Vase pls. cropped (£175). Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #13, 1st ed. of Part 1, 2nd ed. of Part 2, some spotting and offsetting of pls., imprint on pl. 2 partly trimmed off, contemporary calf rebacked (£450).

Darwin, Poetical Works, 1806. William Hale, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 3 vols., marbled boards rebacked in modern calf ($800).

2 Christian Beaten down by Apollyon, an illustration to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.   Water color by Blake and another hand, probably Mrs. Blake, 19.2 × 12.9 cm., datable to c. 1824-27. Butlin #829.21. Inscribed below the image in pencil, probably by Frederick Tatham, “20 Christian beaten down by Appollyon [sic].” Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.

Euler, Elements of Algebra, 1797. CNY, 12 Nov., #189, 2 vols., a mixed set in 2 different calf bindings ($207).

Flaxman, Hesiod designs, 1817. Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, foxed, a few marginal tears, original boards newly rebacked with calf, front cover label ($450). BBA, 15 Aug., #232, 1 pl. repaired, foxed, original boards rebacked with front cover label (R. Franklin, £368). Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #19, some heavy spotting on a few pls., others lightly spotted, original boards with cover label (£200).

Flaxman, Iliad designs, 1805. Swann, 9 May, #344, scattered soiling, marginal tears, disbound, with Flaxman, Acts of Mercy, 1831, half morocco very worn ($230). Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #17, with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, bound together in later half morocco, some light spotting (£400).

Fuseli, Lectures on Painting, 1801. SL, 23 April, #236, bound with Opie, Lectures on Painting, 1809, with Knowles, Life begin page 104 | back to top and Writings of Fuseli, 1831, 3 vols., all 4 vols. in contemporary half calf worn (£632).

Gay, Fables, 1793. Hartfield Books, May cat. 50, #L-55, 2 vols., “thick-paper edition”(?), three-quarter morocco ($1295). Andrew Cumming, June London Book Fair, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf rebacked (£480). Petersfield Bookshop, July private offer, 2 vols. in 1, quarter calf (£250). John Windle, Aug. cat. for the San Francisco Book Fair, #25, 2 vols., top edge gilt, others uncut, fine impressions, later morocco ($1750). Hermitage Bookshop, Oct. cat., #105, 67 (of 68) pls., but including all 12 by Blake, 2 vols., some light foxing, modern quarter morocco ($750). BBA, 5 Dec., #3, apparently the 1st ed., “large paper copy,” 2 vols. in 1, some offsetting and foxing, contemporary half morocco rubbed (£300).

Hartley, Observations on Man, quarto issue, 1791. BBA, 11 Jan., #91, some browning, contemporary calf worn, covers detached (Thoemmes, £276).

Hayley, Ballads, 1805. BBA, 7 Nov., #80, sts. of pls. not recorded, contemporary calf little rubbed (Jarndyce, £805 on an estimate of £300-400). Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 4 Dec., #797, 1st sts. of pls., uncut in later boards, title page illus. (IR£450 to J. Windle).

Hayley, Life and Posthumous Writings of Cowper, New York: T. and J. Swords, 1803. Robert Allen Books, March private offer, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf rebacked ($56). See illus. 8.

Hayley, Life, and Posthumous Writings, of Cowper, 1803-04. William Reese, Feb. cat. 153, #84, 1st ed., 3 vols., pl. 4 in 2nd st., original boards uncut, most covers detached, vol. 3 lacking paper spine, other spines very worn ($750). BBA, 25 April, #320, 1st ed., 3 vols., browned, modern boards (R. Franklin, £345 on an estimate of £50-75). Robin Waterfield, April cat. 160, 2nd ed., vols. 1-2 only, bindings damaged (£165). John Windle, Aug. cat. for the San Francisco Book Fair, #26, 1st ed., 3 vols., pl. 4 in the rare 1st st., old calf worn, vol. 1 crudely rebacked ($675). Ravenstree, Oct. cat. 180, #144, apparently 1st ed., 4 vols. in 3, including the supplement of 1806, minor foxing and browning, contemporary calf rebacked ($775). Sims Reed, Dec. cat., #1277, apparently 1st ed., 3 vols., contemporary half calf (£450).

Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. Heritage Book Shop, Feb. private offer, full calf by R. De Coverly ($1080). William Reese, Feb. cat. 153, #85, some marginal foxing, three-quarter morocco worn ($400). John Windle, Aug. cat. for the San Francisco Book Fair, #27, half calf repaired ($450). Adam Mills, Dec. cat. 39, #165, contemporary calf worn (£400).

3 Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle,   an illustration to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Water color by Blake and another hand, probably Mrs. Blake, 17.8 × 12.1 cm., datable to c. 1824-27. Butlin #829.25. Inscribed below the image in pencil, probably by Frederick Tatham, “Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle.” Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803. E. M. Lawson, Jan. cat. 276, #60, large-paper copy, slight foxing, half sheep over marbled boards (£600). Robert Clark, May cat. 43, #171, apparently small-paper copy, some foxing, contemporary calf rebacked, worn (£285). Alex Fotheringham, Aug. cat. 27, #69, “wide margins” (i.e., a large-paper copy?), original boards uncut, worn (£250). Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #16, large-paper copy, contemporary calf rebacked (£600). Simon Finch, Nov. cat. 28, #192, small-paper copy, contemporary calf worn, a few leaves creased (£380). E. M. Lawson, Dec. cat. 281, #49, large-paper copy, uncut in original boards worn, inscribed “From the Author” on the halftitle, another presentation inscription perhaps by Maria Denman, Flaxman’s sister-in-law (£650). Swann, 19 Dec., #173, apparently a small-paper copy, calf worn, ownership signature on title (not sold; estimate $250-350).

Hoare, Inquiry, 1806. Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #18, contemporary marbled boards rebacked (£450).

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Hogarth, Works. CSK, 8 Dec. 1995, #15, undated Baldwin and Cradock ed., 152 pls. on 114 leaves, contemporary half roan lightly worn (£956.25). The Print Room, Jan. cat. 16, #95, Blake’s pl. only, st. not recorded (but the price suggests late), trimmed to the platemark and slightly within it at the top (£180). Sims Reed, Jan. cat. of “Recent Acquisitions,” 1822 ed., 105 pls. (£1400). N. W. Lott, Feb. private offer, Blake’s pl. only, 4th st. on laid India (the only impression of any st. I’ve seen on such paper), water stain lower right (acquired by R. Essick). SL, 23 April, #242, undated Baldwin and Cradock ed., 117 pls., contemporary half morocco worn (£1955). CSK, 3 May, #207, undated Baldwin and Cradock ed., 148 pls. on 108 leaves, some soiling, contemporary half morocco worn (£862.50); #208, 1822 ed., 153 pls. on 105 leaves, marginal soiling, contemporary half morocco worn (£1035). CE, 22 May, #272, undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 112 pls., contemporary half morocco worn, front cover detached ($920). CL, 31 May, #92, 1st undated Baldwin and Cradock issue printed by Woodfall, 115 pls., some leaves spotted or with minor tears, contemporary half morocco (£1265). BBA, 6 June, undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 113 leaves of pls., contemporary half morocco very worn, upper cover detached (not sold). CSK, 20 Sept., #121, undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 155 pls. on 115 leaves, some tears and spotting, half morocco worn (£805). Swann, 5 Dec., #422, 1790 ed., 86 (of 103) pls. on 63 leaves, no mention of Blake’s pl., some pls. soiled, half sheep badly worn ($1200); #423 1822 ed., 105 (of 116) pls., no mention of Blake’s pl., many pls. soiled or dampstained, one torn, a real wreck, half morocco very worn (not sold; estimate $600-900).

Hogarth and Blake, The Beggar’s Opera, 1965 portfolio. Adam Mills, April cat. 36, #18, extra-illustrated with a 19th-century impression of Blake’s pl. hand colored, original cloth box (£800); same copy, Dec. cat. 39, #170 (£650).

Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793. E. M. Lawson, Jan. cat. 276, #43, quarto issue, probably a large paper copy, trimmed except for 1 accidentally folded leaf, with the imprint on the engraved title present, late 19th-century half calf (£2200). Traylen, June London Book Fair, quarto issue, contemporary calf rebacked, Blake’s pl. foxed (£3300). Christie’s Melbourne, 28 Nov., #518, octavo issue, Blake’s pl. folded, some repairs, modern half morocco uncut, buckram box (no price record; estimate Australian $400-600); #600, quarto issue, date cropped from title page, some staining, modern calf (no price record; estimate Australian $5000-7000).

Josephus, Works. W. & V. Dailey, March private offer, Bentley’s issue C but with “And sold by all other Booksellers in Great Britain” as the final line on the title page, 2nd sts. of the pls., contemporary calf ($650). BBA, 20 June, #319, without “Whole” in the title (and thus Bentley’s issue A or the issue between A and B), 54 (of 58) pls., contemporary calf worn, upper cover detached (Pollak, £92); #320, with “Whole” in the title (and thus Bentley’s issue B, C, D, or E), 51 pls., contemporary calf worn (Pollak, £69).

Lavater, Aphorisms. Wilsey Rare Books, Jan. cat. 32, #10, 1788 ed., contemporary calf rebacked, worn ($700). Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, 1788 ed., contemporary calf, fine impression of Blake’s pl. ($650). SL, 23 April, #262, 1789 ed., contemporary half calf, with 3 Pickering eds. of Blake’s poems and Gilchrist’s Life of Blake, 1880 (£632). Claude Cox, Sept. cat. 116, #57, 1794 ed., contemporary half calf worn (£57).

