Blake in the Marketplace, 2012

By Robert N. Essick

Robert N. Essick has been collecting and writing about Blake for over forty years.

Table of Contents:

Introductory Essay

Abbreviations

Blake:

Interesting Blakeana

Blake’s Circle and Followers:

Appendix: New Information on Blake’s Engravings

The 2012 marketplace offered some notable Blake sales and discoveries. In my last report I briefly mentioned a previously unrecorded impression of pl. 15 from For Children: The Gates of Paradise (Blake 45.4 [spring 2012]: 109, 110). I am now able to provide further information about this uncommon print; see the first entry under Illuminated Books, below, and illus. 1 and its caption.

Copy Y of Songs of Innocence has had a difficult life. It was once part of a (presumably) complete copy hand colored by Blake, but after a fire in the 1890s the salvageable plates were divided into copies R (9 pls., now Keynes Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum) and Y (15 pls.).Neither copy includes the title page (BB pl. 3). The sequence of pen and ink numbers in copy R/Y indicates that 3 other pls. are missing, probably BB pls. 21, 53, and 54. Fire damage to copy R (and hence to Y) was first reported in Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of William Blake (New York: Grolier Club, 1921) 101 (copy R identified as copy M). The 1890s date of the fire is recorded in Keynes, Bibliotheca Bibliographici (London: Trianon P, 1964) 55, no. 508. Evidence for the fire is provided by one “scorched” leaf in copy R (Bibliotheca 55) and the darkened (probably singed) edges of other leaves in both copies. I do not know the basis for Keynes’s dating of the fire. The latter, acquired in 1962 by Walter Neuerburg, was on deposit at the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne from 1978 until the early years of this century. The owner, apparently Walter Neuerburg’s heir or heirs, reclaimed the prints in 2004 or 2005 and sold 8 in 6 lots at Sotheby’s New York on 1 November 2007.For information on copy Y, see Detlef W. Dörrbecker, “Innocence Lost and Found: An Untraced Copy Traced,” Blake 15.3 (winter 1981-82): 125-31. For copy R/Y, see Joseph Viscomi, Blake and the Idea of the Book (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993) 305-06, 308-09, 311-12, and BBS 119-20. For a report on the 2007 auction, see Blake 41.4 (spring 2008): 140, 142, 145, 146, and illus. 1-5. In late February 2012, I learned from John Windle that the same auction house would offer the remaining 7 plates of copy Y in 6 lots at its 26 April sale. Several characteristics, including different ink colors and the overwriting of poorly printed letters, indicate that Blake’s creation of Songs of Innocence copy R/Y was a reclamation project, similar in that respect to Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy E in the Huntington Library. Such copies largely comprise impressions that had originally been put aside because of weak printing of their texts. Thus, the dates of printing are not necessarily the same as the dates when the pages were selected, collated, numbered in pen and ink, and probably bound by Blake’s wife, Catherine. Some plates may have been colored, in whole or in part, shortly after printing; many plates were colored, or at least had their coloring augmented and many letters overwritten, when they were gathered into copies. Blake evidently assembled prints from several press runs in four ink colors—light brown, dark reddish brown, blue, gray-black—to create copy R/Y in about 1811. He strengthened poorly printed letters by hand, added a few gold highlights, and probably touched up the coloring of some of the designs. “Laughing Song,” however, stands out from the group because of its very different watercolor palette in the design. It was probably printed and hand tinted at an earlier date than its companions.

The auctioneer’s estimates for the plates of copy Y sold in 2007 were tantalizingly low, but the extraordinary prices they fetched—the result of two crazed Blake enthusiasts bidding against each other—prompted Sotheby’s to publish much higher estimates for the 2012 auction. “The Little Boy Lost,” however, was given an estimate lower than its companions because of the questionable authorship of the opaque white pigment applied to the text area—see the caption to illus. 7 for details. I did not attend the auction, but watched it live on Sotheby’s webcam. Prices were strong, with only one lot selling for a hammer price (the winning bid, exclusive of the buyer’s premium) below the estimate range, two lots selling within their ranges, and three lots attracting bids above their high estimates. John Windle, who attended the auction, purchased three lots for two clients. See the entry below under Illuminated Books and illus. 2-8 for further information.

Arthur Vershbow of Newton Centre, Massachusetts, died on 16 April 2012. His collection included posthumous copy p of Songs of Innocence and of Experience and two drawings by Blake, The Waking of Leonora, Design for the Tailpiece of Bürger’s “Leonora” (Butlin #338), and Colinet and Thenot, with Shepherds’ Crooks, Leaning against Trees (Butlin # 769.3), one of the preliminary drawings for Blake’s Virgil wood engravings. In October I learned that the Vershbow collection will go to auction at one of the major New York houses in April 2013.

Maurice Sendak died on 8 May 2012. Renowned for his children’s books and illustrations, Sendak was also a major collector of Blake. I do not know the full extent of his holdings, but record below important works owned by Sendak that I have listed in earlier sales reviews:

Illuminated Books
The First Book of Urizen pl. 3, design only color printed
Songs of Innocence copy J
Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy H

Drawings
The Bed of Death, pen and gray wash, Butlin #139
Oberon and Titania on a Lily, watercolor, Butlin #245
Paolo and Francesca (?), pencil, Butlin #816
With Songs the Jovial Hinds Return from Plow, wash preliminary for the Virgil wood engravings, Butlin #769.19

Separate Plates
“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” 3rd st.
“The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour,” 2nd st.

Letterpress Books with Engravings by Blake
William Hayley, Ballads, 1805. The pls. hand colored.
William Hayley, Little Tom the Sailor, 1800. Hand colored by Blake and/or his wife, Catherine. Virgil, Pastorals, 1821. Blake’s wood engraving, cuts 2-5, 1st proof st. before the individual designs were separated into 4 blocks and trimmed on their margins.

Sendak had a close relationship with the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, but as of January 2013 that institution is not in a position to confirm that his Blakes will be coming to them.

Grosvenor Prints, London, continues to turn up Blake rarities, although sometimes they do not know exactly what they have. In May I found on their web site a pre-publication proof of Blake’s “Death’s Door” engraved by Schiavonetti—see the entry under Blair, The Grave, under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, below.

In my 2011 sales review I briefly noted the discovery of several pictorial works by Blake: a watercolor with a verso drawing, a recto/verso pencil sketch, and a pen and ink drawing possibly by Blake, all in an album owned by a descendant of Charles Augustus Tulk—see Blake 45.4 (spring 2012): 109. The executors of the estate of James Richard Ley, who had inherited the album many years ago, considered giving it to the Tate in lieu of taxes. Their proposal was rejected by H. M. Revenue and Customs for technical reasons, and the executors sold the album in spring 2012 to the London dealer Lowell Libson.In an e-mail to John Windle, 7 June 2012, Libson stated that he had acquired the entire album. He has not answered my inquiries about the album. One work by Blake emerged onto the market by June and another in October—see Harpers and Other Drawings (a nonce title of my own devising) and Parental Affection (Libson’s title) under Drawings and Paintings, below, and illus. 9-12, 14. The verso of Harpers, bearing sketches for America and Europe (illus. 10-11), offers fascinating information about how Blake developed images for his illuminated books. I have not been able to acquire a high-resolution image, sufficient for reproduction in this journal, of Bearded Man and a Youth, my provisional title for the pen and ink drawing perhaps by Blake.

The Fine Art Society of London held a selling exhibition entitled “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers,” 30 May to 22 June. The handsome catalogue includes most of Palmer’s prints and also works by George Richmond and Welby Sherman. These are all listed under their respective artists in the section on Blake’s Circle and Followers, below.

The distinguished London art dealer Andrew Wyld died on 14 November 2011, aged only 62. Christie’s London auctioned most of his remaining stock on 10 July 2012. Wyld had sold his one Blake drawing to the Metropolitan Museum of Art shortly before his death,See The Resurrection or The Last Trumpet, Blake 45.4 (spring 2012): 110. For illus. of recto and verso and comments, see Martin Butlin, “A Blake Drawing Rediscovered and Redated,” Blake 34.1 (summer 2000): cover, 22-24. but the auction included numerous works by Blake’s circle and followers. These are listed below under each artist’s name.

The auction market for important works by Blake concluded in December with the “Enoch” lithograph (illus. 15) formerly in the collection of Edward Croft-Murray (1907-80), keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum from 1954 to 1973. This is one of four known impressions and one of only two remaining in private hands at the time of this auction. The verso bears an important inscription by George Cumberland describing the way Blake modified the lithographic process. Unfortunately, Cumberland used a very wet ink that soaked through to the recto and stained the area above the central figure’s head. Given this show-through and the other condition issues described in the caption to illus. 15, I thought the print was overestimated at £100,000-150,000. My prophetic powers failed once again; “Enoch” fetched a hammer price of £170,000 (£205,250 including the buyer’s premium) to a dealer on the telephone representing an American institution. I believe that this is the second highest price for any single print by Blake, exceeded only by the $3.9 million achieved by the large color print of The Good and Evil Angels Struggling for Possession of a Child (Butlin #324) sold at auction in 2004. I suspect that this is also a record price for a lithograph by a British artist.

The year of all sales and catalogues in the following lists is 2012 unless indicated otherwise. Most reports about auction catalogues are based on the online versions. Coverage of regional auctions is selective. Dates for dealers’ online catalogues are the dates accessed, not the dates of publication. Works offered online by dealers and previously listed in any one of the last three sales reviews are not repeated here. Most of 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 2012 sales will be covered in the 2013 review. I am grateful for help in compiling this review to G. E. Bentley, Jr., Nancy Bialler, David Bindman, Calvin D. Brown, Mark Crosby, Stephen Eisenman, Louis Girling, Jr., Judith Guston, Erin Jue, Richard Lloyd, Nicholas Lott, Hope Mayo, Patrick Murphy, Alan Parker, Max Reed, Ann Vershbow, Joseph Viscomi, and John Windle. My special thanks go to Alexander Gourlay for his generosity in keeping me abreast of eBay auctions. Once again, Sarah Jones’s editorial expertise and John Sullivan’s electronic imaging have been invaluable.

Abbreviations

AH Abbott and Holder, London
BB G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1977). Plate numbers and copy designations for Blake’s illuminated books and commercial book illustrations follow BB.
BBS G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books Supplement (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1995)
Bennett Shelley M. Bennett, Thomas Stothard: The Mechanisms of Art Patronage in England circa 1800 (Columbia: U of Missouri P, 1988)
BG Bloomsbury auctions, Godalming
BHL Bonhams auctions, London
BHNY Bonhams auctions, New York
BHO Bonhams auctions, Oxford
BL Bloomsbury auctions, London
BR(2) G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Records, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale UP, 2004)
Butlin Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1981)
cat(s). catalogue(s)
CB Robert N. Essick, William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991)
CL Christie’s auctions, London
CNY Christie’s auctions, New York
Coxhead A. C. Coxhead, Thomas Stothard, R.A. (London: Bullen, 1906)
CSK Christie’s auctions, South Kensington
DL David Lay auctions, Penzance
DW Dominic Winter auctions, South Cerney, Gloucestershire
DY Doyle auctions, New York
E The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman, newly rev. ed. (New York: Anchor–Random House, 1988)
EB eBay online auctions
GB Galerie Bassenge auctions, Berlin
GO Gorringes auctions, Lewes, East Sussex
GP Grosvenor Prints, London
illus. illustration(s), illustrated
pl(s). plate(s)
SK Skinner auctions, Boston
SL Sotheby’s auctions, London
SNY Sotheby’s auctions, New York
SP Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983)
st(s). state(s) of an engraving, etching, or lithograph
Swann Swann auctions, New York
WD Whyte’s auctions, Dublin
Weinglass D. H. Weinglass, Prints and Engraved Illustrations by and after Henry Fuseli (Aldershot: Scolar P, 1994)
# auction lot or catalogue item number

Illuminated Books

For Children: The Gates of Paradise, BB pl. 15 (inscribed “13” lower left). Larkhall Fine Art, Dec. 2011 private offer (acquired by Essick). See illus. 1.

1. For Children: The Gates of Paradise, pl. 15.  Inscribed “13” lower left and “Fear & Hope are __ Vision” centered below the design.  Etching, possibly with a few touches of engraving, pictorial image 7.3 x 6.6 cm., platemark 8.1 x 7.2 cm., 2nd st., datable to 1793.  Laid paper without watermark, leaf 8.5 x 7.4 cm., chain lines running vertically 2.75 cm. apart.  Provenance: private collection, England; sold in a mixed lot at a Rosebery’s auction, London, fall 2011, to the print dealer Nicholas Lott of Larkhall Fine Art, Bath; acquired by Essick 30 Dec. 2011.  Lott has not been able to obtain any further information about the history of ownership. Click to show more.

In the 1st st. of the pl., the background behind the hovering figure is hatched with lines rising from right to left.  This area has been changed into dense crosshatching in this 2nd st.  The inscription reads “Fear or Hope are __ Vision” in the 1st st.; “or” is replaced with an ampersand in the 2nd st.  The area where the number “13” is printed lower left in the 2nd st. shows only fragments of printing, and may have been abraded, in the only known impression of the 1st st., present in copy A of For Children.  Blake added the number in pen and ink further to the left in copy A.  The 2nd sts. of all other pls. in For Children include a 1793 imprint, but the space between the inscription and the lower edge of the copperplate was insufficient to contain the imprint on pl. 15.  The 2nd st. is present in For Children copies B, D, E, and probably C (not seen; last recorded in the collection of Lucinda Collins, New York).  Copies A, B, D, and E of For Children are on wove paper.  The laid paper of the print reproduced here suggests that it may be a one-off impression pulled by Blake in 1793 to check his 2nd st. revisions, since he is not known to have used such paper to print complete copies of the work.  

When Blake converted For Children into For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise, he extensively revised this pl. in 3 stages, c. 1818-26, in accord with his new sense of adding contrasting effects of illumination and darkness to etchings and engravings executed years earlier.  In the 3rd st. of pl. 15, the 1st For the Sexes st., present in copy B, Blake burnished an aura of light around the head and torso of the hovering figure.  Other areas have been darkened with additional lines, including the beard and body of the corpse, the clothing of the woman behind the bed and the child on the right, and the back of the man in the foreground lower left.  Oddly, the right hand and cuff at the wrist of the corpse have vanished, replaced by long horizontal lines defining his gown.  The facial features of the child furthest right have been more clearly defined in ways that hint at surprise or wonder; the woman’s features, particularly her eyebrows, have been augmented.  Bold vertical lines added to the background now suggest a curtain rather than an unadorned wall.  Some of the letters in the caption, particularly the left vertical of “H,” may have been cut more deeply.  

Illumination around the hovering figure has been extended in the 4th st. (copies C and D of For the Sexes) and now includes lines of radiance right and left.  Burnishing has created 2 other highlights, right and left of the foreground man’s right leg.  Further hatching strokes now darken the background, the floor lower right, the legs of the bed, the back and left leg of the foreground man, and a patch on the floor above and to the right of his right foot.  A stippled line now extends down his lower right leg.  A few short lines have been added to the hovering spirit’s hair where it falls along the back of his head.  The beard of the corpse is more distinctly defined and rudimentary outlines of his right hand and the cuff at the wrist, both present in the 1st and 2nd sts., have been returned to the pl.  The face of the child immediately right of the woman has been turned from right profile to forward.  His mouth is open in wonder.  All 5 faces are augmented with short lines and stipple to increase their expressiveness.  

Blake continued to supplement the 4th st. revisions in the 5th (final) st., found in copies E-I, K, and N of For the Sexes, and in a separate impression of pl. 15 in the British Museum, accession no. 1894,0612.29.  The letters of the caption have been further strengthened and printed more darkly.  This additional work is most evident on the right vertical of “H.”  The hovering figure’s aura has been reduced in extent, particularly on the right, but intensified around his head, under his left upper arm, and left of his right elbow.  The background upper left, the floor lower right, the back and right leg of the foreground man, the side of the bed right of his right knee and the right end of the bed, the feet of the corpse, and the legs of the hovering spirit have been darkened with hatching and crosshatching.  Two lines now define the hem or cuff of breeches or tights just above the foreground man’s right knee.  The faces of the woman and children are more detailed; the former now has a wrinkled brow and the latter have larger, more open mouths with clearly defined lips.  