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy. CSK, 9 Feb., #12, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, severe marginal staining and worming, modern hessian, uncut (£247.50); #144, 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, marginal dampstaining in vol. 2, contemporary calf rebacked (£427.50). Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop, Aug. cat. 21, #324, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, internally clean, full calf ($3000). F. Thomas Heller, advertisement in the cat. for the Sept. San Francisco Book Fair, p. 43, 1792 [i.e., 1818?] ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary calf worn at corners, hinges weak ($3300; sold at the Fair for $1500 to J. Windle for R. Essick). Phillip Pirages, Sept. cat. 37, #324, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary russia, with Physiognomical Sketches by Lavater, Engraved from the Original Drawings by John Luffman ([1802]), similarly bound, rebacked, and reported by Pirages to be “extraordinarily rare” ($4200). CNY, 9 Oct., #105, a mixed set, vols. 1-2 1792, vol. 3 1810, 3 vols. in 5, contemporary morocco worn ($1380). CNY, 13 Nov., #340, 1792 [i.e., 1818?] ed., 3 vols. in 5, some foxing and browning on pls., 19th-century russia rebacked ($460).

Malkin, Father’s Memoirs, 1806. Simon Finch, Jan. handlist for the Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, #4, presentation inscription from the author to “Dr Pett,” with 8 lines of verse also in Malkin’s hand, further inscribed “W. M. Rossetti / from Tho. Dixon / 1873,” slight foxing and browning, 19th-century morocco little rubbed ($1500); same copy, April cat. 14, #8 (£950); same copy and price, June London Book Fair; same copy and price, Sept. cat. 27, #15; same copy and price, Nov. cat. 28, #193. BBA, 5 Dec., #8, some spotting, contemporary calf (£350). Adam Mills, Dec. cat. 39, #163, uncut, pls. slightly spotted, later boards, “remnant of original printed paper label retained” (£500).

Novelist’s Magazine, vol. 9, 1782. Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #12, David Simple and Sir Launcelot Greaves only, 2 pls. by Blake, contemporary half calf (£125).

Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. Nicholas Potter, begin page 106 | back to top Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 3 vols., later quarter calf ($650).

Shakespeare, The Plays, 1805. Robert Clark, Aug. cat. 44, #252, 9 vol. issue, scattered foxing, contemporary calf worn, 4 covers detached, a “reasonable working set” (£140).

Stedman, Narrative. Beeleigh Abbey Books, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1813 ed., 2 vols., pls. hand colored, modern half morocco ($5,250). Adam Mills, April cat. 36, #136, 1806 ed., 2 vols., “original marbled boards” rebacked with calf (£900); same copy, Dec. cat. 39, #164 (£700). Swann, 19 Sept., #368, 1813 ed., 2 vols., lacking 1 unidentified pl. in vol. 2, scattered dampstaining throughout, modern morocco ($1955 on an estimate of $600-900).

Stuart and Revett, The Antiquities of Athens, 1762-1830. Robert Frew, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 5 vols., with the rare pl. 29 (not by Blake) in vol. 2, early calf ($19,200). SL, 27 June, #163, 5 vols., without pl. 29 in vol. 2 (which, according to this cat., “did not appear”), occasional slight foxing, modern half calf, 1 pl. (not by Blake) illus. (£21,850—probably an auction record for a copy lacking the sort of distinguished contemporary binding that can add greatly to the market value). SL, 26 Nov., #266, 5 vols., inserted portrait of Revett in vol. 1, lacking the folding map of Greece in vol. 3, some foxing, half morocco worn (£10,925).

Virgil, Pastorals, ed. Thornton, 1821. Adam Mills, April cat. 36, #16, 4 wood engravings (Bentley, pls. 11, 15-17) only, Linnell restrikes on thin wove paper mounted, “apparently from the [Theodore] Besterman Collection” (£280 each). Sims Reed, June cat., #4, 2 vols., original sheep, decorated in blind around the edges of both covers, a copy previously offered by Donald Heald and John Windle at $17,500, cuts 2-5 illus. (£12,500); same copy and price, Dec. cat., #1288. Christopher Mendez, July private offer, 7th wood engraving only, Linnell restrike very well printed (£500). Mealy’s auction, Dublin, Dec. 4, #386, catalogued under “Bewick Plates [sic]” without reference to Blake, vol. 1 only, rebound in morocco (IR£3000 to the dealer Andrew Cumming for stock on an estimate of IR£150-250).

Wollstonecraft, Original Stories. See Gilchrist 1863 under Interesting Blakeana, below.

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797, colored copies. Copy G in Bentley acquired July 1986 by the Frank Martin Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, from The Lutheran Church in America, Glen Foerd at Torresdale, Pennsylvania. Muhlenberg accession no. EL 85.70.1626. For descriptions of this copy (lacking the Explanation leaf, supplied in reduced facsimile) and a reproduction of the title page to Night the Second, see Thomas V. Lange, “A Rediscovered Colored Copy of Young’s Night Thoughts,” Blake 15 (1981-82): 134-36; Grant F. Scott, “A Clash of Perspectives,” Muhlenberg: The Magazine of Muhlenberg College 5 (Fall 1993): 10-16 (with 11 color illus.).

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797, uncolored copies. Estates of Mind, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, with the Explanation leaf, 2nd st. of the title page to Night the Second, fore-edges and some leaves at the tail untrimmed, early quarto morocco ($7500). Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, with the Explanation leaf, 2nd st. of the title page to Night the Second, top edge gilt, others uncut, quarter calf ($10,000). SL, 23 March, #260, lacking the Explanation leaf, some spotting, a few short tears, edges browned, uncut in morocco-backed boards worn, fly-title to “Night the Third” illus. (£2990); same copy(?), Sims Reed, June London Book Fair, the title page to Night the Second in the rare 1st st., with the imprints (as recorded in Bentley 638) lacking only on pls. 12 and 16 (pp. 19, 26), uncut in morocco-backed boards (£6500). CL, 27 Nov., #454, with the Explanation leaf, trimmed to 41.6 × 32 cm., very light soiling, near-contemporary morocco, from the collections of Greville MacDonald and George Goyder, st. of title page to Night the Second not recorded, title page to Night the First illus. (£7130 to the dealer Andrew Cumming for stock). Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 4 Dec., #635, with the Explanation leaf, fancy morocco (IR£3000 to J. Windle on behalf of the Library of Congress). Sims Reed, Dec. cat., #1291, with the Explanation leaf, uncut in “original cloth backed boards” (£12,000).

Interesting Blakeana

Satan before His Downfall, sold as “Circle of William Blake.” Water color, inscribed “W. Blake” lower center, 20 × 11 cm. SL, 14 Nov., #221 (£345). Henry Wemyss very kindly supplied me with a Polaroid of this work. It certainly is not by Blake, nor can I ascribe it to anyone in his immediate circle. The closest I can get, as a wild guess, is William Blake Richmond, the Victorian artist and son of Blake’s friend and follower George Richmond.

Archaeologia, 1770-1953. BBA, 25 Jan., #93, vols. 1-22, 24-95 plus 3 index vols., contemporary calf or original cloth for the later vols., a few covers detached (Simon Finch, £862). The vols. issued in the 1770s and early 1780s have plates signed by James Basire that Blake may have helped with while an apprentice.

T. Hollis, Memoirs, 1780. CSK, 8 Dec. 1995, #119, 2 vols., modern half morocco, with 3 other works in 5 vols. (£427.50). BBA, 4 July, #45, 2 vols., some spotting, uncut and partly unopened in original boards rebacked with cloth begin page 107 | back to top (Bickersteth, £368). While an apprentice, Blake may have participated in the production of the pls. signed by James Basire.

J. Egerton, Egerton’s Theatrical Remembrancer, 1788. Quaritch, Sept. cat., #69, contemporary calf (£320). The first bibliography with a Blake entry: “‘King Edward the Third.’ Drama. 8vo. 1783. Printed in a Pamphlet, called, ‘Poetical Sketches’” (£258).

G. Cumberland, Some Anecdotes of the Life of Julio Bonasoni.... Accompanied by a Catalogue of the Engravings, 1793. Quaritch, June art cat., #35, uncut in original boards (£350). Given his long friendship with Cumberland, it is highly probable that Blake knew this book and Cumberland’s collection of early Italian prints.

R. Brothers, portrait of, engraved by Sharp, 1795. Krown & Spellman, Sept. cat. 24, #337, right margin “slightly defective,” illus. ($400). For some comparisons between Blake and Brothers, see Morton D. Paley, “William Blake, The Prince of the Hebrews, and the Woman Clothed with the Sun,” William Blake: Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, ed. Paley and Michael Phillips (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1973) 260-93.

W. Falconer, The Shipwreck, 1804. Ewen Kerr, May cat. 57, #201 (£85). Blake may have owned (or at least was lent) a copy of this edition, for which Blake thanked Hayley in 1804 (see Bentley 687).

A. Hay, History of Chichester, 1804. Marlborough Rare Books, Oct. cat. 167, #57, contemporary calf worn (£130). Blake apparently owned a copy of this book—see Bentley 687-88.

J. Hassell, Memoirs of Morland, 1804. Grant and Shaw, April cat. 31, #86 (£100). Rainsford Rare Books, Nov. cat. A58, #334 (£195). Blake’s two plates after Morland are mentioned.