The 5 sts. of pl. 15 accord with the 5 print runs of The Gates of Paradise, 2 of For Children and 3 of For the Sexes.  These printings are assigned approximate dates in BB 187, 197: early spring 1793, late spring 1793, 1818, 1825, and 1827-28, the last including some posthumous impressions.  Each time Blake printed the work, he altered at least some of the pls.  BB 197 places copy E of For the Sexes in the second (1825) printing of that work, but it should probably be included in the third (1827-28) printing with other copies containing the 5th st. of pl. 15.  For the Sexes copy A is untraced.  BB 197 groups it with the 1818 watermark and printing date of copy B.  If that is indeed accurate, then pl. 15 in copy A is probably in the 3rd st.  Copies J and L of For the Sexes lack pl. 15. Nicholas Lott tells me that copy M of For the Sexes, dispersed in the late 1960s by the London print dealer Christopher Mendez (BBS 79), is a group of Muir facsimiles.  A complete and detailed cat. of all sts. of all pls. in The Gates of Paradise has yet to be written.

Pl. 15 addresses the difference between material and spiritual vision, a theme central to the entire series of emblem-like designs.  Chauncey Brewster Tinker identifies the hovering figure as God and compares the design to the vision of God in the whirlwind in the pl. numbered 13 among the Job engravings—see Tinker, Painter and Poet (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1938) 113.  Most interpreters, however, describe this figure as the ghost or spirit of the dead man lying stiffly supine on the bed.  This majority view is substantiated by the insubstantial nature of the bearded apparition.  The line defining his left shin extends across the right foot of the corpse, yet we can see the toes of that foot and the upper portion of the corpse’s left foot.  These appendages would be obscured if we could not see through the spirit’s left leg.  Further, we can see the upper edge of the board on the right end of the bed that would be invisible if we could not see through the spirit’s left ankle.  The hovering figure is “the Immortal Man that cannot Die” in Blake’s reference to the pl. numbered “13” in “The Keys of the Gates,” the explanatory verses he added to the series in For the Sexes (E 268-69).  Analogues for pl. 15 more apt than the Job engraving are “To Tirzah,” in which “Whate’er is Born of Mortal Birth” is “Raised a Spiritual Body” (E 30), and “The Death of the Good Old Man” among Blake’s illus. to Robert Blair’s The Grave, another design picturing both the mortal and the immortal body.

The man half-kneeling in the foreground reacts to the vision with amazement and perhaps fear.  The fingers of his right hand separate and radiate outward; the toes of his right foot may be curled.  The woman behind the bed looks up in wonder.  The faces of the 2 children right of the woman express a similar emotion only in later sts. of the pl.  This would appear to be a family group, but their individual identities are uncertain.  Archibald G. B. Russell refers to the kneeling man as the woman’s “husband” (Russell, The Engravings of William Blake [London: Grant Richards, 1912] 64).  Russell, however, fails to see the body on the bed, stating that “a young [sic?] woman sits up upon a bed of sickness,” and he may be wrong about the kneeling man as well.  He looks a good deal younger than the woman, particularly in the last 2 sts., and may be the dead man’s “eldest son” (David V. Erdman, The Illuminated Blake [Garden City: Anchor P—Doubleday, 1974] 275).  Geoffrey Keynes describes the group as “a man and his wife and two children seated beside the deathbed of a father or a friend” (Keynes, commentary in Blake, The Gates of Paradise [London: Trianon P, 1968] 1: 18).  

The hovering spirit points upward to heaven with a finger on his left hand and down and to the right with his right hand, probably to direct the family toward a burial plot for the man’s corpse.  Taken together, these gestures indicate the different destinies of spiritual and material bodies.  The right-hand gesture also leads the reader of The Gates of Paradise to the next 2 engravings in the series, “The Traveller” who “hasteth in the Evening” of life in pl. 16 toward “Death’s Door” in pl. 17 (E 266-67).

The caption refers to the “Fear” of death and “Hope” for an afterlife; the former may be part of the family’s understandable but mistaken response to a vision proving that the latter is not in vain.  “Vision” in Blake’s writings is closely associated with imagination: “Vision or Imagination is a Representation of what Eternally Exists” (A Vision of the Last Judgment, E 554).  The caption links together universal human emotions and the creative activities of the artist that reveal spiritual realities beyond the material veil.  Yet the operative verb, “are,” indicates more than “leads to” or “causes.”  The internal emotions are one with the external vision; both are products of mental acts.  This is not the only passage in Blake’s writings in which process becomes identity: “… he became what he beheld / He became what he was doing …” (The Four Zoas, E 338).

The preliminary pencil sketch for the design on p. 61 of Blake’s Notebook (Butlin #201.61) appears above a related inscription, “What we hope we see” (E 801).  This caption, like the engraved version, also underscores the unity of inner (“hope”) and outer (“what we … see”) realities, but may also play upon another reading of these 5 words: this vision of the immortal man is what we hope to see at the death of the mortal body.  Glue spots indicate that Blake very probably affixed thin paper to the drawing and traced it for transfer to a copperplate for The Gates of Paradise.  He did not, however, reverse the design onto the copper, since right and left in impressions are the reverse of the drawing.  The same basic composition also appears in a large wash drawing datable to c. 1780-85 and inscribed “The spirit of a just man newly departed appearing to his mourning family” (Butlin #135).  This title would appear to be in Blake’s hand and supports the identification of the hovering figure as the dead man’s spirit.  The woman’s right hand (left in the print) is pictured in both drawings; her fingers are spread apart in a gesture similar to the foreground man’s in all 3 versions.  The dead man’s face is clearly pictured only in the wash drawing. Click to show less.

Songs of Innocence copy Y.  SNY, 26 April, #42-47, 7 pls. only (of 15) on 7 leaves of wove paper, each leaf bearing the blind-stamped collection mark of Heinrich Neuerburg (Walter Neuerburg’s father) lower right.  Relief etchings, at least 3 pls. with white-line etching, hand colored and with pen and black ink border lines contiguous with the edges of the images.  Each pl. numbered by Blake in pen and black ink top right, selected motifs outlined in pen and black ink, some letters and pictorial motifs highlighted in shell gold. Three stabholes from a prior binding in the left margin, 2.7 cm. from the top hole to the middle hole and 3.3 cm. from the middle hole to the bottom hole.BB 410 records the stabhole distances for Songs of Innocence copy R at 2.6 and 3.5 cm. apart. I suspect that the small differences between these measurements and those recorded here for copy Y are the result of different perceptions, different rulers, and perhaps different treatment of the paper over the years. The holes in both copies were probably stabbed when copies R and Y were one; they may have been created by Blake’s wife, Catherine, for a pamphlet-style binding of the book in wrappers.  See illus. 2-8 and their captions for further details on each pl.  Offered in the following lots, each illus.:
#42.  “The Blossom,” BB pl. 11, numbered “10” top right.  $74,500 to Adam Fuss, New York; estimate $40,000-60,000.

2. “The Blossom” (BB pl. 11), Songs of Innocence copy Y. Collection of Adam Fuss, New York.  Relief and white-line etching with pen and ink outlining and hand coloring, numbered “10” top right in pen and ink.  Image 10.7 x 7.2 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.9 x 14.6 cm.  Marginal stains from an earlier mat and browning at the edges of the leaf, particularly the top.  Printed in gray-black ink and hand colored, probably c. 1811 when Blake printed Songs of Innocence copy S, the Innocence pls. of combined Songs copy S, and Milton copies A-C in that color (see the caption to illus. 3 for more on this printing).  Several letters, including all those in the title, have been overwritten in pen and brown ink.  Blake used a similar pink wash to color the giant plant in copy F of Songs of Innocence and of Experience and a purple-pink hue in copies A and L, all datable to the mid-1790s.  The plant is colored gray-blue in Songs of Innocence copy G (1789), pink and gray in Songs of Innocence copy O (c. 1802), highlighted in blue in copy T of the combined Songs (1818), and tinted pink and blue in copy V of Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1821).  The adult angel’s right wing is also blue in copy V.  Blake colored the plant green in most early copies, but emphasized its flame-like characteristics with yellow, orange, and red tinting in late copies (for example, W, Y, Z, and AA of the combined Songs, all datable to 1825-26).  The auction cat. (SNY, 26 April) states that the coloring includes “shell gold” (that is, powdered gold suspended in water and a gum or glue binder, applied by hand) and “gouache.”  The presence of the latter medium is indicated by the chalky appearance of the colors in the leaf extending below the text and the base of the main stem, lower right.

Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

#43.  “The Lamb,” BB pl. 8, numbered “7” top right.  $40,625 to John Windle acting for the Victoria University Library, Toronto; estimate $35,000-45,000.  E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Blake Suppl. no. 363.
3. “The Lamb” (BB pl. 8), Songs of Innocence copy Y.  Victoria University Library, Toronto.  Relief etching with pen and ink outlining and hand coloring, numbered “7” top right in pen and ink.  Image 11.6 x 7.6 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.7 x 14.6 cm.  Light marginal stains from an earlier mat and browning at the edges of the leaf, particularly at the top.  Printed in gray-black ink and hand colored, probably c. 1811 when Blake printed Songs of Innocence copy S, the Innocence pls. of combined Songs copy S, and Milton copies A-C in that color.  Much of the text has been overwritten in pen and brown ink, very probably to compensate for weak printing of the letters.  Blake extended the grassy ground and shadows slightly below the lower edge of the pl. and extended the thatched roof of the cottage to the right edge of the pl. with washes and 2 horizontal lines.  The cottage does not reach beyond the sapling in the etched image.  The auction cat. (SNY, 26 April) states that the coloring includes “shell gold.”

Blake may have printed “The Lamb” and “The Blossom” (illus. 2) c. 1811 specifically to augment his stock of Innocence impressions and thereby have a supply sufficient to create a complete copy—presumably the original condition of copy R/Y.  Because he already had his press ready for printing and ink available for producing the other illuminated books in gray-black ink noted above, it would have taken very little additional effort to print these two pls.

Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

#44.  “Laughing Song,” BB pl. 15, numbered “14” top right.  $80,500 to an anonymous private collector on the telephone; estimate $40,000-50,000.
4. “Laughing Song” (BB pl. 15), Songs of Innocence copy Y.  Anonymous private collection.  Relief etching with hand coloring, numbered “14” top right in pen and ink.  Image 11.2 x 6.6 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.7 x 15.0 cm.  Light marginal stains from an earlier mat, browning at the edges of the leaf, particularly at the top, and stains around the top and bottom stabholes.  Printed in dark reddish-brown ink, possibly in 1795 when Blake printed Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy O in a similarly heavy and wet ink of that color.  The ink in all other pls. in copy R/Y was drier, more reticulated, and applied with a lighter touch.  The tinting in the text area accords with what we see throughout copy R/Y, but the coloring of the design above the text is distinctly different.  The colors are deeper, bolder, less translucent, and closer to primary tints than the pastel tones on other pls.  The design was probably colored c. 1795, but the transparent washes in the text area could have been added c. 1811 when the pl. was numbered and included in copy R/Y.  The highlighting in gold on the figures’ hair, the title letters, and the bird to the left of the title was probably applied c. 1811.  The auction cat. (SNY, 26 April) states that the coloring includes “gouache.”  

The upper curve of the letter “s,” 2nd word in the final line of text, shows a small patch of opaque white; see the caption to illus. 7 for discussion.

Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

#45.  “The Ecchoing Green,” BB pls. 6-7, numbered “5” and “6” top right.  $116,500 to the dealer James Cummins acting for the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois; estimate $70,000-100,000.
5. “The Ecchoing Green,” 1st pl. (BB pl. 6), Songs of Innocence copy Y.  Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois.  Relief etching with pen and ink outlining and hand coloring, numbered “5” top right in pen and ink.  Image 11.0 x 7.0 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.0 x 14.2 cm.  Light marginal stains from an earlier mat and browning at the edges of the leaf.  Printed in light brown ink, probably c. 1802, and probably colored (at least in part) at that time.  Copy O of Songs of Innocence (University of Texas, Austin) was printed in the same session using the same paper and ink.  Hand coloring and numbering not finished until c. 1811.  Blake has drawn short horizontal lines below and within the hoop right of the 1st stanza to indicate the ground on which the boy plays.  He has also added a vine lower right; it loops over a poorly printed part of the vine above and extends over the catchword, “They.”  The title letters have been overwritten in dark brown ink.  The auction cat. (SNY, 26 April) states that the coloring includes “shell gold.”

Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

6. “The Ecchoing Green,” 2nd pl. (BB pl. 7), Songs of Innocence copy Y.  Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, Illinois.  Relief etching, possibly with touches of white-line etching, and with pen and ink outlining and hand coloring, numbered “6” top right in pen and ink.  Image 11.0 x 7.0 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.9 x 14.8 cm. with a BUTTA[NSHAW] (probably BUTTANSHAW 1802) watermark along the lower edge of the leaf.  Light marginal stains from an earlier mat and browning at the edges of the leaf.  Printed in light brown ink, probably c. 1802, and probably colored (at least in part) at that time.  Hand coloring and numbering not finished until c. 1811.  In the etched image, the chin of the boy in the vine on the right, who is handing a bunch of grapes to a girl below, is behind his hunched shoulder.  In this impression, Blake has drawn the boy’s full face in front of his shoulder.  The auction cat. (SNY, 26 April) states that the coloring includes “shell gold.”

Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

#46.  “The Little Boy Lost,” BB pl. 13, numbered “12” top right.  $59,375 to John Windle acting for Essick; estimate $10,000-20,000.  See the caption to illus. 7 for the reasons the auctioneer placed an estimate on this lot lower than the others.
7. “The Little Boy Lost” (BB pl. 13), Songs of Innocence copy Y.  Essick collection. Relief and white-line etching with pen and ink outlining and hand coloring, numbered “12” top right in pen and ink.  Image 11.2 x 7.3 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.7 x 14.6 cm.  Printed in light brown ink, probably c. 1802, and probably colored (at least in part) at that time.  Hand coloring and numbering not finished until c. 1811.  Blake overwrote all but a few letters in dark and light brown inks.  The boy’s hat, simply etched in the copperplate, has been emphasized with black pen and ink lines.  Blake gave similar attention to the tree’s roots, only suggested in the etched image.  A thin black pen and ink line below the child’s feet indicates a shadow cast by the illumination on the left.  The face of the angel right of the 2nd stanza is in profile facing right in the etched image, but has been drawn in three-quarters view in this impression.  The general coloring of the design above the text, including the long but weak beams of light radiating from the illuminated “vapour” on the left, is similar to the impressions in copy O of Songs of Innocence (c. 1802) and in copy V of Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1821).  There are no beams or rays of light in the etched image.  The duck, etched on the copperplate above the “y” of “Boy” in the title, has almost disappeared in this copy Y impression due to light inking.  The boy’s hair and the tree trunk show minute touches of shell gold.  Erin Jue, paper conservator at the Huntington Library, suggests that these few grains of gold may have been transferred to this impression from residue left on the brush after a more generous, and hence visually significant, application of gold on other pls. Click to show more.

A condition report, not published in the printed auction cat. of 26 April but available on Sotheby’s web site, includes the following caveat: “There are corrections in the text which are not entirely consistent with the hand-retouchings characteristic of Blake’s own work.  It is difficult to be certain whether this portion of the plate was damaged and touched up by a later hand, or whether it was indeed by Blake himself.”  Sotheby’s cautious statement was motivated by the unusual presence of opaque white pigment, possibly lead white, surrounding letters in the text.  This material is most evident around the 1st 2 letters of the 2nd and 3rd words in line 1 and in an area below “you” in the same line and between it and the next word, extending toward the bird flying above the 1st letter of “going.”  Dabs of white are also visible throughout the 1st half of each line in the 2nd stanza.  In 2 areas—the left side of the vertical of the “h” of “child” and the right side of the “e” of “wet,” both in the 2nd line of the 2nd stanza—the opaque white intrudes upon the letters, partly covering their edges.  There are as well 4 droplets of white over part of the lower reaches of the 1st “g” in “going” in the 1st line of the text.  Thus, the white pigment must have been applied after the letters were overwritten in pen and ink.