The Examiner, 1810. Alex Fotheringham, Aug. cat. 27, #50, 52 issues, lacking pp. 583-86, 831-32, half calf rebacked, worn (£275). The 1 July 1810 issue, pp. 412-14, contains R. H. Cromek’s obituary of Louis Schiavonetti. Cromek mentions the portrait of Blake and Blake’s illustrations in the 1808 ed. of Blair’s Grave, published by Cromek.

[J. Watkins and F. Shoberl], Biographical Dictionary of the Living Authors of Great Britain, 1816. W. & V. Dailey, March private offer, old boards rebacked ($375). One of the first bibliographies to include Blake.

W. Hayley, Memoirs, 1823. Robin Waterfield, April cat. 160, #183, 2 vols. (£50). With several references to Blake.

4 The Pilgrims Meet the Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains, an illustration to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.   Water color by Blake and another hand, probably Mrs. Blake, 13 × 18.7 cm., datable to c. 1824-27. Butlin #829.27. Inscribed above the image in pencil, probably by Frederick Tatham, “27 The Shepherds of the Delectable Mountains.” Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.

Catalogue of the . . . Collection of Books . . . of Mr. Thomas Edwards, Bookseller of Halifax, auction, 10 May 1826. Alex Fotheringham, March private offer, disbound, a duplicate deaccessioned from the Harvard College Library (£100; acquired by the Huntington Library). Lot 1076 is Blake’s Night Thoughts water colors.

J. T. Smith, Nollekens and His Times. Ken Spellman, Feb. cat. 33, #86, 1829 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf (£140); Nov. cat. 34, #116, 2 vols., 1828 ed., extra-illus. with c. 160 late 18th- and early 19th-century prints (£480). W. & V. Dailey, March private offer, 1828 ed., 2 vols., quarter calf, title pages foxed ($300). Veronica Watts, June London Book Fair, 1828 ed., 2 vols., half calf (£120). John Windle, Aug. cat. for the San Francisco Book Fair, #31, 1828 ed., 2 vols., calf rebacked ($475). Vol. 2 contains an important biography of Blake.

A. and J. Taylor, City Scenes, 1828. Adam Mills, April cat. 36, #141, quarter morocco over marbled boards, “excellent copy” (£400); same copy, Dec. cat. 39, #166 (£325). Stuart Bennett, May cat. 24, #36, original roan-backed boards rebacked ($250). Contains “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence with an illus. unrelated to Blake’s design.

Moon, Boys, & Graves, Catalogue of Engravings, 1829. Questor Rare Books, July cat. 18, #296, quarter leather over original boards, worn (£145). This sale cat. lists Blake’s pl. for the Boydell Shakespeare, “Prints, 4s. Proofs, 7s.6d.” (p. 159).

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R. Southey, The Doctor, 1834-47. Marlborough Rare Books, March cat. 165, 1st ed., 7 vols. (£850). Simon Finch, Nov. cat. 28, #296, 1st ed., 7 vols., contemporary half calf slightly rubbed (£750). Contains several references to Blake—as well as the first publications of “The Three Bears.”

A. Cunningham, The Cabinet Gallery of Pictures, 1836. Bernard Shapiro, Jan. cat., #37, 2 vols., contemporary half morocco worn (£125). Contains an account of Blake and the angel Gabriel, first printed in the 1833-34 ed.

T. Sivright, Catalogue of the Extensive and Valuable Collections of Books, Pictures, etc., to be sold at auction by C. B. Tait, Edinburgh, Feb. 1 and 16 following days, 1836. Quaritch, June art cat., #165, contemporary half calf worn (£350). Some of Blake’s drawings for Robert Blair’s The Grave were included as lot 1835 in this sale—see G. E. Bentley, Jr., “Thomas Sivright and the Lost Designs for Blake’s Grave,” Blake 19 (1985-86): 103-06.

S. Maunder, The Biographical Treasury, 1838. Holleyman & Treacher, Nov. private offer, original(?) roan, worn (£20). Contains a brief entry on Blake, p. 96.

J. Jackson [and A. Chatto], Treatise on Wood Engraving, 1839. The Bookpress, March cat. 94, #163, contemporary half morocco ($250). Pp. 715-17 include one of the earliest attempts to describe Blake’s method of relief etching.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Pickering ed., 1839 (the 1st letterpress ed.). BBA, 25 Jan., #193, issue (the 2nd?) without “The Little Vagabond,” some spotting and tears, original cloth worn, modern slipcase (R. Franklin, £368). Quaritch, April cat. for the New York Book Fair, #13, issue with “The Little Vagabond,” inscribed by the editor, J. J. G. Wilkinson, on the front endpaper, “13 Store Street, Bedford Square, July 16. 1839” (the week after publication), original cloth rebacked ($3500; probably a record asking price). Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 4 Dec., #331, issue without “The Little Vagabond,” presentation inscription by the publisher to the Irish poet James Sheridan Knowles, signed by Knowles on the title page, original cloth, title page illus. (IR£300 to the dealer Alex Fotheringham for a private customer).

H. G. Bohn, Catalogue of Books, 1841. Jonathan Hill, Feb. cat. 98, #60, half morocco rebacked ($400). This enormous sale cat. includes copies of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Book of Thel, Milton a Poem, and Jerusalem.

A. Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 1863, extra-illustrated copies only. Adam Mills, April cat. 36, #17, 2 vols., extra-illustrated with “c. 20 plates” designed and/or engraved by Blake, “some 17 other relevant engraved portraits, etc; and various cuttings including 6 pages from Fairholt’s Tombs Of English Artists: No 7 William Blake,” early 20th-century morocco, bookplate of Theodore Besterman (£1250). The vols. were sold shortly after publication of the cat. Just before the sale, Mills supplied Detlef Dörrbecker with a complete list of the extra-illustrations; in turn, Detlef kindly sent me a copy. The engravings by Blake added to the book are as follows: Allen, History of England, pl. 1; Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, pl. 1; Darwin, Botanic Garden, pl. 1; Fuseli, Lectures on Painting, pl. 1; Hayley, Life of Cowper, pl. 4; Hayley, Life of Romney, pl. 1; Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, pls. 2-5; Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, pl. 4; Salzmann, Elements of Morality, pls. in vol. 2 numbered 20 and 22; Stedman, Narrative, pls. 6, 15, 16; Virgil, Pastorals, pls. 26-27; Whitaker, Seraph, pl. 1; Wollstonecraft, Original Stories, pls. 1 and 2; and an “engraving of a nude figure in classical drapes: by Blake for Young” (perhaps a clipping from the Night Thoughts engravings).

The North American Review 205 (Oct. 1864). The 19th Century Shop, Feb. cat. “The Romantic Movement,” unnumbered 2nd item, original wrappers ($50). The unsigned review of Gilchrist’s Life of Blake (1863), pp. 465-82, is attributed to Horace Elisha Scudder in Suzanne R. Hoover, “The Public Reception of Gilchrist’s Life of Blake,” Blake Newsletter 8 (1974): 28.

Swinburne, William Blake, 1868, with the rare 2nd (1st trade) issue of the title page with “Zamiel. From the Book of Job” printed beneath the vignette. Richard Budd Books, July cat. 25, #222, rebound in morocco rebacked (£250).

Muir facsimiles of Blake’s illuminated books. William Reese, Feb. cat. 153, #87, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, 1927, 2 vols., both numbered 12 by Muir, original wrappers rebacked ($1500); same set?, Black Sun Books, March cat. 101, #25, Muir’s copy numbers not recorded ($2500); same set, Aug. cat. 110, #50 ($2000). Bromer Booksellers, spring cat. 87, #36, America, 1887, colored copy, Muir’s copy number not recorded, original wrappers ($1250); #37, Europe, colored copy, Muir’s copy number not recorded, original wrappers ($1250). John Windle, Aug. cat. for the San Francisco Book Fair, #23, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Muir’s copy number not recorded, inscribed “For The Times” by Muir, blue cloth, original wrappers bound in ($1200). Jeff Weber, Nov. cat. 43, #42, Milton, Muir’s copy number not recorded, suede binding, amateurishly copying one of Blake’s designs ($1500). Christie’s Cleveland(!), 21 Nov., #5, 4 Muir facsimiles bound together in full vellum: The Book of Thel (1884 ed.), Visions of the Daughters of Albion (1884 ed.), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and There is No Natural Religion, original wrappers discarded, and thus Muir’s copy numbers lost (J. Windle, $1500). Adam Mills, Dec. cat. 39, #169, Songs of Innocence begin page 109 | back to top and Songs of Experience, both 1927, both inscribed “For Review. Wm Muir” on the original wrappers, slipcase (£950).

Illustrated Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Water Colour Drawings [in the] Museum and Art Gallery, County Borough of Newport, Mon., with Notes by R. Gregory Absalom (Newport: Museum and Art Gallery Committee, 1951). Fine Art Catalogues, Jan. private offer, original wrappers (£15.50). This cat. includes “Allegorical Figures” attributed to Blake, p. 15. Roger Cucksey, Keeper of Art at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery, informs me in correspondence that the Museum no longer ascribes the work to Blake. The xerox copy supplied by Mr. Cucksey confirms this reassessment. This amateurish picture of an undraped male and female clutching at each other, with flames to the left and a violin lower right, fails to strike my eye as a work by anyone in Blake’s circle, although its vulgar exaggeration of the organs of generation does inspire a double-take.

L. [and E.] Baskin, Blake and the Youthful Ancients, 1956. G. R. Minkoff, May cat. 96-B, #22, 1 of 50 copies, presentation inscription from one of the Baskins, original quarter morocco over boards ($1950).