The opaque white was added with considerable skill and attention to detail.  For example, the terminal letter of “The,” 1st word of the 2nd stanza, was touched with white to create the space within the upper loop.  Most of this work becomes clearly discernable only under magnification.  Blake may have added the white to increase the contrast between the letters and their surrounding areas.  It is of course possible that the opaque pigment was applied by someone else after the print left Blake’s hands, perhaps even following the fire that reportedly injured Songs of Innocence copy R/Y in the 1890s.  The reason for such intervention, however, is far from clear.  There is no evidence of staining or any other damage to the paper underlying the opaque white when the leaf is viewed through a strong backing light.  There are several light brown stains on the verso, but these do not correlate with the white patches on the recto.  See also illus. 4 and 8 and their captions for more applications of opaque white.  Both “The Little Boy Lost” and “The Little Boy Found” were inspected under a Meiji binocular microscope with a magnification range of 7x to 45x.  An enlargement of approximately 15x proved to be the most useful for locating and studying the white areas. Click to show less.

#47.  “The Little Boy Found,” BB pl. 14, numbered “13” top right.  $68,500 to John Windle acting for Essick; estimate $35,000-45,000.
8. “The Little Boy Found” (BB pl. 14), Songs of Innocence copy Y.  Essick collection.  Relief and white-line etching with pen and ink outlining and hand coloring, numbered “13” top right in pen and ink.  Image 11.7 x 7.2 cm. (see enlargement), leaf of wove paper 20.8 x 14.6 cm.  Printed in light brown ink, probably c. 1802, and probably colored (at least in part) at that time.  Hand coloring and numbering not finished until c. 1811.  Although there is far less opaque white pigment than in “The Little Boy Lost,” the space between the 1st 2 letters of the title and the area within the looping lower element of the 2nd letter bear streaks of that color, possibly intended to mask a flaw of some sort (see the caption to illus. 7).  Two droplets also appear above and within the 1st letter (“H”) in line 5 of the poem, although these could be accidental spills.  Tinting with light brown wash in the space between the design and the edges of the copperplate forms a frame on 3 sides of the design.  Brown stains slightly mar the lower abdomen of Christ, the adult figure in the design above the text.  Blake has given an unusual amount of attention to the outlining of Christ’s left thumb and fingers where they grasp the boy’s right elbow.  The adult’s hand is apparently under the child’s arm, for the fingers extend upwards with the thumb looping around from above and extending downwards.  Christ’s hand, fingers pointing down, holds the boy’s arm from above in copy Y of the combined Songs, datable to 1825; the hand position is uncertain in most copies.  

The roots of the tree on the right have been emphasized with wash and pen and ink outlines.  The background landscape is more open and more illuminated than in any other impression known to me.  Although still crepuscular in overall tone, this impression and the one in Songs of Innocence copy O (c. 1802) are less distinctly night scenes than others.  The leafy canopy of a dense forest rises behind the boy; 2 tree trunks are visible below his left arm.  The sky above the boy’s head includes 2 arching bands of light between clouds.  The figure hovering right of the text lacks a nose in the etched image, supplied in this impression with pen and ink outlining.  This figure’s billowing gown, all 3 large tree trunks, and the boy’s hair are tinted with shell gold, either mixed with other colors or applied thinly on top of them.

Drawings and Paintings

Bearded Man and a Youth, possibly by Blake.  Pen and ink drawing, size unknown but less than the leaves of the Tulk family album, 27.0 x 22.0 cm., into which the drawing was mounted.  Probably dating from the 1780s.  Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2010.  Acquired spring 2012 by Lowell Libson, Ltd., London.

A male wearing breeches, a shirt, and a sandal on his right foot (left not shown) sits facing forward on a stone (?) step or plinth.  His thick hair, prominent arched eyebrows, moustache, and short beard are darkly inked; his expression is solemn.  His right hand rests, palm down and fingers spread, on the step.  He points with his left index finger at a tablet or piece of paper, lower right, bearing a few squiggles indicating writing.  A round object at its left (presumably lower) edge may be a wax seal.  A nude, or partly nude, youth of uncertain gender, possibly a long-haired male, kneels on the floor between the bearded man’s legs.  He faces right, with eyes partly closed or perhaps looking down at the writing, but his shoulders are twisted away from the viewer and his raised hands rest upon the bearded man’s shoulders.  The combination of motifs, particularly the tablet or paper, suggests a specific subject, but I have not been able to determine it.  Any suggestions?

The attribution to Blake is far from certain.  At first glance, the drawing, particularly the head of the bearded man, does not shout “Blake.”  The same can be said for a somewhat similar pen and ink drawing, Charon, Copy from the Antique (Butlin #178 recto, dated to c. 1779-80?).  Without Tatham’s inscription vouching that the work is by Blake, I would be a bit dubious about Charon; see also A Male Nude with an Urn, Copy from the Antique (Butlin #179A).  Several characteristics, however, associate the drawing from the Tulk album with Blake’s stylistic habits.  If we “attend to the Hands & Feet” (A Vision of the Last Judgment, E 560) and the musculature of the youth, Blake’s own hand begins to emerge.  Indeed, attribution would be more certain if one simply ignores the bearded head.

Death’s Door.  See The Soul Hovering over the Body Reluctantly Parting with Life, below.

Harpers and Other Drawings (recto), preliminary sketches for America and Europe (verso).  Pencil, leaf 20.4 x 24.6 cm.  Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2010.  Lowell Libson, Oct. online cat., titled A Double-Sided Sheet of Drawings: Job and His Wife Playing Instruments, recto and verso illus. (price on request).A price of £300,000 was quoted to me in Oct. on the telephone. This is a record asking price for a pencil drawing by Blake.  See illus. 9-11.

9. Harpers and Other Drawings.  Pencil, leaf 20.4 x 24.6 cm. (see enlargement).   Datable to 1792-93.  For the verso, see illus. 10.  See the caption to illus. 12 for information on the album from which this leaf was removed.

The main, central drawing of a man and woman playing harps and perhaps singing might be Job and his wife after their restoration to prosperity, as in the final pl. of Blake’s Job engravings, but there are reasons to question this identification.  Even in the earliest Job designs, such as Job, His Wife and His Friends: The Complaint of Job (Butlin #162, dated to c. 1785), Job has long hair, an exceptionally long beard, and is clearly old.  The man in this drawing is middle-aged, has short and tightly curled hair, and a short beard.  Playing harps does not necessarily indicate a Job subject; see, for example, A Harper and Other Sketches (the verso of Butlin #81, dated to c. 1785; for illus. and discussion, see Blake 39.1 [summer 2005]: 44-47).  A Tiriel wash drawing untraced since 1863, Har and Heva Playing Harps (Butlin #198.5, dated to c. 1789), might be related, although the age of Har and Heva in other Tiriel designs matches Job and his wife rather than the couple in this pencil drawing. Click to show more.

The recto bears several other sketches, apparently unrelated to the central drawing:
• Far left, a youthful male nude with curly hair, facing forward but looking down and to the right.  He stands in front of a stone wall(?) and leans with his right elbow on a shovel.  His lower right arm extends behind his back.  An almost identical figure, except for slight differences in the angle of the head, appears on the general title page in Blake’s watercolor illus. to Edward Young’s Night Thoughts (Butlin #330.2, dated to c. 1795-97).  As in the Night Thoughts design, this may be a grave-digger in an elegant pose reminiscent of classical sculpture.  Blake probably referred back to this pencil drawing when executing the watercolor.
• Above the central drawing, a pair of overlapping figures, probably female, hovering horizontally or flying to the right.  The front figure extends her right arm in front of her; small objects or the droplets of a liquid descend diagonally from her right hand.  The similar motif of a sky-borne figure pouring down a liquid appears in Visions of the Daughters of Albion pl. 4.  In the pencil sketch, the figure in back extends her left arm; cloud outlines appear above and to the right.  The pair is generally similar to (but not a direct preliminary for) the angels at the top of Blake’s design for the title page to Night the First among his Night Thoughts watercolors (Butlin #330.6), pl. 1 among the engravings (BB #515).  Unlike this pencil drawing, the Night Thoughts angels are winged and nothing drops from their hands.
• To the right of the central harpists, a standing female(?) seen in right profile, leaning back slightly with her right arm extended upward to touch or hold a descending child or putto in left profile, his left hand touching the adult’s right shoulder.  The figures appear to be kissing.  This drawing is probably the direct preliminary for the same motif in Blake’s relief-etched color print “A Dream of Thiralatha” (SP IX), first executed as a pl. for America, 1793, but not used in the illuminated book.  In this sketch, the putto’s legs are together, with the right calf and foot just peeking out from behind the left leg.  In the print, his right leg is bent at the knee and his left leg extended.  Right and left in this sketch are the reverse of impressions of the color print and thus the figures have the same orientation as the design on the copperplate.
• Far right, a standing child seen from behind, reaching upward with both arms to touch or hold a descending child, also seen from behind.  They may be kissing.  A few sketchy lines above and right of the figures hint at clouds.  This may be a rejected variant for the “Thiralatha” design.

Photo courtesy of Lowell Libson Ltd. Click to show less.

10. Preliminary sketches for America and Europe, the verso of Harpers and Other Drawings (illus. 9).  Pencil, leaf 20.4 x 24.6 cm. (see enlargement).  Datable to 1792-93.  See the caption to illus. 12 for information on the album from which this leaf was removed. Click to show more.

The leaf bears small sketches of 15 figures.  Most, possibly all, are preliminary sketches for motifs in America and Europe, as follows:
• Lower right, two figures, likely a male (right) and woman (left—note the indications of female breasts) fleeing to the right over the outline of a hilly landscape, probably a variant design for the man and woman lower left in America pl. 5.  In this sketch, the figure on the left has her arms bent at the elbows and raised over her head; her companion has his arms raised at roughly 135 degrees.  In the relief etching, the male has his arms down, with his right hand apparently holding the hand of a child; the female raises her left arm vertically and her right forearm and hand are visible left of her lower torso.
• Top and center, a male holding a contracted figure on his shoulders, a female (note the carefully delineated vagina) with a sword, a male holding scales with the outlines of clouds extending above and below him, and an upside-down male within the upper loop of a spiraling serpent, all for America pl. 7.  In the etching, the figure holding a sword may be male, prominent flames have been added to the weapon, the cloud is differently configured, and the serpent’s head is in a slightly altered position.  The placement of the figures in relationship to each other is retained, but with right and left reversed in impressions.
• Center right, a male facing down and clutching his head, for America pl. 7.  The sketched and etched versions are almost identical.
• Upper right quadrant, another sketch of the man clutching his head, for America pl. 7, accompanied by two other figures, or variants of the same figure, also clutching their heads.  These may all be Blake’s experiments with various postures in preparation for the relief etching.
• Lower left quadrant, an upside-down, descending male with a large weight attached to him, for Europe pl. 4.  In the sketch, the man’s legs are bent sharply at the knees and his genitals are clearly pictured.  In the illuminated book, his legs are turned to the left with his right thigh covering his lower torso.
• Lower left, a falling female.  See illus. 11.
• Lower margin, a series of three figures above the outline of a rocky landscape.  From left to right, these are a female with long hair, lunging and reaching dramatically to the left; an upside-down male seen from behind, arms extended downward with hands resting on a boulder or small hill, right leg extended upward and left leg bent at the knee, basically similar to The Book of Urizen pl. 14; a female figure facing forward with prominent breasts and a large belly, arms horizontal and legs bent at the knees and spread apart.  This last figure may be pregnant; compare to the woman giving birth in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell pl. 3.  None of these figures is present in America or Europe, but they were probably executed in preparation for those books.

For each figure used in America and Europe, right and left are the reverse of impressions of the illuminated books and thus the motifs in this drawing have the same orientation as the designs on the copperplates.  These drawings reinforce the interrelatedness of America and Europe, compositionally and thematically.  For a leaf of pencil drawings for America of similar size and date, see Sketches for “America” and Other Books (Butlin #226), illus. and discussed in Blake 45.4 (spring 2012): 111-12.

Photo courtesy of Lowell Libson Ltd. Click to show less.

11. Preliminary sketches for America and Europe (illus. 10), detail of pencil sketch lower left, approximately 3.7 x 3.2 cm.  A falling female, seen from behind, with legs spread apart and bent sharply at the knees.  The creature above her rump is exceedingly odd and thus invites speculation.  Joseph Viscomi has suggested in correspondence that this is a goat, facing forward, left front hoof delineated, with symmetrically curving horns, a bifurcated forelock, floppy ears, bulging eyes, and a prominent muzzle.  Is this a scene of interspecies coitus or rape?  “The lust of the goat” (The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, E 36) has been the animal’s main emblematic characteristic since antiquity.  As a symbol of the zodiacal sign of Capricorn, the goat is sometimes given a fish-like body with 2 twisting tails (see, for example, the impresa of Cosimo de’ Medici reproduced in James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, rev. ed. [New York: Icon Editions, 1974] 139).  This tradition may account for the 2 tails in this drawing, 1 possibly wrapped around the woman’s left thigh and clearly visible right of her left knee, and another extending around her face and head and trailing along her back.  Viscomi further suggests that Blake first drew a phallus penetrating the woman, then transformed it into a goat.  This may account for the columnar shape of the animal’s body.  The sexual implications of the design anticipate some of Blake’s drawings in the Four Zoas manuscript, begun c. 1796.  The ovoid form above and to the left of the descending figure’s head remains mysterious.  Not used in America or Europe, but probably executed in preparation for those books.

Photo courtesy of Lowell Libson Ltd.

Parental Affection, or the Meeting of a Family in Heaven (recto), Sisyphus Rolling the Stone up a Hill (verso).  Recto watercolor, verso pencil, leaf 14.3 x 9.2 cm.  Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2010.  Lowell Libson, June online cat., recto and verso illus. (price on request).I received a report from a prominent Blake collector that the watercolor was offered to him for £550,000. I have not been able to confirm this extraordinary price.  See illus. 12-14. 

12. Parental Affection, or the Meeting of a Family in Heaven.  Watercolor on laid paper, 14.3 x 9.2 cm.  The title is apparently a recent invention, probably by the dealer Lowell Libson or one of his unnamed consultants.  See illus. 14 for the verso.  When mounted in an album (see provenance below), the leaf to which the watercolor was attached was inscribed in pencil “Parents meeting.”  Blake based the design on an emblem drawing in his Notebook, p. 41 (illus. 13).  The major differences between the two versions are the addition of more background trees and the elaboration of the Gothic architecture in the watercolor.  The date of the Notebook emblems is not certain, but they have generally been dated to c. 1790-92; some were engraved and published in For Children: The Gates of Paradise of 1793. Click to show more.

This watercolor is similar in style and mood to the wash drawings illustrating Mary Wollstonecraft’s Original Stories from Real Life (Butlin #244, dated c. 1791).  A date of c. 1790-92 seems reasonable for this watercolor, although far from certain.  The work shows some similarities to, but is more carefully executed than, a few drawings dated by Butlin to the late 1780s, including An Enthroned Old Man Offering Two Children to Heaven (Butlin #88) and Age Teaching Youth (Butlin #91).  Parental Affection was advertised by Libson and reproduced in Art Newspaper no. 236 (June 2012); see also brief comments and illus. in Anon., “Forthcoming Events,” British Art Journal 13.1 (spring 2012): 96, Huon Mallalieu, “Drawn to Success,” Country Life 206.26 (27 June 2012): 112-13, Richard Green, “Master Drawings,” Burlington Magazine 154 (Sept. 2012): 651, and Mallalieu, “From the Zoo to the Big Apple,” Country Life 206.40 (2 Oct. 2012): 114-15.  The work is in a remarkably fine state of preservation, the colors fresh and unfaded.

The reference in the title to “the Meeting of a Family in Heaven” implies a connection with Blake’s illus. to Robert Blair’s The Grave and perhaps a source for the subject in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.  The latter would be appropriate for a work given or sold to C. A. Tulk, a Swedenborgian.  The naturalistic landscape background, however, makes a heavenly setting unlikely.  For an illus. of Blake’s “Meeting of a Family in Heaven” in the 1808 ed. of Blair’s poem and a discussion of its relationship to Swedenborg’s writings, see Blake 43.4 (spring 2010): 124-25.