Edwin Wolf, collection of his correspondence and manuscripts related to Blake. About 400 letters to Wolf (many from Geoffrey Keynes), 170 carbon copies of Wolf’s letters, and manuscripts of the 1939 Philadelphia Blake exhibit cat. and Wolf’s unpublished book, William Blake as an Artist. Jonathan Hill, Feb. cat. 98, #54 ($7500). The archive has been available from Hill for several years.

A Letter from William Blake, Northampton, 1969, illus. by Leonard Baskin. Swann, 15 Feb., #31, 1 of 25 copies on Japan vellum signed by Baskin and with an extra suite of the pls., full niger worn, with Blake, Auguries of Innocence, illus. by Baskin, 1968 (not sold; estimate $800-1200).

Europe, pl. 1 (“The Ancient of Days”). Modified version acquired Feb. 1993 by Charles A. Bufalino as a tattoo on his lower left leg ($150). See illus. 9.

A pillow, approx. 52 × 44 cm., brocade and printed, Victorian in its golden-brown colors and richness of decoration, showing on its face 2 tigers (probably based on a 17th- or 18th-century engraving) around which are written in 4 directions “Tyger Tyger burning bright in the forests of the night.” Feast (a fabrics and housewares shop in Pasadena, California), Jan. private offer ($188).

A rubber stamp, 7.2 × 3.9 cm., based with considerable fidelity on the bound figure with giant wings pictured on

5 The First Temptation, an illustration to Milton’s Paradise Regained.   Water color, perhaps touched up by another hand, possibly Mrs. Blake, 17.2 × 12.6 cm., trimmed to the image. Butlin #546, where the work is dated to c. 1820-25. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.
the frontispiece to America. Stampa Barbara (by its own account the world’s largest rubber stamp shop, located in Santa Barbara, California), Jan. private offer ($12).

A set of 6 rubber stamps of English authors, including Milton, Wordsworth, Coleridge, “Shelly” [sic], Keats, and Blake, each approx. 3.3 × 2.2 cm. Stampa Barbara, Jan. private offer ($10 the set). The Blake stamp is loosely based on the “visionary” portrait (self-portrait?) of Blake in my collection, perhaps copied (given the thickness of the hair) from the reproduction of this portrait on the cover of Blake’s Poetry and Designs, ed. Mary Lynn Johnson and John E. Grant (New York: Norton, 1979).

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.

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BARRY, JAMES

Etchings from the Royal Society of Arts, 1808. SL, 21 March, #1, 9 of 14 pls. only, some surface dirt and marginal tears, with a duplicate of “Crowning the Victors” (not sold; estimate £1200-1400).

King Lear Weeping over the Body of Cordelia. Red chalk drawing by Francis Legat after the right side of Barry’s painting for Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery. 28 × 20 cm. SL, 3 April, #9, illus. (£1840). Probably executed by Legat as a preliminary for his 1792 engraving of the entire painting.

“King Richard the Third, Act IV, Scene III,” Legat after Barry for the Boydell Shakespeare portfolio. The Print Room, Jan. cat. 16, #105 (£100).

BASIRE, JAMES (Blake’s master)

“The Farmer’s Return,” after Hogarth, 1762. The Print Room, Dec. cat. 18, #57, trimmed within platemark (£65).

“View of the Cathedral of Christ Church, and Part of Corpus Christi College,” c. 1795. The Print Room, Dec. cat. 18, #58, trimmed on platemark, library stamp affecting title area (£100).

CALVERT, EDWARD

Study of a Shepherd Seated Under a Tree, a Classical Temple Beyond. Oil, 7 × 18.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #8 (£1265).

FLAXMAN, JOHN

A group of 7 drawings. Abbott and Holder, June cat. 305, sold individually as follows: #50, head studies, pen and ink, from the de Pass collection, 7.6 × 8.9 cm. (£90); #51, naked men wrestling, pen and ink, 11.4 × 12.7 cm. (£65); #52, inscribed “Chessmen designed by Flaxman,” pen and ink, 10.2 × 17.8 cm. (£65); #53, design for a tomb, pencil, 17.8 × 15.2 cm. (£110); #54, man expressing horror, 2 ink studies, another in pencil on verso, 17.8 × 15.2 cm. (£125); #55, seated Greek girl, pen and ink, 17.8 × 15.2 cm. (£75); #56, figure studies, pencil, pen and ink, 17.8 × 15.2 cm. (£175).

A folio of studies for sculpture intended for Buckingham Palace. 6 on 5 sheets, pen and gray ink, brown wash, “various sizes.” SL, 3 April, #18 (not sold; estimate £500-700).

Head Studies. Pen and gray ink, 18 × 13.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #14, illus. (not sold; estimate £500-700).

Massacre of the Innocents. Pen and ink, gray wash over pencil, 12.5 × 19 cm. SL, 3 April, #13 (not sold; estimate 500-700).

Portrait of Flaxman, attributed to John Raphael Smith. Pastel, 24.2 × 18.7 cm. CL, 9 July, #17, illus. color (not sold; estimate £7000-10,000).

Portrait Study of Mrs. Mathew. Pencil, 26.3 × 18.7 cm. CL, 9 July, #20, illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-5000).

Studies of Matilda Lowry. 2 pencil drawings, 18.4 × 13.7 cm. and 18.1 × 13 cm., both dated 1803. CL, 9 July, #18, drawing showing the subject standing illus. (£1150).

Study of the Head of Harriet Mathew. Pencil, 18.7 × 15.5 cm. CL, 9 July, #19, illus. (£1840).

Study of St. Paul, after Dürer. Brown wash over pencil, 72 × 50.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #12, illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).

Study of Two Women Grieving. Pen and gray ink, gray washes, 34 × 24 cm. An early work, rather soft and sentimental; perhaps a preparatory study for a funerary monument. SL, 14 Nov., #79, illus. (£20,700 on an estimate of £4000-6000. An auction record for a figure study by Flaxman).

Aeschylus designs, 1795. Walford, March cat. 22, #35, printed on paper watermarked 1801 and 1804 (£250).

Compositions of the Acts of Mercy, 1831. Marlborough Rare Books, Jan. private offer, contemporary quarter morocco, cloth boards (£1200); same copy and price, June cat. 166, #96, 1 pl. illus. See also Flaxman, Iliad designs, in Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Dante designs, 1807. Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, some pls. foxed, quarter calf ($750). Rainsford, May cat. A57, #137 (£200). Robert Clark, Oct. cat. 45, #242, some foxing, “original”(?) brown cloth rebacked, printed label (£150).

Flaxman, Anatomical Studies, 1833. Marlborough Rare Books, June cat. 166, #95, original boards rebacked, covers “bubbled” (£480).

Hesiod, Odyssey, Aeschylus, and Sujets Divers, engraved by Reveil, n.d. Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, 4 vols. in 1, the Sujets Divers lacking the folding pl. of Flaxman’s shield of Achilles, quarter calf ($300).

Iliad designs. Antiquariat Franz Deuticke, Vienna, Sept. cat. begin page 111 | back to top

6 Head of a Man, attributed to Blake.   Pencil, 5 × 4 cm. on sheet 8.5 × 6 cm. Collection of David Bindman, who first suggested that this work may be by Blake. Bindman discovered this drawing in an album once in the possession of the family of the engraver Wilson Lowry (1762-1824) containing many drawings by the Lowry family and by John Varley. This context suggests that the drawing may be connected with Abraham Rees, The Cyclopœdia (1820), a publication for which Blake engraved 7 plates and Lowry a great many. The image in Rees closest to this drawing is to my eye the “Mask of the Hercules furens of Euripides from a Marble in the Palace Albani in Rome” illustrated on plate 2 of “Ancient Musical Instruments & Masks.” There are a number of differences, including the Assyrian or Babylonian, rather than Grecian, style of the drawn head or mask. The plate is unsigned; but the precedent for Blake having sketched an image for an unsigned plate in Rees has been established by Butlin #678, a sheet bearing pencil studies of a sphinx and Jupiter engraved on “Basso Relievo” plate 1. Bindman, in correspondence, has questioned this connection and suggests that the drawing may represent medieval armor. Blake engraved a plate for Rees titled “Armour Plate IV & V,” but nothing in it or any of the other armor illustrations corresponds to the drawing. Nonetheless, both Bindman and I believe that this very small drawing is probably by Blake.
254, #2105, with the Odyssey designs, both engraved by Riepenhausen, reissue of c. 1855 of the 1817 pls., lacking 1 pl. (1500 Austrian shillings); #2106, 1793 ed. engraved by Piroli, bound with the Odyssey, 1793 ed. engraved by Piroli, the Odyssey lacking 1 pl. (2800 Austrian shillings).

Keepsake, 1831. W. & V. Dailey, March private offer, half calf ($150).

Milton, Latin and Italian Poems, trans. Cowper, ed. Hayley, 1808. Stuart Bennett, May cat. 24, #125, full morocco by George Mullen of Dublin, rebacked ($450); Ravenstree, Oct. cat. 180, #25, some browning and foxing, uncut in quarter morocco worn ($750).

Odyssey designs, 1805. Robert Clark, Oct. cat. 45, #241, some foxing, original boards with printed label, worn, spine defective (£85).

FUSELI, HENRY

An Idealized Portrait Study of Martha Hess, bust-length. Pencil. 11.4 × 8.3 cm. CL, 9 July, #16, illus. (not sold; estimate £5000-7000).

The Nursery of Shakespeare. Oil, 18.3 × 15.3 cm. Offered Germann auction, Zürich, 12 Nov., lot # and price not obtainable. For a color illus., see Burlington Magazine 138 (Oct. 1996): xiii.

Portrait of the Artist’s Wife. Oil sketch on paper, 22 × 18.5 cm. oval. Advertised by Thomas Le Clair, Hamburg, Burlington Magazine 137 (Dec. 1995): vii, illus. color (not priced). The work was exhibited at W. Mark Brady & Co., New York, 10-27 Jan. 1996, #10 in the cat.

Portrait of Fuseli, by George Henry Harlow. Oil, 50.8 × 39.4 cm., dated “May 1818” on the back by the Robert Balmanno, who commissioned the painting. SL, 23 April, #235, illus. (£6900 on an estimate of £2000-3000).

Saul and the Witch of Endor (recto), A Female Figure, perhaps Ophelia (verso). Pencil, pen and ink, brown wash, 41.6 × 53 cm., signed “H Fuseli.” CL, 9 July, #5, recto illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).

Study of Sarah Siddons as Lady Constance in Shakespeare’s “King John”. Pencil, 18.5 × 23 cm. SL, 3 April, #20, illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-4000).

A Witch at Work. Pencil, approx. 17 × 11 cm. John Windle, May private offer (price on application). The witch in this sketch is very similar to the one upper left in Two Witches begin page 112 | back to top at Work, a pen and ink drawing in the Kunsthaus, Zurich. For an illus. of the Kunsthaus drawing, see Paul Ganz, The Drawings of Henry Fuseli (New York: Chanticleer, P, 1949) 42.

Zacharias Writing the Name of His Son John the Baptist on a Tablet in His Lap. Pencil, 41.5 × 28 cm., inscribed “Roma 70.” SL, 3 April, #19, illus. (not sold; estimate £8000-12,000).

Autograph draft of Fuseli’s report to the Council of the Royal Academy for 1821, 5 pp. on paper with an 1820 watermark. Roy Davids, July cat. of “Manuscripts, Literary Portraits, and Association Items,” #51 (£750).

Bible, published Macklin, 1800. Sotheran’s, June cat. 34, #10, 6 vols., some foxing of pls. (£1498). SL, 11 July, #74, 7 vols. in 6, contemporary morocco rebacked (£1610).

Boydell, Collection of Prints . . . Illustrating . . . Shakspeare. Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, London 1803 ed., 2 vols. in 1, pls. very clean, original(?) calf richly gilt ($15,000); Philadelphia ed., n.d., 2 vols., with the pl. descriptions not in the London ed., contemporary half russia ($9,250); London ed. only, Dec. cat. 202, #323 ($15,000).

British Classics (1803-10), with Drake, Essays (1805, 1809-10). Ursus Rare Books, Jan. private offer, 29 vols., fine contemporary morocco ($7500).

Fuseli, Lectures on Painting, 1820. Quaritch, June art cat., #69, contemporary calf worn (£175).

Gray, Poems, Du Roveray ed., 1800. John Windle, Feb. private offer, small-paper issue with the half-title, early morocco worn (price on application). Claude Cox, July cat. 115, #19, large-paper issue, some light soiling, contemporary calf rebacked (£65).

Homer, Iliad and Odyssey, trans. Cowper, 1791. Simon Finch, June London Book Fair, 2 vols., Fuseli’s copy with 9 leaves of manuscript corrections by Fuseli bound at the end, sketch by Fuseli on the back of a letter by him to Thomas Coutts inserted, presentation inscription from Fuseli to Lady Guilford, later blue morocco (£4500); same copy, Sept. cat. 27, #43, bindings illus. (£6500).

Milton, Paradise Lost, 1802. Ravenstree, Oct. cat. 180, #60, 2 vols., apparently small paper, contemporary calf rebacked, worn ($950). For pre-publication proofs of the 6 pls. after Fuseli, see the extra-illus. copy of Milton, Poetical Works, under Stothard, below.

Milton, Paradise Lost, 1807. Dirk Cable, Aug. private offer, 2 vols., contemporary calf worn ($60). With re-engravings

7 St. Paul Before Felix and Drusilla: “Felix Trembles.”   Water color, 37.5 × 35.9 cm., c. 1800-03. Butlin #508. Gift of William Bowmore OBE through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation, Aug. 1995, and since then in the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. See Anon., “William Bowmore: Another Major Gift,” Art Gallery of South Australia News, Dec. 1995 / Jan. 1996, unpaginated folder (illus. color). Bowmore acquired the work in 1975. For the subject, see Acts 24:24-27. Paul, having been arrested for “sedition” (Acts 24:5) and still “bound” with chains, preaches about his “faith in Christ” before Antonius Felix, the Roman procurator of Judaea, and his wife Drusilla. The gestures Blake gives to the couple would seem to have been prompted by “Felix trembled” (Acts 24:25). Could Blake’s own scrape with the law concerning seditious expressions have led him to this subject? If so, then the water color would have to be dated to August 1803 or later. Photo courtesy of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
by Lazars of 5 of the 6 pls. after Fuseli first published in the 1802 ed., above.

Milton, Paradise Lost, 1808. Ravenstree, Oct. cat. 180, #61, full morocco worn and shaken ($385). Contains the 6 pls. after Fuseli first published in the 1802 ed., above.

A Series of Engravings to Illustrate the Works of Shakspeare, by Heath, Hall, Rhodes, Fitler, etc., 1817. CSK, 20 Sept., #164, with 3 pls. after Fuseli, at least 1 after Stothard, original boards worn (£127).

Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802. Golden Legends, Feb.

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Los Angeles Book Fair, 9 vols., 97 pls. only, lacking Blake’s pl. but with Fuseli’s, all pls. hand colored, contemporary morocco rebacked ($15,000).

Shakespeare, The Plays, Stockdale ed., 1807. Bauman Rare Books, Jan. cat. “Paradise,” #243, 6 vols., early three-quarter calf rebacked over marbled boards ($3500).

Shakespeare, The Plays and Poems, ed. Valpy, 1832. Robert Frew, March cat. 7, #261, 15 vols., 170 outline pls. based on the Boydell Shakespeare, half morocco (£650).

Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 1769. Richard Budd Books, June cat. 25, #182, the (pirated?) ed. with unsigned pls., 4 vols. (£130, sold to D. W. Dörrbecker for £85 when the ed. was properly identified).

Young, Catalogue of Pictures by British Artists in the Possession of Sir John Fleming Leicester, 1821. BBA, 15 Aug., #41, pls. on laid India, minor spotting, contemporary calf rebacked (Sims Reed, £92).

Young, Catalogue of the . . . Collection of . . . Angerstein, 1823. BBA, 14 Dec. 1995, #319, half morocco worn (Hetherington, £57).

LINNELL, JOHN

Coastal Landscape with Fishermen at Low Tide. Oil, 29.5 × 45 cm., signed and dated 1815-75, with a sketch on the verso and inscribed “so much painted 1815 / & the rest added 1875 / & made one picture—John Linnell.” SL, 3 April, #97, illus. color (£4370).

Portrait of Thomas Cadby. Oil, 28 × 22 cm., signed and dated 1820. SL, 10 July, #60, illus. color (not sold; estimate £4000-6000).

Portrait of the Rev. Robert Clarke Caswell. Oil, 26 × 20.5 cm., datable to 1841. SL, 9 May, #33 (£414).

Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Clare, a pair. Oils, each 43 × 34.5 cm., the portrait of the man signed and dated 1834, the portrait of the woman signed but not dated. SL, 13 Nov., #82, both illus. color (£3220).

The Sheep Shearer (recto), Studies of Sheep (verso). Pencil and water color, 25.1 × 42.8 cm. CL, 9 July, #45, recto illus. (withdrawn).

View of Lymington and View of Bayswater. 2 drawings, pencil, each 11.1 × 16.8 cm., signed and dated 1815 (Lymington) and 1811 (Bayswater). CL, 9 July, #81 (£299).

Windsor Park. Oil, signed and dated 1863, 51 × 71 cm. SL, 6 Nov., #119, illus. color (£4600).

The Wold of Kent. Oil, 64.5 × 91.5 cm., signed and dated 1853. CL, 29 March, #170, illus. color (£14,950).

MORTIMER, JOHN HAMILTON

Four Banditti Resting under a Tree. Pen and black ink, 26.5 × 20.5 cm. SL, 14 Nov., #69, illus. (not sold; estimate £800-1200).

Progress of Vice: Preparation for the Execution. Oil, 75 × 62 cm., signed with monogram and dated 1774. SL, 3 April, #129, illus. color (£4140).

Studies of a Seated Woman and Standing Figures. Pencil, pen and brown ink on 3 sheets, 14 × 18.1 cm. and smaller. CL, 12 Nov., #19 (not sold; estimate £600-800).

“An Academy,” Ravenet after Mortimer, 1771. The Print Room, June cat. 17, #467, illus. (£400).

“Banditti,” Boyne after Mortimer. The Print Room, Jan. cat. 16, #112, illus. (£100). An anti-Whig caricature based on Mortimer’s famous Banditti scene, with Fox dressed as a roman Centurion, Sheridan as a moneylender, and the murdered bodies of Ashburton and Shelburne under the table.

Shakespeare characters. Christopher Mendez, July private offer, 1st issue of 6 (Bardolph, Caliban, Edgar, The Poet, Ophelia, Richard II) before borders, with Mortimer’s initials in ink, wide margins, some margins with corners cut or stained (£2000).