Provenance: Probably acquired directly from Blake by Charles Augustus Tulk (1786-1849), although Blake’s wife, Catherine (after her husband’s death in 1827), or Tulk’s friend John Flaxman are possible sources; Tulk’s daughter Louisa Susanna Tulk (1819-48?), who mounted this watercolor in an album; by inheritance to her husband, James Peard Ley (1807-85); by inheritance to his son, James Verchild Ley; by inheritance to his son, James Richard Ley, who died in Feb. 2010; the estate of James Richard Ley (sole heir his daughter, Judith Penelope Ley, executors John Paul Hindle and Judith Penelope Ley); the entire album sold by the estate spring or early summer 2012 to the London dealer Lowell Libson Ltd. for an undisclosed price.  This watercolor, or the leaf of recto/verso drawings reproduced here as illus. 9-10, might be the “drawing” which Nancy Flaxman, in a letter to her husband, John Flaxman, of July 1816, states was “bought … of him” (i.e., bought from Blake) by “our Friend,” possibly C. A. Tulk (BR[2] 326).

The Tulk family album from which this watercolor was removed in 2012 contains 90 pp. of Whatman paper, leaves 22.0 x 27.0 cm., bound in calf, according to a representative of the Tulk estate.  It included other works by Blake (see illus. 9-10, 14), Flaxman, and a good many drawings by other, probably Continental, artists.

Photo courtesy of Lowell Libson Ltd. Click to show less.

13. Blake’s Notebook, p. 41.  Detail of the pencil emblem drawing, approximately 8.2 x 5.9 cm.  Butlin #201.41.  See the caption to illus. 12 for discussion.

Photo courtesy of the British Library.

14. Sisyphus Rolling the Stone up a Hill.  Pencil on leaf 14.3 x 9.2 cm., the verso of Parental Affection (illus. 12).  Although it seems unlikely that Blake would execute a rough sketch on the verso of a finished watercolor probably intended for sale or presentation, the vigorous style of this drawing suggests a slightly later date than the recto, possibly in the mid-1790s.  See the caption to illus. 12 for information on the album from which this leaf was removed.

Photo courtesy of Lowell Libson Ltd.

St. Paul and the Viper.  Watercolor, 39.0 x 30.0 cm., datable to c. 1803-05.  Butlin #510.  Bequeathed in 1986 by Peter Pears to the Britten-Pears Foundation, the Red House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

The Soul Hovering over the Body Reluctantly Parting with Life and Death’s Door.  Two watercolors illustrating Robert Blair’s The Grave, 16.0 x 22.7 cm. and 23.9 x 13.8 cm., datable to 1805.  The anonymous owner placed these 2 works on consignment with David Benrimon Fine Art, New York, early in 2012 (prices on request).  Previously offered SNY, 2 May 2006, #7, Soul Hovering (not sold; highest bid $520,000 on an estimate of $700,000-1,000,000), and #10, Death’s Door (not sold; highest bid $750,000 on an estimate of $1,000,000-1,500,000).  For information on the 2006 auction, see Blake 40.4 (spring 2007): 116-17, 120-26.

Separate Plates and Plates in Series

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” 5th st.  Roger Genser/The Prints and the Pauper, Oct. private offer, on laid India, Colnaghi impression, SP impression 5ZZ, with “Pilgrimage to Canterbury,” Schiavonetti and Heath after Stothard, etching/engraving, 1817 ($10,000).  Swann, 31 Oct. rescheduled to 6 Nov., #282, on laid India, very probably a Colnaghi impression, illus. ($3600).

Dante engravings.  SL, 29 March, #2, pl. 3 only, “The Circle of the Corrupt Officials,” first described in the online cat. as “possibly an early proof before the 1838 edition, a fine impression printing with burr,” but changed by 23 March to “a very early, fine impression from Linnell’s 1838 edition,” India paper laid onto heavy wove and thus probably an impression on thick Colombier backing paper (see the plate-printer’s records, BB 545), illus. (not sold; highest bid £3800 on an estimate of £5000-7000).  SNY, 20 April, #32, complete set on laid India with a “letterpress cover label,” pl. 6 “lightly stained,” India paper of 2 pls. evenly browned, unbound in a half morocco folding case, illus. ($62,500; estimate $20,000-30,000).

“Enoch,” modified lithograph.  CL, 6 Dec., #96, SP impression 1B, recto and verso inscription illus. (£205,250; estimate £100,000-150,000).  According to Richard Lloyd of Christie’s, the purchaser was a “US Institution” (e-mail to John Windle, 8 Dec. 2012).  See comments in the introductory essay to this sales review and illus. 15.

15. “Enoch.” Modified lithograph, 21.7 x 31.0 cm., SP impression 1B.  Wove paper without watermark, leaf 23.8 x 33.1 cm.  The pen and ink inscription by George Cumberland on the verso has bled through to the recto above the central figure’s head, on the hovering figures right and left, and in the top margin.  Light damp staining top right corner, marginal tears extending into the image right top margin and upper left margin.  The oval blemish, 1.2 x 0.8 cm., just below the center of the top framing line, is described in the auction cat. (CL, 6 Dec., #96) as “a made up paper loss”—that is, a hole in the printed leaf filled with another piece of paper.  For discussion and illus. of the verso inscription, see Essick, “Blake’s ‘Enoch’ Lithograph,” Blake 14.4 (spring 1981): 180-84.  The inscription is also transcribed and discussed in SP 55-59.

Photo courtesy of Christie’s London.

“George Cumberland’s Card.”  CSK, 5 Dec., #192, “on card,” leaf 4.1 x 8.1 cm., illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-4000).  Apparently an unrecorded impression, acquired after the auction by John Windle for stock.

“The Idle Laundress,” after Morland, 1788.  Larkhall Fine Art, Dec. 2011 private offer, imprint trimmed off but probably 2nd st., color printed with hand coloring (£750).  See illus. 16.

16. “The Idle Laundress,” engraved by Blake after George Morland.  Pictorial image including the framing lines 21.2 x 26.0 cm.  Leaf of wove paper without watermark trimmed within the platemark to 24.5 x 28.9 cm. and with the imprint cut off.  Color printed in black, brown, and blue inks and hand colored.  Essick collection.

The only clear distinctions in the pl. itself between the 2nd st., published by J. R. Smith in 1788, and the 3rd st., published by H. Macklin in 1803, are the imprint and the amount of wear in the fine stipple.  I suspect that this impression is in the 2nd st.  The single impression of the 1st st. known to me, recorded in 1983 in the collection of John DeMarco, Saratoga, New York, is colored like this 2nd st.  The quality and extent of the color printing and hand coloring in the 3rd st. are similar, but with several changes in palette.  In 3rd-st. impressions I’ve seen, the laundress’s skirt is pale brown, the young thief’s jacket is dark brown, and his waistcoat is blue.

Job engravings.  SK, 3 Feb., #20, pl. numbered 20 only, “final state” but no description of the paper, illus. ($2963).  EB, Feb., pl. numbered 18 only, published “Proof” on laid India, minor foxing, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $1750); same impression and minimum required bid, March (no bids); Nov.-Dec., pl. numbered 17 only, Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $3000).  Swann, 8 March, 3 pls. on Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscriptions, offered individually, all illus.: #170, pl. numbered 4 ($3360), #171, pl. numbered 8 (not sold; estimate $2000-3000), #172, pl. numbered 10 ($3600); 25 April, #213-16, pls. numbered 1, 4, 7, and 21 only, Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscriptions, offered individually, all illus. (none sold; estimates $2000-3500 each); 31 Oct. rescheduled to 6 Nov., 2 pls. after removal of the “Proof” inscriptions, offered individually, both illus.: #283, pl. numbered 17 (not sold; estimate $2500-3500), #284, pl. numbered 21 on laid India, very probably the 1874 printing ($2160).  Brunk auction, Asheville, North Carolina, 10 March, #17, pls. numbered 1, 4, and 7 only, Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscriptions, framed, illus. ($2800).  R. E. Lewis & Daughter, Oct. online cat., complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, with the letterpress label, the copy previously offered by Peter Nahum, May 2003 cat., #6, for £17,000, each pl. matted, illus. ($32,500).  BHL, 27 Nov., #20, pl. numbered 5 only, Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, illus. (£1500); #21, pl. numbered 6 only, same printing as prior lot, illus. (£1250).

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

Allen, History of England, 1798.  EB, Feb., marginal stains on the pls., contemporary calf very worn and crudely repaired with tape, “binding loose” (no bids on a required minimum bid of £950); Blake’s 4 pls. only, probably extracted from this copy and offered individually, March, illus. (no bids on required minimum bids of £125 each); same group offered again in March, illus. (£62 for pl. 1, £40.99 for pl. 2, £82.51 each for pls. 3 and 4); another copy of the book, March-April, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (£172).

Ariosto, Orlando furioso.  Internationalbooks via Amazon, April online cat., 1783 ed., 5 vols., “leather bound” ($536.41).  Hava Books, April online cat., 1783 ed., 5 vols., some browning, contemporary calf worn (£350).  Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco, April online cat., 1785 ed., 5 vols. with fore-edge paintings, later morocco, illus. (€5500). Calendula Horticultural Books, April online cat., 1785 ed., 5 vols., minor foxing, “full calf” very worn, covers loose ($99.95).  EB, June, 1799 ed., 5 vols., scattered foxing, contemporary calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of €199).

Bible.  Royal Universal Family Bible, 1780-81.  Eastleach Books, April online cat., 2 vols. in 1, some browning and tears, contemporary sheep very worn, illus. (£200).

Blair, The Grave.  Quaker Hill Books, April online cat., 1808 quarto, frontispiece described as being on “India paper” (usually true only of the folio issue), light foxing, recent half morocco ($3100).  Hermitage Bookshop, April online cat., 1808 quarto, light browning and foxing, calf rebacked ($3000).  D & D Galleries, April online cat., 1808 quarto, slight browning, early quarter calf rebacked ($2750).  Krown & Spellman, April online cat., “1813” (actually 1870) folio, “almost no foxing,” publisher’s cloth, spine restored ($1850).  Peter L. Stern, April online cat., 1813 quarto, heavy foxing on the frontispiece and engraved title page, contemporary half morocco ($1750).  GP, May online cat., Blake’s pl. 11, “Death’s Door,” only, pre-publication proof st. described as dated “Feby. 1.st 1805” (actually “Feby 1st 1806”) in the imprint, title in open letters, leaf of laid paper 30.6 x 20.4 cm. with a fragment of a watermark along the left margin, illus. (£220; acquired by John Windle for stock and sold immediately to Victoria University Library, Toronto, accession no. Blake Suppl. no. 389).The only other traced impression of this st. is in my collection; see BB 531 and Robert N. Essick and Morton D. Paley, Robert Blair’s The Grave Illustrated by William Blake (London: Scolar Press, 1982) 219. Only the inscribed texts, not the design itself, were altered (or at least recut with the graver) in later sts. and printings. Schiavonetti and his journeymen must have worked very quickly to produce this print between Nov. 1805, the date of the prospectus naming Blake as the engraver of his designs in R. H. Cromek’s forthcoming ed. of The Grave, and Feb. 1806. It was probably the 1st pl. to be produced by Schiavonetti, possibly intended for advertising purposes and as an immediate substitute for Blake’s own white-line etching of the design, rejected by Cromek. The copperplate was trimmed from 35.7 x 20.3 cm. to 30.0 x 17.5 cm. before publication in Cromek’s 1808 folio 1st ed. of The Grave. The impression in my collection is on laid paper, leaf 39.2 x 24.8 cm., not the wove paper recorded in Essick and Paley. An impression of this proof st. with a “J. Whatman, 1806” watermark, probably a wove paper, is recorded in A. G. B. Russell, The Engravings of William Blake (London: Grant Richards, 1912) 130, then in the collection of F. W. Bourdillon but now untraced.  EB, June, 1808 quarto, scattered soiling and foxing, contemporary boards rebacked with calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $2750); probably the same copy, Oct., illus. (offered at the same “buy it now” price); Nov.-Dec., 1870 portfolio of pls. only as issued, publisher’s cloth folder worn, illus. ($830, probably a record auction price for this issue); pls. 2, 4, and 9 only offered individually, 1813 imprints, illus. (no bids on required minimum bids of $149 each).  James Cummins, July online cat., 1808 quarto, lacking pls. 4 and 5 and text pp. 9-12, contemporary morocco, bookplates of Helen Hay Whitney and Joan Whitney Payson ($2500); Dec. cat. 115, #4, 1808 quarto, “minor foxing,” contemporary quarter sheep rebacked in calf, illus. ($1750).  BL, 1 Nov., #173, 1813 quarto, “original cloth” and thus possibly the [1870] issue (£120).  John Goodwin auction, Malvern, 14 Nov., #1, [1870] ed., pls. loose in publisher’s portfolio as issued, pl. 1 damaged, illus. (no price information; estimate £50-100).  Fine Editions, Dec. private offer, 1808 quarto, scattered light foxing, 19th-century three-quarter morocco ($3250).

Bonnycastle, Introduction to Mensuration, 1791.  Blackwell’s, May online cat., with the 2nd st. of the title-page vignette by Blake after Stothard, lacking the half-title, scattered staining, contemporary sheep worn and rebacked, “Bonnycastle’s / introduction / to / Mensuration / & / Geometry” written in an early hand in pen and ink on a vellum label on the front cover, illus. (£180).  The only copy of the 3rd ed. I have ever seen on the market.  My only sales record of a copy of the 1st ed. (1782) with the 1st st. of Blake’s pl. is in May 1969.

Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations … of Shakspeare, c. 1803.  John Windle, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair and Feb. Occasional List 1, #12, publisher’s morocco, illus. ($7500).  EB, Feb., marginal stains, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (€445).

Bryant, New System … of Ancient Mythology, 1774-76.  EB, March, 1st ed., 3 vols., 1 leaf in vol. 2 missing and some leaves reattached with tape, stained, contemporary calf very worn, covers loose and spines badly damaged, illus. ($162.50); another copy, Aug., 1st ed., 3 vols., “extra illustrated with two full page Cipriani plates,” contemporary calf rebacked, worn, illus. ($599).  DW, 19 Sept., #505, 2nd ed., 3 vols., contemporary calf worn, rebacked, illus. (£400).

Catullus, Poems, 1795.  John Price, April online cat., 2 vols., contemporary calf (£220).  WD, 20 Oct., #649, 2 vols., contemporary calf (€420).

Darwin, Botanic Garden.  EB, Jan., 1st ed. of Part 1, 3rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols., original boards, vol. 1 rebacked in cloth, very worn with covers of vol. 2 detached, illus. (£223.88); 1799 ed., 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £250 or “best offer”); Feb., 1st ed. of Part 1, 1791, 2nd ed. of Part 2, 1790, 2 vols. in 1, with Blake’s pl. 6 (“Tornado”), published in the 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, bound in, the copy sold at DW, 14 Dec. 2011, #387 (£260), contemporary calf, illus. ($748); June, 1799 ed., Part 1 only (which contains all pls. by Blake), contemporary calf worn (£108.76); 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £600); July, Blake’s pl. 1 (“Fertilization of Egypt”) only, scattered foxing, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $600); same impression, July-Aug., same result on a required minimum bid of $500; Sept., 1st ed. of Part 1, 1791, 2nd ed. of Part 2, 1790, 2 vols. in 1, some pls. trimmed, scattered light foxing, recent half calf, illus. (£510); Nov., 1799 ed., 2 vols., calf very worn, spines damaged, illus. (£101).  Quaritch, Jan. cat. 2012/1, #52, 1st ed. of Part 1, 3rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols., from the collection of Jonathan Wordsworth, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, illus. (£1500).  Kenneth Karmiole, Feb. private offer, 1st ed. of Part 1, 1791, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, preliminary leaves soiled, later calf worn ($1000).  John Windle, Feb. Occasional List 1, #9, 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, modern calf, illus. ($3750).  Subun-So, March cat., #100, 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf, illus. ($1454).  BHL, 27 March, #99, 1st ed. of Part 1, 3rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols. in 1, possibly a large-paper copy, occasional spotting, contemporary morocco (£1500; estimate £200-400).  BL, 4 April, #258, 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, scattered foxing, contemporary Russia, illus. (£350).  Russell Rare Books, April online cat., apparently 1st ed. of Part 1, 3rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols. in 1, some spotting, calf very worn, covers loose (£375).  DW, 20 Sept., #138, 1st ed. of Part 1, 3rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols. in 1, scattered foxing, contemporary calf worn, illus. (£380).

Enfield, Speaker, 1785.  James Cummins, April online cat., light browning, contemporary calf rebacked ($750).  Available since 2008.

Euler, Elements of Algebra, 1797.  Librairie Crespin, April online cat., 2 vols., contemporary calf, illus. (€1300).