PALMER, SAMUEL

Crossing the Ford. Water color, 51.4 × 70.5 cm., signed and dated 1846. Leger Galleries, May cat. of British Paintings, Water Colors, and Drawings, no. item no. (pp. 46-47), illus. color (£75,000).

In Cusop Dingle, Near Hay-On-Wye, Wales. Brown washes over pencil with touches of body color on gray paper, dated 24 June 1837, 27.5 × 38 cm. SL, 14 Nov., #110, illus. color (£32,200 on an estimate of £8000-12,000).

Landscape with Cottage Roof. Water color, 15.2 × 26.6 cm., datable to c. 1845. Angew’s, 123rd annual exhibition of English water colors and drawings, March, #85, illus. (price on application).

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Near Underriver, Sevenoaks, Kent. Water color, 26.5 × 36.5 cm., datable to c. 1843. Angew’s, 123rd annual exhibition of English water colors and drawings, March, #84, illus. color (price on application).

Sabrina. Water color and body color, 53 × 75 cm. SL, 3 April, #168, illus. color (£47,700). See illus. 10.

Study of Boats on a Lake by Moonlight. Brown wash, 8 × 11 cm. An early, pre-Shoreham, wash drawing. SL, 14 Nov., #130, illus. (£1265).

Letter to John Wright, 15 Feb. 1865, 4 pp. David Schulson Autographs, Dec. cat. 87, #92, with a passing reference to “Blake’s various works” as suitable for collecting ($2750). For the text of this letter, see The Letters of Samuel Palmer, ed. Raymond Lister (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1974) 2: 727-28.

Letter to the etcher Thomas Oldham Barlow, 30 Sept. 1876. Roy Davids, May cat., #106 ($1940). Palmer comments on modern graphic techniques, including his dislike of retroussage and his belief “that the charm of Etching is the glimmering through of the white paper, even in the shadows. . . .” According to the cat., “only about half” of this important letter is printed in The Letters of Samuel Palmer, ed. Raymond Lister (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1974) 2: 931-32 (reported by Lister as “not traced”).

“The Early Ploughman,” etching. CL, 27 June, #229A, 4th st. (£287). SL, 25 Oct., #83, 8th st., pencil signature, minor foxing in margins, verso stained, illus. (£517). CNY, 6 Nov., #304, 4th st., with black ink additions and scratching out, inscribed “Touched,” illus. ($4370).

“The Rising Moon,” etching. CL, 27 June, #228, 5th st., inscribed in pencil “Trial proof before plate was cut,” from the collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes (£1265). CNY, 6 Nov., #303, 2nd st., with additions in pencil, inscribed “retouched,” illus. ($4025).

“The Weary Ploughman,” etching. CL, 27 June, #229, 7th st., pencil signature (£1380).

“The Willow,” etching. Veronica Watts, June London Book Fair, final st., printing in the 1920s (£325).

Adams, Sacred Allegories, 1856. John Windle, Jan. cat. 25, #77, original cloth ($400).

Dickens, Pictures from Italy, 1846. The Fine Books Co., Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, original cloth ($275). Robert Frew, Sept. cat. 8, #242, original cloth (£175).

Hamerton, Etching and Etchers. BBA, 8 Feb., #30, 1880 ed., with Palmer’s etching, “Herdsman’s Cottage,” 2nd st., occasional spotting, contemporary morocco (Hay Cinema, £391). Bernard Shapero, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1880 ed., with Palmer’s etching, “Herdsman’s Cottage,” 2nd st., modern half calf ($650). F.A. Bernett, March cat. 300, #105, 1880 ed., with Palmer’s etching, “Herdsman’s Cottage,” 2nd st. ($1250). SL, 23 April, #240, 1868 ed., with Palmer’s etching, “Early Ploughman,” 4th st., original roan-backed cloth (£529). Wilsey Rare Books, Oct. cat. 33, #71, 1880 ed., with Palmer’s etching, “Herdsman’s Cottage,” 2nd st., full morocco by Bedford ($1500).

Keats, Works, ed. Forman, 1883. Bernard Shapero, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 5 vols., modern half calf ($1300).

Milton, Shorter Poems, 1889. Robert Clark, April cat. 43, #244, small-paper copy (£255). Clearwater Books, July cat. 62, #223, “folio” (i.e., large-paper copy?), rebound in half pigskin (£350); same copy and price, Oct. cat. 65, #160. Argosy Book Store, Nov. cat. 816, #412, large-paper copy, original vellum rebacked with calf, covers soiled ($300).

A. H. Palmer, Life and Letters of S. Palmer, 1892. John Windle, Jan. cat. 25, #75, small-paper issue, original cloth ($750).

A. H. Palmer, S. Palmer: A Memoir, 1882. John Windle, Jan. cat. 25, #76, original quarter morocco, inscribed by A. H. Palmer to F.G. Stephens, with an inserted letter of 21 March 1883 from A. H. Palmer to Stephens about the printing of S. Palmer’s Virgil etchings ($1250).

Virgil, English Version of the Eclogues, 1883. John Windle, Jan. cat. 25, #74, “large-paper” (but the binding indicates small), stamped as the publisher’s file copy, unopened, original cloth repaired ($1250). Wilsey Rare Books, Jan. cat. 32, #74, large paper, 1 of 10 copies for presentation, letter from A. H. Palmer presenting the book to Martin Hardie laid in, original vellum ($3000).

RICHMOND, JOHN

A Damned Soul Hanging from a Gothic Building. Pen and brown ink, colored washes, 7.5 × 6.5 cm. on the verso of a letter dated 1823. Garton & Co., July private offer ($7000). For illus., see Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography (London: Robin Garton Ltd., 1981) 27. Previously sold SL, 18 Nov. 1976, #178 (£370).

Figures in Classical Dress Gathered at the Edge of a Path. Pencil and water color, 24.4 × 15.9 cm., signed and dated “Rome. 1838.” CL, 9 July, #6, illus. (not sold; estimate £1500-2000).

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8 The “Weather-house” and “Cowper’s tame Hares,” wood engraving, 11 × 8.3 cm., by Alexander Anderson after Blake’s design of the weather-house.   Published in William Hayley, The Life and Posthumous Writings of William Cowper (New York: T. and J. Swords, 1803) 2: 245. Essick collection. “Anderson F[ecit].” is cut in white line in the edge of the thatch above the tree trunk on the left. Anderson (1775-1870) has been considered by some authorities as the father of American wood engraving. The text above the design, the last line below the design, and the 5 lines of verse in the panel on the steps of the weather-house are printed in letterpress; all other letters are part of the wood engraving. In the 1803-04 London ed., with 5 plates engraved by Blake, this design is signed “Blake d & sc” lower left beneath the base of the weather-house. It seems probable that Blake not only delineated the preliminary sketch or wash drawing for the engraving, but also designed/invented the image of the weather-house (but not the medallion of Cowper’s rabbits). Thus, the wood engraving reproduced here belongs in the category of prints designed by Blake but executed by another engraver within Blake’s lifetime, much like the plates in the Paris 1799 ed. of Marie et Caroline, based on Blake’s plates after his own designs first published in Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories from Real Life, 1791 (for Marie et Caroline see G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books Supplement [Oxford: Clarendon P, 1995] 265-69). In both instances, the engravings by other hands were probably copied from the earlier plates both designed and executed by Blake, not from his original drawings. Thus, the genre of re-engraving described here should be distinguished from plates such as those in Robert Cromek’s 1808 ed. of Blair’s Grave, with engravings (not re-engravings) by Louis Schiavonetti based on Blake’s original drawings commissioned by Cromek.

The New York ed. of Hayley’s book also contains two engravings by Peter Maverick (1780-1831) based on George Romney’s portrait of Cowper (1: frontispiece) and on D. Heins’s portrait of Cowper’s mother (1: 3). Like the weather-house, these plates were very probably copied after Blake’s larger engravings of the same images in the London ed. These portraits constitute yet another (and decidedly minor) genre: re-engravings based on plates originally executed by Blake after designs by other artists. Bentley 577 notes Maverick’s contributions to the New York ed. but does not record Anderson’s wood engraving after Blake.
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In the First Garden. Water color on ivory, 21.6 × 14.6 cm., dated to 1828. Bonhams Auction, London, 13 March, #69, illus. color (£55,000 in the price list on an estimate of £50,000-80,000). In its price lists, Bonhams records the hammer price (i.e., the winning bid) exclusive of buyer’s fees (15% on the first £30,000; 10% thereafter). See illus. 11.

Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian on the Delectable Mountain. Oil, 48 × 38 cm., datable to the early 1830s. SL, 10 July, #109, illus. color (not sold; estimate £20,000-30,000).

Study for The Eve of Separation. Pencil, approx. 12.5 × 10.5 cm., pasted to a sheet with a sketch of a leg and a hand, also by Richmond. Garton & Co., July private offer ($11,000).

A Young Girl Resting Under a Tree. Oil, 30.5 × 35.6 cm. Spink, April “Small Picture Show” cat., #30, dated to the early 1830s by Spink, illus. color (price on application).

ROMNEY, GEORGE

A folio of drawings. 4 sheets, pencil, 1 with pen and brown ink, the largest 28 × 41.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #34, 1 sheet illus. (£345).

A folio of drawings. 3 sheets, 2 pen and ink, 1 pencil, each approx. 19.5 × 16 cm. SL, 3 April, #35, 1 sheet illus. (£747).