Flaxman, Hesiod designs, 1817.  DW, 25 Jan., #669, bound with the Iliad (1805), Odyssey (1805), and Aeschylus (1831) designs, scattered foxing, contemporary morocco (£320).  Quinn’s auction, Falls Church, Virginia, 1 March, #146, not dated but apparently 1817, bound with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeschylus designs, dates not indicated but apparently 1805, 1805, and 1831 respectively, some staining, half calf worn, illus. ($450).  GB, 29 Nov., #5909, “paper bound,” illus. (€500).  Mealy’s auction, Dublin, 5 Dec., #963, bound with Flaxman’s Aeschylus designs, 1831, with his Iliad and Odyssey designs, both 1805, bound in another vol., both contemporary morocco, binding illus. (€200). 

Flaxman, Iliad designs.  EB, Jan., 1805 ed., later half morocco worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £220); 1870 ed., with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1870, scattered foxing, contemporary half calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £395); April, Blake’s pl. 3 only, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $199); June, 1805 ed., foxed, original boards with cover label, worn with covers detached, illus. ($17.16); 1805 ed., title page and Blake’s 3 pls. only, lower right corner of each torn off, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $700); same group, July, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $500); same group, Aug., (offered at the “buy it now” price of $350); Nov., 1805 ed., with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, foxed, original boards, rebacked with leather, and cover labels, illus. (€72).  Rooke Books, April online cat., 1805 ed., half  “leather” worn (£220).  GB, 29 Nov., #5908, 1805 ed., scattered foxing, bound with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, later morocco, illus. (€400).  See also Hesiod designs, above.

Gay, Fables.  EB, Dec. 2011, 1793 ed., 2 vols., foxed, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $349.99); same copy, Jan., illus. ($142.50); Jan., 1793 ed., 2 vols., contemporary morocco worn, illus. (£336.90); March, Blake’s pls. 5 and 12 only, offered individually, each elaborately framed, illus. (offered at the ridiculous “buy it now” prices of $2495 and $2299 or “best offer”); Nov., 2 vols. in 1, foxed, contemporary calf very worn, covers and many leaves loose, illus. (£105.50).  Chiswick auction, London, 20 March, #3, 1793 ed., 2 vols. in 1, 14 pls. (including 3 by Blake) hand colored, later morocco rebacked, Blake’s hand-colored pl. 1 illus. (£200).  Subun-So, April online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., light foxing, with Aesop, Fables, 1793, 2 vols., full calf ($4415).  Ronald Purmort, April online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., “leather” worn ($2000).  Weybridge Books, April online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., full calf (£950).  Le Scriptorium d’Albi, April online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols. in 1, full calf worn, illus. (€600).  Keogh’s Books, April online cat., [1811] ed., 2 vols., modern cloth, illus. (£175).  GO, 9 May, #945, 1793 ed., 2 vols., later quarter calf (not sold; estimate £100-150).  GB, 19 Oct., #2015, 1793 ed., 2 vols. in 1, “leather” binding, illus. (€200).  BL, 1 Nov., #178, 1793 ed., 2 vols., light foxing, later half morocco worn, illus. (£220).  DY, 5 Nov., #489, 1793 ed., 2 vols., foxed, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, illus. ($375).  Some of these “1793” copies may be the [1811] issue.

Gough, Sepulchral Monuments, 1786.  John Windle, April private offer, with the variant title page recorded in BBS 217-18, contemporary calf worn ($3750).

Hartley, Observations on Man, 1791.  GP, Nov. online cat., Blake’s pl. only, “tatty extremities, … uncut sheet” (£190).

Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803-04.  Quaritch, Jan. cat. 2012/1, #73, 1st ed., 3 vols., with a presentation inscription from Hayley to “Penelope Chetwynd,” an additional inscription “From the Author,” and a note reading “This Copy of Cowper’s Life is presented to Mrs William Chetwynd by the author as a memorial of Friendship. 1803,” some “spotting,” early half calf rebacked, presentation inscription illus. (£1250);Penelope Chetwynd was a friend of Blake as well as of Hayley; both men may have given art lessons (or at least advice) to her son, John. See E 727, 755; BR(2) 108-09, 153, 759, 765fn, 809; and Angus Whitehead, “‘Mrs Chetwynd & her Brother’ and ‘Mr. Chetwynd,’” Blake 42.2 (fall 2008): 75-79. another copy, June online cat., 1st ed., 4 vols. including the supplement of 1806, contemporary calf worn, illus. (£500); same copy, Sept. cat. B172, #70, illus. (£450).  Am Here Books, April online cat., 1st ed., 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked, worn ($950).  Peter Goodden, April online cat., 1st ed., 3 vols., contemporary boards (vols. 1-2) and calf (vol. 3), rebacked with modern buckram, worn (£260).  Barter Books, April online cat., 2nd ed., 3 vols., some browning, half “leather” worn (£130).  EB, June, vol. 3 only, 1804, text incomplete but with Blake’s pls. 5-6, lacking the title page but bound with a title page reading Desultory Remarks on the Letters of Eminent Persons, Particularly Those of Pope and Cowper, 19th-century quarter calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £1000); June-July, 1st ed., 4 vols. including the supplement of 1806, uncut in original boards worn with later cloth spines, printed spine labels, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £275); pl. 3 only, 1st st., imprint trimmed off, foxed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $299); Oct., 1st ed., vols. 1-2 only, vol. 1 contemporary calf very worn, vol. 2 modern cloth, illus. ($64.90).  Rooke Books, July online cat., apparently 1st ed., 4 vols. including the supplement of 1806, scattered foxing, original boards very worn, some leaves loose (£280).

Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809.  Spring Street Books, April online cat., “leather” very worn ($350).  Mallams auction, Oxford, 28 June, #141, possibly a large-paper copy, 19th-century morocco, illus. (£160).  Ken Spelman, Aug. cat. 70, #17, contemporary morocco worn (£320).  WD, 19 Oct., #387, light foxing, later half morocco (€60).

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803.  Christopher Edwards, June cat. 51, #11, large-paper issue, leaves trimmed to 21.3 x 13.4 cm., 20th-century half morocco repaired, illus. (£1500); #12, small-paper issue, 20th-century quarter morocco (£650).  Caliban Books, Oct. online cat., small-paper issue, “minor foxing,” contemporary calf, illus. ($625).  WD, 19 Oct., #212, small-paper issue, contemporary calf worn, illus. (€60).  The leaves measure 24.5 x 14.8 cm. in uncut copies of the large-paper issue, 17.3 x 10.5 cm. in uncut copies of the small-paper issue.

Henry, Memoirs of Haller, 1783.  EB, Aug.-Sept., Blake’s pl. water stained, modern boards and cloth spine, illus. ($217.99).  

Hoare, Inquiry, 1806.  Bow Windows Bookshop, April online cat., “rather foxed,” later cloth rebacked, illus. (£210).  Henry Sotheran, July online cat., contemporary half calf, illus. (£198).

Hogarth, Works.  EB, Dec. 2011, Blake’s pl. only, a late st., probably 6th, water stains in margins, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $99.95 or “best offer”); same impression and price, Jan.; same impression, Feb. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $94.95 or “best offer”); another impression, June, 6th st., light brown stains, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $300); another impression, June-July, an early published st., possibly 3rd, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $300); another impression, July, a late st., possibly 5th, foxed, with Hogarth, “Southwark Fair,” both illus. ($250); another impression, Nov., a late st., possibly 6th, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $150).  Shapes auction, Edinburgh, 7 April, #780, st. not identified but possibly 7th, framed, illus. (£50).  Michael Finney, May online cat., Blake’s pl. only from the 1822 ed., 4th st., illus. (£240); another impression, from an undated Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy ed., 5th st. or later, apparently not the same impression offered in Nov. 2009, illus. (£240).  Up-Country Letters, Oct. online cat., #6, Blake’s pl. only, 6th st., framed, illus. ($650).  SK, 18 Nov., #170, Blake’s pl. in an early st., possibly 3rd, illus., with 3 other pls. not by Blake ($390).

Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793.  Joseph J. Felcone, April online cat., quarto issue, modern half calf ($5500).  Somerset House Books, April online cat., octavo issue, losses to “side margin,” modern “half leather” ($3281).  Tradewinds Books, April online cat., octavo issue, contemporary calf, illus. ($2500).  Read’s Rare Book Shop, April online cat., octavo issue, scattered foxing, modern half calf, illus. ($2070).  EB, June, quarto issue, contemporary calf very worn, covers detached and backstrip missing, illus. ($1413.88).  William Reese, July online cat., octavo issue, scattered foxing, recent three-quarter calf ($2000).

Josephus, Works.  EB, Feb., issue not indicated but dated to “c1792” by the vendor, contemporary boards very worn, covers loose, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $499.99); same copy offered at the “buy it now” price of $549.99 or “best offer”; another copy, July, BB issue C, scattered foxing, near contemporary morocco worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £675).  Krown & Spellman, April online cat., BB issue D or E, some tears and stains, “old cloth” ($850).  Eric Chaim Kline, April online cat., BB issue B or C, foxed, morocco worn ($750).

Kimpton, History of the Bible, c. 1781.  EB, Nov., marginal stains, worn binding not described but front cover detached, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £199 or “best offer”).

Lavater, Aphorisms, 1794.  John Robertshaw, Nov. cat. 126, #30, 3rd st. of the pl., contemporary calf, illus. (£165).

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy.  Jeremy Norman, April online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, minor foxing, 19th-century quarter morocco worn, the same copy offered July 2008 at the same price ($2750).  Finecopy, April online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, scattered foxing, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (£1400).  Krown & Spellman, April online cat., “1792” (c. 1818) ed., scattered foxing, 3 vols. in 5, 18th-century Russia rebacked, the same copy offered July 2008 at the same price ($1300).  Bookworks, April online cat., “1792” (c. 1818) ed., 3 vols. in 5, stains and pencil marginalia, calf very worn, covers detached ($1000).  Wittenborn Art Books, April online cat., 1789-98 ed., vols. 1 (presumably with Blake’s 4 pls.) and 3 only in 3 vols., contemporary calf ($950).  EB, May-June, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, half calf worn, illus. (£255); another copy, Aug., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £1300); same copy, Sept., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £1200 or “best offer”); Aug., 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, scattered foxing, later half calf worn, illus. ($114); Nov., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5 but lacking vol. 4, apparently with all Blake’s pls., some pls. foxed, contemporary calf very worn, illus. ($96); Dec., 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, later half calf very worn (vols. 1, 3-5) or buckram (vol. 2), illus. ($542—but possibly unsold or returned to the vendor); same copy, illus. ($152.50).  BG, 8 June, #89, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, foxed, contemporary half morocco worn (£420).  Heritage auction, Beverly Hills, California, 5 Oct., #36113, a mixed set, 1789-1810, 3 vols. in 5, contemporary Russia rebacked, illus. ($750).  GB, 29 Nov., #5890, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, quarter “leather” binding, illus. (€1000).

Malkin, Father’s Memoirs of His Child, 1806.  A proof before all letters of Blake’s single pl., with Blake’s design completed but the oval portrait unfinished, leaf of wove paper without watermark 29.6 x 22.1 cm., slight marginal dust staining (acquired Jan. by Essick from David Bindman).  This proof st., first mentioned in Blake 40.4 (spring 2007): 133, is intermediate between the 2 proof sts. recorded and reproduced in Blake 34.4 (spring 2001): 120, 126-27.  James Cummins, March online cat., uncut in original boards rebacked, “endpapers renewed” ($1500).  Chicago Rare Book Center, March online cat., “handsomely rebound” ($995).

Nicholson, Introduction to Natural Philosophy, 1787.  Staniland Books, April online cat., 2 vols., scattered foxing, contemporary calf rebacked (£350).  Abécédaire, April online cat., 2 vols., contemporary boards (€250).  Harlow McMillen, April online cat., 2 vols., “leather” worn ($325).

Novelist’s Magazine.  Antiquariat A. Makrocki, April online cat., 1780-89, 23 vols. apparently including all those with pls. by Blake, contemporary “leather” (€3450).  Best Buy Books, April online cat., Don Quixote, apparently vol. 8 of the Novelist’s Magazine without the general title page, dated “1795” by the vendor, later morocco (£350).

Rees, Cyclopædia, 1820.  Peter Harrington, April online cat., 31 vols. (but apparently complete with Blake’s pls.), pls. foxed, contemporary half calf (£2500).  Russell Rare Books, 6 vols. of pls. only, some spotting, half calf very worn, covers loose (£1500).

Remember Me!, 1825.  Blake’s pl. only, the impression offered on EB, April 2011, sold Aug. 2011 by Ed Buryn to Louis Girling, Jr., San Francisco ($6000).  For further information on this impression, see Blake 45.4 (spring 2012): 125.

Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, n.d. (imprints in the pls. dated 1811).  Harris & Harris, Jan. online cat., 2 vols., later half calf worn, illus. (£98, acquired by Essick).  Vol. 1 contains 3 pls. engraved by Blake after Stothard first published in the Novelist’s Magazine, vol. 10 (1783).  It is reasonable to date the publication to c. 1811 because of the imprints in the pls.  In this copy, however, the badly stained frontispiece in vol. 1, a portrait of Richardson not by Blake, shows an 1814 watermark.  The copy in the Bentley Collection, Victoria University Library, Toronto, contains the 3rd sts. of Blake’s pls., but this copy has 4th sts., as in the 1818 reissue of vol. 1.  For further information, see Christopher Heppner, “Notes on Some Items in the Blake Collection at McGill with a Few Speculations around William Roscoe,” Blake 10.4 (spring 1977): 100-08, CB 30-33, and BBS 242-44 (incorrectly placing Blake’s pls. 2-3 in vol. 2).  G. E. Bentley, Jr., acquired the copy now at Victoria University from Sanders of Oxford in 1985,According to p. 89 in a typescript cat. of his collection kindly given to me by Jerry Bentley in 2004. but the present copy is the only one I’ve ever seen on the market.

Salzmann, Elements of Morality.  John Gach, April online cat., 1791 ed., 3 vols. in 1, lacking pls. numbered 1, 4, 12, 21, 30-33, 44 (all but the 1st attributed to Blake) and the title pages to vols. 1-2, “moderate staining,” near contemporary half calf ($850).  E C Books, Nov. online cat., 1791 (vols. 1-2), 1792 (vol. 3), vol. 1 lacking the frontispiece (not attributed to Blake) and title page, some pages and pls. with tears, spotted and browned, contemporary half “leather” very worn, front cover to vol. 1 detached, illus. (£325).

Scott, Poetical Works, 1782.  Ed Buryn, April online cat., “marbled leather boards,” covers detached ($395).  A Squared Books, April online cat., foxed and stained, later cloth worn, repaired with tape ($266.80).  EB, June, Pamela Lister’s copy with her bookplate, contemporary half calf rebacked, illus. ($305).

Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802.  Peter Harrington, April online cat., 9 vols., scattered foxing, contemporary calf repaired (£7500).

Shakespeare, Plays, 1805.  EB, March, 10-vol. issue, contemporary calf worn, illus. ($799.99); Sept.-Oct., 9-vol. issue, each vol. offered separately, with Blake’s 2 pls. in vols. 6 and 9, pls. foxed, contemporary half calf very worn, illus. (£9.99 each, apparently all to the same bidder reassembling a complete copy).  BL, 14 June, #426, 9-vol. issue, contemporary calf worn, illus. (£400).

Stedman, Narrative, 1796, colored copy.  BHNY, 16 April, #5130, 2 vols., minor marginal stains, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. ($13,750).

Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies.  Shapero Books, late 2011 “Travel” cat., “Part II,” #190, 1796 ed., 2 vols., light foxing, contemporary half calf rebacked, illus. (£3500).  Antiquariat Daniel Thierstein, April online cat., 1813 ed., 2 vols., new half calf, illus. ($5942).  BG, 27 April, #41, 1806 ed., 2 vols., lacking 6 pls., foxed and browned, margins damaged, half cloth very worn, illus. (£320).  GP, June online cat., Blake’s pls. 3-5 and 9 only, illus. (£90 each for pls. 3 and 5, £70 each for pls. 4 and 9).  Cromer Books, June online cat., 1813 ed., 2 vols., half morocco (£2650).  EB, Aug., Blake’s pl. 4 only, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $245).  Sue Lowell Books, Sept. online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., foxed and stained, recent half calf (£7500).  BHL, 13 Nov., #168, 1796 ed., 2 vols., “some spotting,” contemporary calf worn, illus. (£2750).  BL, 29 Nov., #357, 1813 ed., 2 vols., “some spotting,” modern morocco, illus. (£1000).  See also Stedman, 1799, under Interesting Blakeana, below.

Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, 1762-1830.  Sims Reed, Feb. cat. of “Antiquarian Books,” #72, complete in 5 vols., contemporary calf rebacked with newer calf spines (vols. 1-4) and publisher’s buckram rebacked (vol. 5), illus. (£30,000).  GP, Sept. online cat., Blake’s 4 pls. only, illus. (£680).  Blake’s 4 pls. are in vol. 3 (1794).

Vetusta Monumenta, vol. 2, c. 1789.  Marlborough Rare Books, Jan. cat. 218, #145, 4 vols. in 2, apparently including vol. 2 dated “1789” by Marlborough, 227 engraved pls., scattered foxing, early 19th-century calf, illus. (£2500).  George Robert Minkoff, Sept. cat. 2012-D, #8, 6 vols., 1718-1842,  330 engraved pls., scattered foxing, “imitation leather-backed boards” ($9500).

Virgil, Pastorals, 1821.  BHO, 31 Jan., #254, vol. 1 only, St. Paul’s School prize binding of contemporary calf very worn and rebacked with a new calf spine, illus. (£11,875 to the London dealer Sims Reed for stock; estimate £300-500); same copy, Feb. Los Angeles Book Fair, offered by Sims Reed for $38,000 (sold March to a British private collector).  Blake’s wood engravings are all in vol. 1.  At least 2 other copies of both vols., Essick collection and a set sold CNY, 10 Dec. 1999, #110 ($18,400 to the dealer Simon Finch), are in the same St. Paul’s prize binding.  EB, Aug., 4 intaglio engravings (not the wood engravings) only, BB pls. 1-4, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $195).  DL, 1 Nov., #402, Blake’s 5th and 6th wood engravings (BB pls. 9, 10) only, probably Linnell impressions, framed together, illus. (£400).

Virgil, The Wood Engravings of William Blake for Thornton’s Virgil, 1977.  Sims Reed, Nov. online cat., publisher’s folding box (£3500).  BHL, 27 Nov., #33, publisher’s folding box, illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-5000).

Wit’s Magazine, 1784-85.  David Spode, April online cat., with BB pl. 2 (CB pl. 1B) bound as the frontispiece, later half morocco ($3246).  John Windle, Nov. cat. 50, #7, contemporary boards, modern calf backstrip, illus. ($5750).

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797.  Subun-So, March cat., #14, leaves 42.0 x 33.5 cm., no mention of the “Explanation” leaf, half morocco, illus. ($14,540).  Donald Heald, March online cat., with the “Explanation” leaf, “a tall copy, untrimmed at the fore and lower edges,” later three-quarter morocco ($15,000).  Peter Harrington, April online cat., with the “Explanation” leaf, ownership inscription of George Kelly dated 1823, contemporary morocco worn and repaired, cloth folding case, illus. (£12,500); same copy, Battersea Books, July private offer (£7500).  Sims Reed, May cat. for the London Book Fair, #11, with the “Explanation” leaf, “contemporary(?) ownership signature ‘Caroline Scott’ in black ink to title,” 19th-century half morocco, later slipcase (£12,500).  GB, 29 Nov., #5916, pls. trimmed close with some imprints trimmed off, later shagreen, modern slipcase, illus. (€8500).

Interesting Blakeana

The Judgment of Solomon after Raphael, attributed to Blake.  Oil, 36.2 x 41.3 cm.  Leslie Hindman auction, Chicago, 2 May, #403, illus. ($527).  Not by Blake, and not to be confused with the watercolor Judgment of Solomon after Raphael that may well be by Blake.  For the watercolor, see Blake 36.4 (spring 2003): 116-19, illus. 3.

J. G. Stedman, Voyage à Surinam, Paris, 1798.  EB, July, “Collection de Planches” (title page) only, a quarto vol. of 44 pls. to accompany a French translation of Stedman’s Narrative, contemporary (publisher’s?) quarter calf, illus. ($1524.99).  Librairie B. Guilbert, July online cat., 3 vols. of text and 1 vol. of pls., half calf  (€4550).  La Poussière du Temps, July online cat., 3 vols. of text and 1 vol. of pls., contemporary sheep (€3500).  Gemilang, July online cat., pls. vol. only, half calf (€2950).  HS Rare Books, July online cat., 3 vols. of text and 1 vol. of pls., foxed, 19th-century calf worn (text vols.), later boards (pls. vol.), illus. ($3500).  These French pls. were almost certainly copied after the pls. in the 1st ed. (1796) of Stedman’s book, including Blake’s pls. 1, 2, 4, 5, 8-10, 12, 13, and 15.  The French engraver signed each pl. “Tardieu l’ainé.”There were at least 11 engravers named Tardieu active from the early 18th to the mid-19th century. The date of this publication and the death dates of various members of the family suggest that the engraver of the pls. for Stedman’s work was probably Jean Baptiste Pierre Tardieu (1746-1816), who specialized in geographical subjects. He may have added “l’ainé” (the elder) to his name to distinguish his work from engravings by his two younger brothers, Antoine François (1757-1822) and Jean Baptiste Tardieu (1768-1837).

Antijacobin Review and Magazine, 1799-1820.  James Burmester, July cat. 85, #58, vols. 1-23, 25-27, 29-58, early 19th-century half calf worn (£2500).  Vol. 31, Nov. 1808 issue, includes a long review of Cromek’s ed. of Blair’s Grave with Blake’s illus.  The anonymous reviewer characterizes Blake’s designs as “absurd effusions” (BB #952).

J. Thomas, Religious Emblems, 1809.  Stuart Bennett, Nov. private offer, uncut in original boards rebacked with roan, covers and spine worn ($600).  “William Blake, Esq.” appears in the list of subscribers—see BB #746.  The possibility that this is the poet and artist is increased by the fact that Thomas commissioned some of Blake’s watercolors illustrating Milton’s poetry—see Butlin #527, 529, 538.  For a discussion of this book, see Karl Josef Höltgen, “Religious Emblems (1809) by John Thurston and Joseph Thomas and Its Links with Francis Quarles and William Blake,” Emblematica 10.1 (summer 1996): 107-43.

Lady’s Monthly Museum, vol. 12, Jan.-June 1812.  Panoply Books, Jan. online cat., contemporary (publisher’s?) half calf worn ($175).  The June issue includes an anonymous review of the 5th annual exhibition of the Associated Painters in Water Colors (1812) with brief references to works Blake exhibited.  The reviewer describes “No. 254” in the show, Blake’s tempera painting of Sir Jeffery Chaucer and the Nine and Twenty Pilgrims on Their Journey to Canterbury (Butlin #653), as

a picture of mongrel excellence; yet has such a repulsive appearance, that we doubt most of our fair readers will scarcely view it with pleasure, unless they should be well acquainted with Aunciente tapestrye, to enter into its merits.  That it is the work of genius, no one will deny; it possesses all the truth, the costume, and manners of the times; and the artist is perhaps worthy of the highest commendation for his industry, research, and correctness; but for our parts, we feel ourselves so perfectly satisfied with the same subject, as treated by Stothard, that we wish not to possess a picture whose greatest merit seems to be an imitation of the arts in their degraded state. (344)
These comments indicate that the reviewer understood that Blake had integrated into his work features of style and format recalling (or reinventing) the pictorial arts of Chaucer’s time, yet the reviewer cannot accept such historical references because “the arts” were then in a “degraded state,” mockingly intimated by the faux-archaic spelling of “Aunciente tapestrye.”  The reviewer apparently found the painting disturbingly old fashioned, but Blake was ahead of his time in his attempt at historical accuracy and in the appreciation of medieval (or at least pre-Raphaelite) painting and tapestry.  The reviewer “declines giving any criticism” of “pictures 323 and 324, by the same artist [Blake],” because they are “too sublime for our comprehension,” but labels them as “Fuselian” and “Angelesque” (344).  The works displayed as 324 were “Detached Specimens of an original illuminated Poem, entitled ‘Jerusalem the Emanation of the Giant Albion’” (Associated Painters 1812 cat., 24).  The reference to “323” is apparently an error; that work was a view of “Avo on the Alva, in the Siera Estrulla, Portugal” by “J. Shetky” (1812 cat., 24).  As BBS 350 suggests, the reviewer may have intended to reference 279 and/or 280, Blake’s The Spiritual Form of Pitt Guiding Behemoth and The Spiritual Form of Nelson Guiding Leviathan (1812 cat., 21; Butlin #651, 649).

A. and J. Taylor, City Scenes, 1818.  Ian Marr, Sept. cat. 5, #86, roan-backed boards worn (£275).  The 1st ed. of City Scenes to contain Blake’s “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence.  The accompanying wood engraving shows boys being led out of church by two beadles.  For an illus. of this print, see Blake 44.4 (spring 2011): 127, illus. 4.  BB #260A (see also p. 954, #260A).

W. Blake, For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise, pl. 10, printed c. 1825.  SK, 7 Sept., #30, misidentified as a pl. from For Children: The Gates of Paradise, “plate size” (platemark) 12.0 x 8.8 cm., framed, illus. (not sold or possibly withdrawn; estimate $1200-1800).  Although the print was offered as an original, the size of the platemark indicates that this is the W. A. White facsimile of c. 1913 (BB #46, BBS 80), probably based on copy D of For the Sexes.  The platemark of original impressions is 9.3 x 6.3 cm. 

Boys’ and Girls’ Magazine.  Ed. Mrs. S. Colman. Vol. 2, 1843.  Centerbridge Books, Jan. online cat., May-Aug. issues, publisher’s quarter calf ($60).  The July issue includes Blake’s “Introduction” to Songs of Innocence (with an illus. and a note about Blake); the Aug. issue includes “The Blossom” from Songs of Innocence.  BBS 147, 150, 157.  For a discussion of Blake’s poems printed in works edited by Colman, see Raymond H. Deck, Jr., “An American Original: Mrs. Colman’s Illustrated Printings of Blake’s Poems, 1843-44,” Blake 11.1 (summer 1977): 4-18. 

New Church Magazine for Children, vol. 6, 1848.  Canterbury Tales Books, Jan. online cat., scattered foxing, publisher’s boards worn ($12).  The Jan. issue, pp. 17-18, includes “Night” from Songs of Innocence, but with lines 33-48 omitted (BBS 148, 158).

A. Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 1863.  John Windle, Nov. cat. 50, #9, 2 vols., extra-illustrated with 35 pls., including all 13 pls. from Mora, Meditaciones Poeticas (1826), Blake’s pl. 1 (title page) from Blair, The Grave (1808 quarto), all 6 pls. from Hayley, Triumphs of Temper (1803), Blake’s pl. from Lavater, Aphorisms on Man (1788), pls. 1-3 and 5 from Hayley, Life of Cowper (1803-04), Blake’s pl. 1 from Darwin, Botanic Garden (1791), and Blake’s pls. 1-9 from Gay, Fables (1793), “occasional spotting or foxing,” 19th-century calf rebacked ($3500).

W. Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Camden Hotten facsimile, 1868.  Heritage auction, Beverly Hills, California, 5 Oct., #36822, later morocco, slipcase, illus. ($1500).  BL, 29 Nov., #177, foxed, publisher’s boards, with 10 other vols. related to Blake (£220).

W. B. Scott, etched portrait of Blake, 1881.  GP, April online cat., published st. with the 15 Oct. 1881 imprint and after removal of the etched remarque (a detail from Blake’s tempera The Nativity) lower left, 1 of 75 impressions thus, no description of the paper, illus. (£240).  Maggs, May private offer, 4 impressions of the published st. after removal of the remarque, platemark 31.7 x 25.1 cm., image 21.1 x 16.0 cm., laid India paper on very large backing leaves of wove paper 69.3 x 50.1 cm. (not priced); same 4, John Windle, May private offer ($375 each).  EB, June, published st. with the remarque, platemark and image as above, laid India paper on backing leaf of wove paper 69.3 x 50.0 cm., 1 of 25 impressions thus, illus. (£41).  Kelmscott Bookshop, Oct. cat. 8, #59, Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century, ed. W. Robertson Nicoll and Thomas J. Wise, 1895-96, 2 vols., including Scott’s portrait of Blake as the frontispiece to vol. 1, pl. trimmed to 19.1 x 13.5 cm. and image to 18.9 x 13.3 cm. (presumably to fit the size of the book), limited to 1000 copies, publisher’s cloth worn, bindings illus. ($175).  Copied after an oil painting by an unknown artist that in turn was based either on the oil portrait of Blake by Thomas Phillips (1807) or on Schiavonetti’s engraving after Phillips published in R. H. Cromek’s 1808 ed. of Blair, The Grave.  See Geoffrey Keynes, The Complete Portraiture of William and Catherine Blake (London: Trianon P for the Blake Trust, 1977) 124-25.

W. Blake, The Book of Thel, William Muir facsimile, 1885.  BL, 29 Nov., #180, copy no. 21, marginal stains on 1 leaf, original wrappers, cloth folder and slipcase, illus. (£550). 

W. Blake, Songs of Innocence, William Muir facsimile, 1885.  Phillip Pirages, Nov. cat. 63, #72, copy no. 49, original wrappers worn, modern clamshell box, illus. ($5000).  BL, 29 Nov., #181, copy no. 35, bound with Muir’s facsimile of Songs of Experience, 1885, copy no. 50, slight marginal soiling, half morocco, original wrappers bound in, illus. (£2000).

W. Blake, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, William Muir facsimile, 1885.  BL, 29 Nov., #179, copy no. 34, light soiling, later half morocco, original wrappers bound in, illus. (£1100).

W. Blake, Little Tom the Sailor, William Muir facsimile, 1886.  EB, Oct.-Nov., the headpiece and tailpiece hand colored, illus. ($1302).  See illus. 17. 

17. W. Blake, Little Tom the Sailor, lithographic facsimile by William Muir, 1886.  Detail of the headpiece printed in black ink, 11.2 x 16.2 cm., and the top margin.  Inscribed in pen and brown ink “No 3 Wm Muir” upper left, this headpiece and the tailpiece hand colored in imitation of the British Museum copy of the original, full leaf of wove paper without watermark 60.3 x 23.0 cm.  Essick collection.  The only signed and numbered copy, and the only hand-colored copy, I have ever seen.  According to the printed front wrapper of his 1887 facsimile of Europe, Muir states that his Little Tom is “from Mr. Gilchrist’s copy,” now untraced.  The London book dealer Bernard Quaritch, distributor of Muir’s facsimiles, records the delivery from Muir of a “coloured” copy of Little Tom on 11 May 1925; see G. E. Bentley, Jr., “‘Blake … Had No Quaritch’: The Sale of William Muir’s Blake Facsimiles,” Blake 27.1 (summer 1993): 10.  Quaritch’s cat. 401 of May 1926 offers as item 243 a Muir facsimile of Little Tom with “two illustrations coloured by hand from the copy in the British Museum” for £1.1s.  This cat. dates the work to “1925,” apparently the date of coloring, possibly of printing, but not of original execution as a lithograph.  The same entry appears in Quaritch’s Dec. 1926 cat. 405, item 256, 1929 cat. 427, item 248, and 1930 cat. 434, item 2065.

W. Blake, Illustrations of Milton’s Comus, 8 chromolithographs by W. Griggs, published by Quaritch, 1890.  Phillip Pirages, Nov. cat. 63, #71, loose in original wrappers, “Blake’s Eight Drawings to Illustrate Milton’s Comus” printed on a label affixed to the front wrapper, illus. ($950).

Night by William Blake, illus. by Roberta F. C. Waudby.  London: Medici Society, n.d.  EB, Nov., publisher’s printed wrappers a little browned, illus. (£63.10).  Blake’s poem from Songs of Innocence printed as a pamphlet of 4 leaves (including the wrappers).  Datable to the 1930s when Waudby was active.  Not in BB or BBS.