A folio of studies for The Sisters, Contemplating on Mortality. 6 on 4 sheets, pencil, 2 with pen and ink, sheets approx. 15 × 20.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #37 (£402).

A folio of studies of John Howard, the Prison Reformer, Visiting a Lazaretto. 3 sheets, pencil, 14 × 23 cm. and 2 sheets 18 × 13.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #36, 1 illus. (£402).

Death Scene, Possibly the Death of Hector. Oil, oval, 29 × 35 cm. SL, 10 July, #99, illus. color (£1840).

Studies for the Head of David. Pen and brown ink, 17 × 14 cm. SL, 3 April, #38 (£437).

SHERMAN, WELBY

“The Shepherd,” etching/engraving probably based on a design by Palmer. N. W. Lott, Feb. private offer, 1 of about 5 known impressions (price on application).

STOTHARD, THOMAS

Group of 6 wash drawings, 3 colored, 6.5 × 6.5 cm. to 11 × 8 cm., signed. BBA, 6 June, #86 (Krown & Spellman, £161).

9 A tattoo based on Europe, pl. 1 (“The Ancient of Days”).   Black ink beneath human skin, 17 × 11 cm., on the left leg of Charles A. Bufalino, Riverside, California. Executed by “Jason” at Body Adornments, Santa Cruz, California, Feb. 1993, based on a drawing by “Cooper” adapted from Blake’s relief etching. Photo by R. Essick, digitalized and enlarged by J. Sullivan, Sept. 1996. In A Vision of the Last Judgment, Blake asks us to “Enter into” his “Images” (E 560). Bufalino has reversed and literalized this suggestion by entering one of Blake’s most famous images into his body.

The Procession of the Flitch of Bacon at Dunmow, Essex. Pencil, pen and gray ink, gray wash, on 2 joined sheets, 30.5 × 76.8 cm. CL, 9 July, #21, illus. (£2875).

Roman Soldiers, pen and ink, gray wash, approx. 9 × 10 cm. Abbott & Holder, June private offer (£70).

A Street Scene, Southall. Pencil, pen and gray ink, water color, 12.7 × 8.9 cm., signed. CL, 9 July, #74 (£1955).

When Love Was a Boy. Water color, 14 × 17.8 cm. Bonhams Auction, London, 13 March, #90, illus. (not sold; estimate £200-300).

Aesop, Fables, 1793. Heritage Book Shop, March private offer, 2 vols., recent calf ($1250); another copy, 2 vols., title page to vol. 1 with the vignette after Stothard worn and rubbed, contemporary calf, modern folding case ($1500). Beeleigh Abbey Books, June cat. BA/58, #72, 2 vols., some foxing, full morocco rubbed (£450). Claude Cox, July cat. 115, #18, 2 vols., later calf (£165).

Akenside, Pleasures of the Imagination, 1810. Charles Traylen, Nov. cat. 120, #189 (£20).

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10 Samuel Palmer, Sabrina, an illustration to Milton’s Comus.   Water color and body color, squared for copying. 53 × 75 cm., datable to 1856. Sabrina stands on the left, near “the smooth Severn stream,” where she visits “her herds along the twilight meadows” (Comus, lines 825, 844). The very light squaring may have been executed in preparation for the more highly finished water color of the design, last recorded in a Christie’s sale of 18 March 1935, #38, and since untraced. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.

Anon., The Victim, in Five Letters to Adolphus, 3rd ed., London, 1819. Stuart Bennett, Feb. cat. 23, #139, frontispiece by James Parker (Blake’s fellow apprentice under Basire) after Stothard, contemporary calf rebacked ($200). The pl., inscribed “The Victim,” is described in A. C. Coxhead, Thomas Stothard, R. A.: An Illustrated Monograph (London: Bullen, 1906) 199, but the book for which it was made has not been previously recorded. The imprint on the pl. is dated 1800, and thus it seems probable that the pl. also appeared in the 1st (1800) and 2nd (date unknown) eds. of the book. According to Bennett’s sale cat., The Victim is about prostitution.

Armstrong, Art of Preserving Health, 1795. Claude Cox, Jan. cat. 112, #48, slight waterstaining in upper margin of pls. (£45).

Bell’s British Theatre, 1791-95. Robert Frew, June London Book Fair, 26 vols., lacking some pls. but including at least 1 after Stothard, contemporary calf worn (£350).

Bible, published Macklin, 1800. See under Fuseli, above.

Bijou, 1828. Thomas Thorp, May cat. 492, #34, slight foxing, publisher’s roan-backed boards worn (£60). Claude Cox, Nov. cat. 117, #193, slight spotting, original morocco-backed boards (£55).

Boccaccio, Decamerone, Pickering ed., 1825. Pickering & Chatto, March cat. 173, #16, 3 vols., contemporary morocco ($400).

Book of Gems, 1868. Ian Hodgkins, June cat. 87, #48, foxed, morocco backed boards (£120).

Bray, Life of Stothard, 1851, extra-illustrated copies only. Robert Clark, Jan. cat. 42, #216, extended to 2 vols. with c. 125 engravings after Stothard, many illustrating Shakespeare, 19th-century morocco rubbed (£400).

Catullus, Tibullus et Propertius, Pickering ed., 1824. Claude Cox, July cat. 115, #213, uncut in original cloth, rubbed (£45).

Cowper, Poems, 1800. William Allen, May cat. 323, #2569, 2 vols., 1 pl. loose and torn ($15). Howes Bookshop, Oct. cat. 272, #146, 2 vols. (£95).

Cromek, Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, 1810. Blackwell’s, July cat. B117, #93, half roan (£90).

Defoe, Robinson Crusoe. Heritage Book Shop, Feb. private offer, 1883 ed., 2 vols., extra-illus. with the Stothard designs engraved by “J. Stephenson” (probably James Stephenson, 1828-86), quarter calf ($680). The Stephenson pls. have not been previously recorded.

Falconer, Shipwreck, 1794. Howes Bookshop, March cat. 269, #65 (£45).

Fénelon, Adventures of Telemachus, 1795. Howes Bookshop, March cat. 269, #70, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf worn (£120).

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1788. W. & V. Dailey, March private offer, contemporary calf ($150).

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The Keepsake. The Fine Books Co., Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 4 vols., 1831-33, 1835, modern cloth ($385 the set). BBA, 25 April, #474, 9 vols., 1828-36, browned, contemporary half morocco worn (Cudia, £149 on an estimate of £30-40). The vols. for 1828-30, 1832, and 1834-36 contain pls. after Stothard.

Literary Souvenir, ed. Watts, 1832. John Hart, Feb. cat. 37, #3, original morocco (£45).

Milton, Paradise Lost, Pickering ed., 1828. Pickering & Chatto, March cat. 173, #82, contemporary cloth slightly worn ($135). The frontispiece by Augustus Fox after Stothard has not been recorded in the literature on Stothard, but it is noted in Geoffrey Keynes, William Pickering, Publisher: A Memoir and a Check-List of His Publications, rev. ed. (London: Galahad P, [1969]) 79.

Milton, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, Comus, Arcades, Lycidas, etc., etc., pub. Tegg, 1823. Dirk Cable, Aug. private offer, contemporary (publisher’s?) calf gilt ($85).

Milton, Poetical Works, pub. Sharpe, 1810. William Reese, Feb. cat. 153, #458, 3 vols., extra-illus. copy, 19th-century morocco ($350). Besides the 3 title-page vignettes after Stothard, apparently 1st used in a Sharpe ed. of 1805, there is an added pl. in the Reese copy, with the scratched signatures of Stothard and Legat (the latter as the engraver) that would seem to be a composite illus. to “L’Allegro” and “Il Penseroso.” I have not been able to identify the ed. for which this pl. was executed. Also added are pre-publication proofs of the pls. from Milton, Paradise Lost, published by Du Roveray in 1802. Pls. 1 and 3 after Fuseli are before all letters, pls. 2, 4, and 6 bear only scratched signatures; pl. 5 has scratched signatures but lacks the ruled frame. These proofs are printed on the same laid paper used in the large-paper issue of Du Roveray’s 1802 Paradise Lost.

Novelist’s Magazine, 1783. W. & V. Dailey, Peter Wilkins only, extracted, modern quarter calf ($150).

Poets of Great Britain, pub. Bell, 1772-84. Charles Traylen, July cat. 119, #258, vols. 1-53 only, in a wood cabinet, from the library of Robert Burns (£6000).

Pope, Essay on Man, 1822. Adam Mills, Sept. cat. 38, #133, uncut in original printed boards (£28).