J. Miró, relief etching in imitation of Blake’s method, 1947.  BL, 28 June, #175, poem by Ruthven Todd with illus. by Miró, “soft-ground etching (the William Blake Method)” but probably a relief etching, printed in 3 colors, 1 of 8 impressions printed by Stanley William Hayter, wove paper 17.6 x 13.7 cm., illus. (not sold; estimate £8000-10,000).  Lots 173-74 (not sold; estimates £4000-6000 each) may be similar experiments by Miró, Todd, and Hayter in Blake’s relief-etching techniques.  See Ruthven Todd, “William Blake’s Illuminated Printing,” Print: A Quarterly Journal of the Graphic Arts 6.1 (1948): 53-64, also published as “William Blake’s Illuminated Painting [sic],” Print Collector’s Quarterly 29.3 (Nov. 1948): 25-[37].  Both publications of Todd’s essay include a reproduction of a monochrome impression of the same work sold by BL as #175.

A. Ginsberg, Your Reason and Blake’s System, 1988.  William Reese, May cat. 293, #114, presentation inscription and drawing by Ginsberg to Lucien Carr dated “2/11/89,” 1 of 100 copies of “the very uncommon clothbound issue,” presentation illus. ($950).

E. Paolozzi (British sculptor, 1924-2005), sculptures based on Blake’s Newton color print.  SL, 6 Nov., #8, titled After Blake’s Newton, bronze, 44.5 cm. high, “signed, dated 1994, numbered A/C and inscribed for GEORGE DANIELS,” with 2 plaster reliefs of the same design, dated 1987 and 1993, illus. (£73,250).  BHL, 13 Nov., #278, titled Newton after Blake, plaster relief plaque, 15.5 x 21.5 cm., signed and dated 1992, illus. (£1250); 14 Nov., #109, titled Master of the Universe, bronze, 40.5 cm. long, signed and dated 1999, illus. (not sold; estimate £40,000-60,000).  EB, Nov.-Dec., plaster relief plaque attributed to Paolozzi, 19.1 x 24.1 cm., with several cracks in the plaster and a bit crude but closer to Blake’s representation of Newton’s body than Paolozzi’s monumental version in the forecourt of the British Library, illus. (£78.89).

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 pls., books by (or with pls. by or after) the artist.

BARRY, JAMES

Compositional Study.  Pen and ink, 24.8 x 31.8 cm.  CL, 10 July, #9, illus. (£1063).

“The Distribution of Premiums at the Society of Arts,” etching, imprint dated 1791.  EB, Sept., possibly 1st or 2nd st., leaf 43.0 x 52.8 cm., stain upper left margin, framed, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $4850 or “best offer”).

“Job Reproved by His Friends,” etching and aquatint, 1st st., 1777.  GB, 29 Nov., #5857, printed in brown, thread margins on sides and at top, with Barry’s etching “A Grecian Harvest Home,” 1791, st. not recorded, “Job” illus. (€37,000 to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; estimate €3000).  This must be a record price for any print or group of prints by Barry.  His “Job Reproved” influenced Blake’s “Job” drawings of the 1780s (Butlin #162-64) and the separate pl. of 1793 (SP V) based on those drawings.  Early sts. of Barry’s pls. are exceptionally rare.

“Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida,” etching/engraving, 2nd st., c. 1790.  Hill-Stone, Nov. New York Print Fair, with residual aquatint from the 1st st. of 1777 (price on request).  Illus. in Burlington Magazine 154 (Oct. 2012): [xiv]. 

“Venus Anadyomene,” mezzotint by Valentine Green, 1772.  GP, May online cat., apparently not the same impression offered in 2009 for £520, illus. (£980).

BASIRE, JAMES

“The Encampment of the English Forces near Portsmouth, Together with a View of the English and French Fleets at the Commencement of the Action between Them on the XIXth. of July MDXLV,” engraving after a painting at Cowdray, Sussex, 1778.  EB, June, wrinkled with water stain lower left, illus. (withdrawn).

“Landscape,” etching after Guercino.  EB, Dec. 2011, reddish-brown ink, foxed, framed, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $499.99 or “best offer”); same impression, Aug., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $334.99).  Possibly a pl. published by Boydell in Eighty-Two Prints, Engraved by F. Bartolozzi, &c., from the Original Drawings by Guercino, in the Collection of His Majesty, n.d. (1764?). 

“The Procession of King Edward VI from the Tower of London to Westminster, February 1547,” engraving after S. H. Grimm, 1787.  BHL, 22 Feb., #55, hand colored, illus. (not sold; estimate £600-800); same impression, 2 May, #30, illus. (£62).

“Sir George Savile Bart,” engraved by Benjamin Wilson and Basire after Wilson’s painting, 1770.  GP, Aug. online cat., illus. (£190).

Garrick, The Farmer’s Return from London, 1762.  EB, Sept., frontispiece only after Hogarth, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of €14.99); another impression, illus. (£7.50).

Rogers, Collection of Prints in Imitation of Drawings, 1778.  EB, Dec. 2011, 1 pl. only, “Scilurus Recommending Concord to His Sons” after Pietro da Cortona, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €120); 1 pl. only, “A Subject Unknown from Michel Angelo” after Giovanni Battista Franco, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €70); probably the same impression, Dec., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of €40); May, 1 pl. only, “The Discovery of Achilles” after Domenico Maria Canuti, stained, illus. (£9.99); July, 1 pl. only, “The Birth of Jupiter” after Caravaggio, light foxing, framed, illus. (£56); Sept., 1 pl. only, “Hinc Terræ Tremor, hinc Motus” after Raphael, illus. (£0.99); 1 pl. only, “Time” after Pieter Rysbrack, illus. (£4.99).  For illus. and discussion of the pl. after Raphael, see Blake 38.4 (spring 2005): cover and 134-35.

Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, 1762.  CSK, 21 March, #103, vol. 1 only, stained, some pls. loose, uncut in contemporary half sheep worn, illus. (£3750).  See also under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Thomson, Works, 1762.  EB, May, frontispiece to vol. 2 only, engraved by Basire after “T(?) Paton,” illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £30).

CALVERT, EDWARD

Iasius, the Old Arcadian, Teaching the Mysteries of Demeter.  Oil, 14.0 x 24.8 cm., signed.  CL, 10 July, #148, illus. (£3500).  Previously sold CL, 11 Nov. 1997, #51, illus. (£4025).

A Rural Idyll.  Oil, 21.5 x 39.8 cm., inscribed on a verso label “E. Calvert Bought of the Artist 1872.”  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #18, illus. (“sold”).

“The Bride,” engraving, 3rd st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #21, from the Memoir, 1893, illus. (£5000).

“The Chamber Idyll,” wood engraving, 3rd st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #24, from the Memoir, 1893, illus. (£7500).  DL, 1 Nov., #400, probably from the Memoir, 1893, framed, illus. (£2200).

“The Flood,” lithograph, only st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #22, 1904 printing, illus. (£3750).

“Ideal Pastoral Life,” lithograph, only st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #23, 1904 printing, illus. (£8500).

“The Ploughman,” wood engraving, 3rd st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #19, illus. (“sold”).

“The Return Home,” wood engraving.  See “The Sheep of His Pasture,” below.

“The Sheep of His Pasture,” engraving, 2nd st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #20, from the Memoir, 1893, illus. (“sold”).  DL, 1 Nov., #399, with “The Return Home,” 2nd st., framed together, illus. (£480).

CUMBERLAND, GEORGE

An oblong quarto album of drawings and prints by Cumberland.  Larkhall Fine Art, Oct. private offer (£4500; acquired by Victoria University Library, Toronto).  A full description will be published in G. E. Bentley, Jr., “William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2012,” Blake 47.1 (summer 2013).

FLAXMAN, JOHN

Online listings of Flaxman’s classical compositions with insufficient information to identify the ed. have been excluded.  Individual prints of Flaxman’s classical designs offered on EB and 19th-century re-engravings of Flaxman’s designs, such as those on a reduced scale by Henry Moses, are not included.  See also Flaxman under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Two pencil drawings, 1 of rising and falling figures including a study for pl. 33 (“The Brethren of Saturn Delivered”) of Flaxman’s Hesiod designs engraved by Blake, 1 a preliminary sketch for pl. 37 (“The Judgment of Paris”) among Flaxman’s Iliad designs.  EB, May, both on laid paper, no sizes given, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $2500). 

Designs for a Classical Relief.  Pencil, pen and gray ink, gray wash, 16.1 x 29.2 cm., inscribed “Flaxman, Roma 1789.”  CNY, 26 Jan., #41, illus. ($21,250; estimate $4000-6000).

Girl at a Table.  Pencil, 17.1 x 13.3 cm.  AH, Dec. online cat. 422, #29, illus. (£775).

A Man with a Boy on His Lap.  Pen and ink, 7.0 x 7.0 cm.  GO, 10 May, #1421, foxed, illus. (not sold; estimate £400-600); 28 June, #1246, illus. (not sold; estimate £200-300).

The Misses Harrison, Sharpe, and Rogers and Mrs. Sharpe at Samuel Rogers’s Party.  Pen and ink, 20.3 x 16.5 cm., inscribed with the names and dated June 1800.  CSK, 18 July, #789, with “a study of a group of young people” and “a study of a girl” by Flaxman, illus. (£2250).  AH, Nov. online cat., no item #, illus. (£4500); Dec. online cat. 422, no item #, illus. (same price).  Previously offered W/S Fine Art and Andrew Wyld, June 2005 cat., #23, illus. (£7500), and June 2011 cat., #22, illus. (£3750).

Seated Girl.  Pencil, 17.1 x 11.4 cm.  AH, Dec. online cat. 422, #28, illus. (£675).  

Study of a Leg.  Pencil, 23.0 x 18.0 cm.  Cheffins auction, Cambridge, 14 June, #677, illus.  (£600).

Study of a Statue of a Figure Holding a Ewer.  Monochrome washes over pencil, 73.5 x 38.0 cm., partial inscription “7th[?] Chapel St. John” upper left verso.  BL, 14 Nov., #608, illus. (£1200).  Previously offered SL, 13 Nov. 1997, #33, titled Study of St. John the Evangelist Holding a Chalice, illus. (not sold; estimate £4000-6000), and SL, 26 Nov. 1998, #27, illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).

Study of Figures, Possibly Rome.  Pencil, pen and ink, 6.4 x 7.6 cm.  AH, Aug. online cat. 419, #25, framed, illus. (£400).  

Acts of Mercy, 1831.  DW, 11 April, #452, presentation inscription “from the publisher Miss Maria Denman, dated January 1st 1856,” water stains, contemporary cloth very worn and “crudely rebacked,” illus. (not sold; estimate £200-300).  EB, Sept.-Oct., with 2 duplicate pls., foxed, loose in contemporary boards, calf spine damaged, illus. ($122.22).

Aeschylus designs.  See Iliad, below.

Dante designs.  EB, Jan., Carlsruhe ed., c. 1835, 25 Inferno pls. only, scattered foxing, contemporary half calf worn, bookplate of Woburn Abbey on inside front cover, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £98); May, 1807 ed., foxed, wrinkled, and water stained, 19th-century calf very worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €160); same copy, June (offered at the “buy it now” price of €150); June, Milan ed., 1822, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €550); Oct., del Vecchio ed., c. 1820, marginal foxing, contemporary vellum worn and stained, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £320 or “best offer”); Nov., Réveil ed., 1847, early boards worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $750 or “best offer”).  DY, 5 Nov., #368, 1802 ed., “spotting,” later morocco worn, illus. ($469).  GB, 29 Nov., #5910, 1802 ed., modern paper binding, illus. (€500).

Hancarville, Antiquités Etrusques, Grecques et Romaines … Tirées du Cabinet de M. Hamilton, 1766-c. [1776].  BHL, 12 June, #85, vols. 1-3 and part of 4 bound in 3, “ownership signatures of John Flaxman on front paste-downs,” light spotting and damp staining, contemporary half calf worn, covers detached, illus. (not sold; estimate £15,000-20,000).

Iliad designs.  EB, Jan.-Feb., 1795 ed., bound with the Aeschylus (1795) and Odyssey (1805) designs, foxed, contemporary half calf very worn, covers detached, illus. (£88); April, lithographs by Feillet and Laqueson, Paris, n.d. (c. 1823), with the Odyssey designs by the same, scattered foxing, contemporary quarter morocco worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of €248).

Odyssey designs.  EB, Feb., 1870 ed., foxed, publisher’s boards worn, rebacked, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $9.99).  See also Iliad, above.

FUSELI, HENRY

Fairy Mab.  Oil, 70.0 x 91.0 cm., datable to 1793.  Richard L. Feigen & Co., Frieze Art Fair, London, 9-14 Oct. (price on request).  See illus. 18.

18. Henry Fuseli. Fairy Mab. Oil, 70.0 x 91.0 cm., datable to 1793. The design is based on a single line in Milton’s “L’Allegro”: “How Faery Mab the junkets eat.” She seems to be enjoying her “junkets”—that is, sweet delicacies. The crescent in her elaborate coiffure associates her with moon goddesses, or at least with the nighttime setting of Milton’s description. Weinglass 350 (following Schiff—see below) describes the figure in the shadows upper right as Mab’s “dwarfish companion the Brownie.” No brownie, a benevolent spirit or goblin in Scottish folklore (see OED), appears in Milton’s poem, although such a creature may have been suggested by the “Spicy Nut-brown Ale” consumed by those telling tales about Mab in “L’Allegro.” Alternatively, the figure may be a personification of the ale that inspires faery visions. Perhaps Mercutio’s powerfully imaginative description of “Queen Mab” in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, act 1, scene 4, influenced Fuseli’s choice of subject. An engraving of the design by William Raddon was published by Ackermann & Co. in 1834 (Weinglass #305).

Fuseli executed the painting for inclusion as no. 30 in his Milton Gallery. For studies of this project, see Gert Schiff, Johann Heinrich Füsslis Milton-Galerie (Zurich: Fretz & Wasmuth, 1963), this painting discussed p. 94, and Luisa Calè, Fuseli’s Milton Gallery: “Turning Readers into Spectators” (Oxford: Clarendon P, 2006), this painting not discussed.

Photo courtesy of Richard L. Feigen & Co.

King Priam Begging Achilles for the Body of Hector.  Pen and ink, brown wash, 26.4 x 36.6 cm., datable to c. 1770-71, inscribed “Villa Borghese” lower right.  SL, 4 July, #177, illus. (£133,250; estimate £40,000-60,000).

A Male Nude Figure, Seated (recto), Studies of Lovers, a Kneeling Female Figure, and a Chequerboard (verso).  Pen and brown ink, 21.6 x 17.8 cm.  Martyn Gregory, May online cat., illus. (price on request).  Previously sold SL, 6 June 2007, #187, recto illus. (£3600).

A Male Nude Figure, Seated on a Step.  Pencil, 19.1 x 19.1 cm., inscribed “108,” datable to 1777.  Martyn Gregory, May online cat., illus. (price on request). 

Prophet after Michelangelo.  Pen and ink and wash, 12.7 x 12.7 cm.  GO, 10 May, #1422, illus. (£1500).

Sketches of Figures.  Pencil, pen and brown ink, black and red wash on the recto and verso of a letter to Fuseli from Prince Hoare, leaf 19.8 x 25.0 cm. with an 1804 watermark.  CNY, 26 Jan., #43, illus. (not sold; estimate an overly optimistic $20,000-30,000).

“Caractacus at the Tribunal,” engraved by A. Birrell, 1792.  Keys auction, Aylsham, Norfolk, 11 May, #213, with an engraving after James Northcote, illus. (£35).

“Evening Thou Bringest All,” lithograph, 1803.  Campbell Fine Art, Jan. online cat., 1st st. on original backing leaf with aquatint border, illus. (£7500).

“The Night Mare,” engraving by Thomas Burke, 1802 reissue of the 1783 pl.  GP, Nov. online cat., hand colored, “damaged,” illus. (£320).

“Prince Arthur’s Vision,” engraving by Peltro William Tomkins, 1788.  EB, June, imprint trimmed off, marginal abrasion lower right, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $65); same impression, Aug.-Sept., illus. ($25).

“Sleeping Woman with a Cupid,” drypoint, c. 1780-90.  GB, 29 Nov., #5240, imprint trimmed off, dust stained, minor spotting, illus. (€2000).