Rogers, Italy. William Hale, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1830 ed., early calf ($250). Francis Edwards, Feb. cat. 1318, #162, 1836 ed., apparently with the steel engravings after Stothard 1st pub. in 1830 (this 1836 ed. not previously recorded), some light spotting, morocco worn (£40). Maggs, April cat. 1206, #371, 1830 ed., with Roger, Poems, 1834,

11 George Richmond, In the First Garden.   Water color on ivory, 21.6 × 14.6 cm., dated to 1828. The figure of Eve is very similar to her portrayal in Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (also called The Fall of Man), a pencil and chalk drawing by Richmond sold SL, 10 July 1986, #88, illus. (£880). The water color illustrated here was untraced since its sale at the auction of works from Richmond’s studio in 1896 until 1995. It was purchased in 1896 by Richmond’s daughter, Julia Robinson, from whom it descended through a branch of the family residing in Jersey. The work was stored in an attic until rediscovered in 1995 and presented on Antiques Roadshow, a British television program in which people bring various artifacts (mostly junk or a notch above) before art dealers for their appraisals. For a color illus. and brief comments, see Huon Mallalieu, “Around the Salerooms,[e]Country Life 190 (4 April 1996): 72-73. Photo courtesy of Bonhams.
both uncut in original boards, hinges worn (£175). BBA, 25 April, #343, 1838 ed., large paper, pls. on laid India, scattered foxing, contemporary morocco (R. Clark, £184 on an estimate of £60-80); same copy, Robert Clark, Aug. cat. 44, #320 (£250). BBA, 9 May, #12, 1838 ed., with Rogers, Poems, 1838, pls. on laid India in Italy, contemporary morocco by Hayday, slightly rubbed (Marks, £276). Claude Cox, Sept. cat. 116, #78, 1830 ed., browned, uncut in modern half morocco (£60); #188, 1839 ed., uncut in original begin page 119 | back to top cloth (£28). Jeff Weber, Nov. cat. 43, #78, 1830 ed., some light foxing, fancy calf binding, silk endpapers, fore-edge painting of a view of Vesuvius painted by Martin Frost, c. 1994-95 ($750).

Rogers, Poems. SL, 18 Dec. 1995, #201, Moxon 1839 ed., no pls. described but probably with the wood engravings by Clennell after Stothard, inscribed “From the author to his Friend Mary Shelley,” original cloth worn, hinges repaired with paper (Spademan, £460). Robert Clark, Jan. cat. 42, #260, 1816 ed., “contemporary binding” rubbed (£35). Robert Frew, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1838 ed., contemporary calf ($225). Second Story Books, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1834 ed., elaborately decorated Victorian vellum ($150). Howes Bookshop, March cat. 269, #763, 1834 ed., with Italy, 1836 ed., some foxing, 2 vols. uniformly bound in contemporary half morocco (£125). Ian Hodgkins, June cat. 87, #226, 1860 ed., scattered foxings publisher’s cloth worn (£38). Peter Baring, July London Book Fair, 1838 ed., with Italy, 1838 ed., both large paper, published proofs on laid India in Poems, lettered sts. in Italy, matching contemporary morocco (£550). David Downes, July private offer, 1822 ed., quarter calf (£40): Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 4 Dec., #798, 1816 ed., wood engravings by Clennell after Stothard, uncut in original boards, title page illus. (estimate IR£200-300).

Rogers, Poetical Works, 1856. Bernard Shapero, Jan. cat., #151, with the Clennell wood engravings after Stothard, later ¾ morocco (£85).

Sargent, The Mine, 1788. Poetry Bookshop, May cat. 6, #19, some foxing of pls. (£45).

A Series of Engravings to Illustrate the Works of Shakspeare, by Heath, Hall, Rhodes, Fitler, etc., 1817. See under Fuseli, above.

Shakespeare, New Edition of Shakespeare’s Plays, 1802-04. BBA, 6 June, #152a, 11 pls. only, described in the cat. as “Scenes from Shakespeare,” framed (not sold).

Shakespeare, The Plays, Stockdale ed., 1807. See under Fuseli, above.

Shakespeare, The Plays, Pickering ed., 1825. SL, 23 April, #129, 9 vols., original cloth worn (£322).

Shakespeare, Seven Ages of Man, 8 pls. after Stothard, 1799. Heritage Book Shop, Dec. cat. 202, #324, “printed in color,” some light foxing, contemporary half morocco rebacked ($2250).

Somerville, The Chace, 1796. Phillip Pirages, Sept. cat. 37, #390, fine contemporary morocco, binding illus. color ($350).

Sterne, Sentimental Journey, 1792. Swann, 12 Dec., #336, contemporary calf ($175).

Townshend, Seasons, 1793. Richard Budd, Nov. cat. 28, #286, pls. foxed (£80).

Townshend, Poems, 1796. W. & V. Dailey, March private offer, large paper, top edge gilt, others uncut, half morocco ($250).

Walton, Complete Angler, Pickering ed., 1836. Heritage Book Shop, Feb. private offer, 2 vols., publisher’s(?) calf richly gilt ($1000); another copy, 2 vols., later calf ($680).

Young, Night Thoughts. J & J House, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, 1798 ed., contemporary calf ($300). Deighton, Bell, March cat. 269, #072, 1798 ed., later full morocco (£175). Howes Bookshop, Oct. cat. 272, #483, 1813 ed. (£125).

Young, Works, 1802. Howes Bookshop, March cat. 269, #204, 3 vols., contemporary morocco (£300). This ed., containing the Night Thoughts pls. of 1798 with 1802 imprints, has not been previously recorded. There is also an 1813 issue of Works with the same pls., the imprints of 1802 retained.

Yriarte, Music, A Didactic Poem, 1807. John Drury, July cat. 87, #140, uncut in boards rebacked ($250).

VON HOLST, THEODORE MATTHIAS

Bertalda Frightened by Apparitions. Oil, 78.5 × 62.5 cm. SL, 3 April, #130, illus. color (not sold; estimate £6000-8000).

Hero and Leander. Water color, signed with monogram and dated on the verso 1833, 25 × 18.5 cm. SL, 14 Nov., #96, illus. color (£3162).

Appendix: New Information on Blake’s Engravings

Listed below are substantive additions or corrections to 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.

The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” 3rd st., p. 66, copy 3R. Acquired July 1986 by the Frank Martin Gallery, begin page 120 | back to top Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Muhlenberg accession no. EL 85.70.0542.

“George Cumberland’s Card,” p. 113, impression 1M. Acquired Feb. by G. E. Bentley, Jr. For a previously unrecorded impression in black ink with a previously unrecorded watermark, see under “Separate Plates” in the sales lists above.

“Rev. John Caspar Lavater,” p. 156. The small portrait of Lavater signed “Holl sculp” was published in James Harrison, The Biographical Cabinet, 2 vols. (London: Sherwood, Jones, and Co., 1823), vol. 1, unpaginated.

Plates by Blake and Butts, Father and Son, pp. 211-12. To the list of plates by Thomas Butts, add the following: h. “Man on a Drinking Horse.” approx. 2.5 × 6.5 cm. Signed in the plate lower right, “T Butts sc / 12 Jany 1806.” An impression is in the collection of William L. Schneider, who informs me that the original mounting board (now removed) contained the following inscription: “Man on a Drinking Horse, an original engraving by Thomas Butts, Jr., now printed for the first time (from the original plate, engraved in 1806) in an exclusive edition of two hundred and fifty copies for members of the miniature print Society, 222 Dwight Building, Kansas City, Mo.”

William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations

P. 42, J. C. Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, pl. 4. In addition to the recorded signature (Blake sculp), below and to the right of the image, there is a signature (Blake Sc) very lightly scratched immediately below, and on the same slight diagonal as, the line defining the lower margin of the figure’s neck. Very small fragments of this previously-unrecorded signature are visible in Fig. 64 of William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations.

P. 42, J. C. Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, Literature: G. E. Bentley, Jr., “The Physiognomy of Lavater’s Essays: False Imprints ‘1792’ and ‘1789,’” Blake 29 (1995): 16-23 (a detailed examination of the book’s publishing history, showing that the “1792” edition could not have been printed before 1817).

P. 43, The Original Works of Hogarth, “Beggar’s Opera” engraved by Blake after Hogarth. An impression of the 4th st. from the 1822 ed., printed on laid India paper, is in the RNE collection (acquired March 1996 from N. W. Lott). This impression, along with other Hogarth prints from the 1822 ed. acquired by Lott, indicate that some copies of this ed. were printed on laid India.

P. 48, Darwin, Botanic Garden, pl. 6 (“Tornado”). The proof listed in Raymond Lister’s collection, lacking finishing work in the image but with all letters, was acquired in March 1996 by RNE from the print dealer N. W. Lott.

P. 86-87, Hayley, The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper, pls. 1 (portrait of Cowper after George Romney) and 2 (portrait of Hayley’s mother after D. Heins). Re-engravings of these plates, signed by the American engraver Peter Maverick, appear in the New York, 1803, ed. of Hayley’s book (1: frontispiece and 1: facing p. 3).

Pp. 88-98, Hayley, The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper, pl. 4 (the weather-house and Cowper’s tame hares). A wood engraving based on this plate, in part designed by Blake, appears in the edition of Hayley’s book published in New York in 1803 (2: 245). The wood engraving is signed “Anderson F[ecit].” (Alexander Anderson, 1775-1870). See illus. 8 in this sales review.

“False and Conjectural Attributions,” p. 126, no. 31, The Minor’s Pocket Book (1814). At the time of writing the catalogue, I had not seen this volume and its frontispiece, attributed to Blake in the BMPR acquisition records. A copy of the book was sold at Sotheby’s London, 21 Nov. 1996, lot 146, for £2415. The catalogue includes a reproduction of the unsigned frontispiece in question. In my opinion, the plate was neither designed nor engraved by Blake, although I must admit that the image of a child holding a snake before an ogre within a crepuscular forest has a haunting, gothic quality not unlike some of Blake’s darker images of the fallen world (e.g., the color print of “Hecate”). According to Sotheby’s catalogue, the full title, publisher, and actual date of the book is The Minor’s Pocket Book, for the Youth of Both Sexes ([London]: Darton, Harvey and Darton, [1813]). The authorship is attributed to Ann Taylor “and others.”

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