“Les Sorcières,” engraving signed “Barathier” (Mathieu Barathier, French engraver active c. 1810-40), 23.0 x 29.0 cm., published Paris, 1813.  GP, April online cat., wide margins damaged at top, presentation inscription in pencil by Barathier to “Monsieur Viennet,” illus. (£1450).  Probably a copy, reversed, of J. R. Smith’s mezzotint “The Weird Sisters” (1785) or P. W. Tomkins’s engraving “The Witches” (1786).  Not in Weinglass.

Bell’s British Theatre, 1791-93.  EB, May, vol. 3 only, 1791, with “Mathew Complains to Bobadill” engraved by Charles Grignion, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (£20.10); vol. 14 only, 1792, with “Dying Osmond Stabs Sigismunda” engraved by Francis Legat, contemporary calf very worn, part of the spine missing, illus. (£6.99); vol. 15 only, 1792, with “Oedipus Implores the Gods” engraved by Thomas Holloway, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (£14.50).

Bible, Macklin ed., 1800.  EB, June, 6 vols. in 7, contemporary morocco, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $15,750).  James Cummins, June cat. 112, #24, 7 vols. including the Apocrypha (1816), scattered foxing, richly gilt contemporary morocco, binding illus. ($18,000).

Bible, A Practical Family Bible, notes by Willoughby, 1773.  EB, July, 2 vols., contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £200 or “best offer”); same copy, Aug., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £225).  For comments on the pls. after Fuseli in this Bible, see Blake 43.4 (spring 2010): 138.

Boothby, Sorrows Sacred to the Memory of Penelope, 1796.  EB, June, large-paper copy, 1st st. of the frontispiece after Fuseli, modern half calf, illus. ($512). 

Boydell, Collection of Prints … Illustrating … Shakspeare, c. 1803.  Sims Reed, Feb. cat. of “Antiquarian Books,” #13, 2 vols. in 1, later morocco, illus. (£7500).  GB, 29 Nov., #5917, 2 vols. in 1, marginal water stains, half “leather,” illus. (€1800).  Individual pls. in published sts. are not listed.

Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations … of Shakspeare, c. 1803.  See under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Cooke’s Illustrations to the British Theatre, c. 1821.  EB, Jan., scattered foxing, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the hefty “buy it now” price of £355).

Darwin, Temple of Nature, 1803.  Subun-So, March cat., #167, final leaf repaired, modern quarter calf, illus. ($1818).

Fuseli, Remarks on the Writings and Conduct of J. J. Rousseau, 1767.  EB, Dec., “no binding,” illus. ($51).

Gray, Poems, Du Roveray ed., 1801.  EB, Sept., some pages “coming loose,” original boards and linen spine very worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £39.99).

Hamerton, ed., Portfolio, 1873.  EB, Jan., 1 pl. only, “The Three Witches,” lithograph by E. H. Mitchell, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $48).

Homer, Odyssey, 1810.  EB, Nov., vol. 2 only, contemporary calf very worn, front cover loose, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $88).

Lavater, Aphorisms, New York, 1790.  Cobnar Books, March private offer, contemporary sheepskin rebacked (£145).  See also under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1797.  EB, April, 1 pl. only, “Satan” engraved by John Barlow, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $99.95).  See Weinglass #89A, variant 1.  See also under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Linton, Thirty Pictures by Deceased British Artists, 1860.  EB, Aug., 1 pl. only, “The Witches in ‘Macbeth,’” wood engraving by Linton after Fuseli, illus. (£10.50).

Milton, Poetical Works, published by John Sharpe, London, 1805.  EB, April, 2 vols., 19th-century calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £60).  This issue not in Weinglass, but the 2 pls. after Fuseli are identical to Weinglass #180-81 published in Sharpe’s ed. of Milton, Paradise Lost, 1805.  Except for their title pages, the letterpress texts of these 2 works are the same.

Milton, Poetical Works, 1836.  EB, Dec. 2011, “leather” worn, front cover detached (offered at the “buy it now” price of $54); same copy and price, Jan.-Feb. and May.

Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, vol. 1, issue of 14 July 1832.  EB, Aug., disbound, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £3.50).  Includes John Jackson’s wood engraving of “Lycidas” after Fuseli.

A Series of Engravings to Illustrate the Works of Shakespeare, 1822.  GB, 29 Nov., #5918, half “leather,” illus. (€250).

Shakespeare, Plays, 1805.  See under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

Winckelmann, Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks, 1765.  BL, 19 July, #296, contemporary vellum soiled, illus. (£250).

LINNELL, JOHN

The Barley Cart, attributed to Linnell.  Oil, 17.8 x 22.8 cm., signed.  EB, March, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $3500).  Previously offered as Study for “The Barley Cart,” EB, Feb. and March-April 2009.  A bit crude; possibly a pastiche of Linnell’s typical motifs by another artist.  Similar to the painting by Linnell of the same title sold SL, 26 June 2001, #381, illus. (£80,500), but with the addition of a windmill upper left.

The Brook.  Oil, 20.5 x 31.0 cm., signed.  Bellmans auction, Billingshurst, Sussex, 2 Aug., #550, elaborately framed, illus. (£550).

A Cottage in a Wooded Landscape.  Black and white chalks on blue paper, 19.7 x 25.7 cm.  CSK, 18 June, #821, illus. (£1063).  Previously offered Agnew’s, March 2000 cat., #26 (price on application).

Country Landscape.  Oil, 64.1 x 97.8 cm., signed and dated 1859.  GO, 6 Dec., #1260, illus. (£2200; estimate £300-500).  Although offered as “Circle of John Linnell,” there is a good chance that this painting is by Linnell, as the price realized suggests.

Dover, the Beach and Cliffs.  Pencil and white chalk on buff paper, 11.4 x 15.9 cm., signed and inscribed with the title.  Mallams auction, Oxford, 18 July, #174, illus. (not sold; estimate £600-800); 3 Oct., #312, illus. (£180).

End of the Day, attributed to Linnell.  Oil, 45.7 x 61.0 cm., signed.  John Moran auction, Altadena, California, 17 April, #16, illus. ($1320).  Possibly an early work in the style of George Morland.

Harvesters in an Evening Landscape, attributed to Linnell.  Oil, 35.6 x 50.8 cm.  John Nicholson auction, Haslemere, Surrey, 27 Sept., #259, illus. (£1400).

Infant in a Bonnet.  Pencil heightened with white, 27.9 x 20.3 cm., signed “J. L.— / Septr 30- / 1819.”  John Nicholson auction, Haslemere, Surrey, 28 Feb., #83, “wrapped in a later paper sheet, roughly inscribed ‘K. Read’s portrait by Linnell,’” illus. (no price information, possibly not sold or withdrawn; estimate £300-500).  The infant may have been related to Linnell’s friend, the artist David Charles Read (1790-1851).  He never married (see ODNB); I can find no record of Read’s having children.  According to Linnell’s journal, “Mr Blake & Mr Read [were] with me all day” on 8 Sept. 1821 (BR[2] 379).  Read and Blake shared an uncommon means of production: both etched their own designs and printed them on their own rolling presses.

Landscape.  Oil, 25.4 x 40.6 cm.  EB, Oct.-Nov., “signed with monogram lower right,” framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $3500).

North Wales Mountains.  Pencil, 11.0 x 17.0 cm., signed.  DL, 1 Nov., #362, framed, illus. (£380).

Path through a Wood, attributed to Linnell.  Oil, 41.0 x 51.0 cm.  Woolley & Wallis auction, Salisbury, 19 Sept., #94, illus. (£250).  Previously offered Woolley & Wallis, 28 Sept. 2011, #148, illus. (not sold; estimate £400-600).

Piping down the Valleys Wild.  Oil, 55.9 x 68.6 cm., signed.  CSK, 20 March, #591, illus. (£1500).  The design bears no relationship to the frontispiece or “Introduction” to Songs of Innocence, the basis for the title given this painting by dealers.  Previously sold CSK, 12 March 1998, #176, illus. (£3220), and 12 March 2008, #24, illus. (£5250); offered CSK, 10 Nov. 2011, #83, illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-5000).

Portrait of a Gentleman.  Watercolor, 37.5 x 29.8 cm., signed and dated 1824.  CSK, 6 Dec., #297, illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).

Portrait of Henry Stephen Fox-Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester.  Oil, 53.5 x 44.5 cm., signed and dated 1848.  BHL, 27 Nov., #114, illus. (not sold; estimate £1200-1800).

Portrait of Mrs. Nasmyth.  Pencil, colored chalks, brown wash, 59.4 x 43.2 cm., signed and dated 1836.  CL, 10 July, #153, illus. (not sold; estimate £2500-3500).  CSK, 6 Dec., #298, illus. (not sold; estimate £1600-2000).  Previously offered W/S Fine Art, July 2008 cat., #38, illus. (£10,000), and summer 2009 cat., #55, illus. (£10,000).

The Purchased Flock.  Oil, 45.1 x 60.6 cm., signed and dated 1850.  CSK, 15 Nov., #122, illus. (£18,750).

A River Landscape with a Windmill and Cattle.  Oil, 27.7 x 42.6 cm., signed “J Linnell.”  CSK, 12 July, #230, illus. (not sold; highest bid £1900 on an estimate of £3000-5000).  I suspect that this may be by John Linnell, Jr.

Saint John the Baptist.  Oil, 72.5 x 92.0 cm., signed and dated 1867.  BHL, 17 April, #72, illus. (not sold; estimate £4000-6000); 3 Oct., #67, illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).

Sarah Sophia Child Villiers, Countess of Jersey, attributed to Linnell.  Portrait miniature, medium not recorded, 10.2 cm. high (width not recorded).  BHO, 5 Sept., #212, elaborate ormolu frame, illus. (£475).

Shepherd and Sheep in a Landscape.  Oil, 31.0 x 46.0 cm.  BHO, 22 Aug., #51 (£875; estimate £100-200).  See illus. 19.

19. Attributed to John Linnell. Shepherd and Sheep in a Landscape. Oil, 31.0 x 46.0 cm., inscribed on the verso “retouched May 11/77 … John Linnell Snr.” This dark, rather overworked painting is not characteristic of Linnell’s style. Might this possibly be a rough oil sketch by Samuel Palmer “retouched” years later by Linnell? There are at least some slight similarities between this work and Palmer’s oil and tempera paintings of the mid-1830s. Such speculations could account for the price of £875, on an estimate of £100-200, fetched at BHO on 22 Aug., #51. Some of the white dots in this reproduction, particularly upper left, are probably reflections from the varnish.

Photo courtesy of Bonhams London.

Study of Trees at Bayswater, London.  Watercolor, 14.6 x 10.2 cm., inscribed lower right “J.L. 1811 12 — Bayswater.”  SL, 4 July, #185, illus. (£3125).

Surrey Landscape.  Oil, 43.2 x 53.3 cm., signed.  EB, Feb., illus. (£1295).

Tatham: Charles Heathcote Tatham with Subsidiary Sketches of Julia Tatham.  Pen and brown ink, 33.5 x 21.6 cm., inscribed “C. Tatham” and signed “J. Linnell 1812.”  Lowell Libson, Jan. cat., p. 102, illus. (price on request).  George Richmond married Julia Tatham in 1831.

The Windmill.  Oil, 35.6 x 48.2 cm., signed.  CSK, 15 Nov., #158, illus. (£6250).

Autograph letter signed to Richard E. Tagart, July 1846.  BL, 14 June, #157, 2 pp., browned (£50). Previously offered BHL, 29 March 2011, #297 (not sold; estimate £300-400), and EB, Oct. 2008, at the “buy it now” price of £250.

Autograph letter signed to Mrs. Edward Tagart, 13 Feb. 1855.  EB, May, number of leaves and contents not described, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $99); Aug., illus. ($75).

“Right Honorable Sir Robert Peel,” mezzotint by James Scott, 1840.  EB, Jan., hand colored, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £149 or “best offer”).  Apparently a copy of Linnell’s own mezzotint of 1838.

“Thomas Norris,” mezzotint by Linnell, 1837.  EB, Jan., hand colored, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £149 or “best offer”).

MORTIMER, JOHN HAMILTON

A Bandit Taking Up His Post. Oil, 41.2 x 30.4 cm., datable to the mid-1770s. CNY, 6 June, #58, illus. ($21,250). Another oil painting by Mortimer of the same design is in the Detroit Institute of Arts. A pen and ink drawing was sold CL, 17 Nov. 1992, #19, illus. (£1045). Mortimer’s etching of the design, titled “Banditti Taking His Post,” is dated 1778.

Banditti, attributed to Mortimer.  Watercolor, 30.0 x 21.3 cm.  Rosebery’s auction, London, 13 March, #656, illus. (£300).  Not a copy of any print by or after Mortimer known to me.

Banditti Fishing.  Oil, 76.8 x 64.1 cm., datable to c. 1777.  CNY, 26 Jan., #270, illus. ($116,500; estimate $30,000-50,000).

A Classical Subject, Possibly the Aftermath of Battle.  Pen and ink, 23.5 x 37.5 cm.  CL, 10 July, #1, illus. (£8125).  Previously sold CNY, 26 Jan. 2011, #304, titled A Battle in the Precincts of a Temple, illus. ($8750); offered W.S Fine Art, June 2011 cat., #12, illus. (£16,000).

Cupid.  Pen and black ink, pink wash, 16.5 x 15.0 cm.  CSK, 6 Dec., #194, illus. (£2375).

Edward, the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers, and The Black Prince Receiving John, King of France, Prisoner after the Battle of Poitiers, a pair attributed to Mortimer.  Oil, ovals 36.3 x 49.5 cm., formerly attributed to Benjamin West.  BHNY, 25 April, #23, elaborate gilt frames, illus. (not sold; estimate $12,000-18,000).

Fishermen Drawing In Their Nets.  Pencil, pen and black ink, 36.2 x 41.9 cm., datable to 1774.  Lowell Libson, Jan. cat., p. 54, illus. (price on request).  Previously sold CL, 5 July 2011, #112, illus. (£8750). The etching of this design by Robert Blyth is inscribed “Drawn by J. Mortimer, 1774” and “Publish’d … Nov.r 9th 1780.”

Head of a Man.  Pen and ink, 21.6 x 19.1 cm.  Dickins auction, Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire, 15 June, #5, illus. (no price information; estimate £250-350).

The Holy Family, attributed to Mortimer.  Pen and ink, 29.1 x 25.0 cm.  BHO, 25 Jan., #223, illus. (£338).

Lovers in a Pastoral Landscape, attributed to Mortimer.  Pen and ink, wash, 27.3 x 18.0 cm.  DY, 24 Oct., #66, badly stained at top, illus. ($1375).  Probably a copy of Mortimer’s engraving, inscribed “PASTORAL” and dated 1778.  The preliminary drawing, reversed, is in the British Museum.

Nude Studies, recto and verso, attributed to Mortimer.  Chalk, 50.8 x 35.6 cm.  GO, 10 May, #1418, illus. (not sold; estimate £1000-1500); 28 June, #1245, illus. (not sold; estimate £500-800).

A Satyr Embracing a Woman.  Pen and ink, oval, 17.0 x 13.6 cm.  CNY, 26 Jan., #31, illus. ($3750).  The design was engraved in 1780 by Charles Reuben Ryley.

Sextus Pompeius Consulting Erichtho before the Battle of Pharsalia.  Oil, 58.4 x 46.4 cm., datable to 1771.  CNY, 26 Jan., #269, illus. ($30,000).  Robert Dunkarton’s mezzotint of the painting is dated 1776.

“Banditti at Market,” etching by Joseph Haynes, 1780.  EB, Nov., water stain lower right margin, illus. (£4.99).

“Banditti Returning,” mezzotint by John Raphael Smith, 1780.  Christopher Mendez, Jan. online cat., illus. (£300).

“Bust of a Warrior in Armour,” etching signed “Mortimer invenit et fecit,” n.d.  Christopher Mendez, Jan. online cat., illus. (£250).  A previously unrecorded work.

“Group of Seven Caricature Heads,” etching by Samuel Ireland, n.d.  Christopher Mendez, Jan. online cat., illus. (£150).

“Miller of Trompington and Two Scholars,” engraving by William Sharp, 1787.  GP, Sept. online cat., illus. (£75).

“Revengeful Monsters,” etching by Mortimer, 1780.  EB, May, stains upper left, illus. (£36.74).

“Salvator Rosa,” etching by Mortimer, 1778.  EB, May, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £20).

“Two Shipwrecked Mariners on a Rocky Shore,” etching, unsigned, possibly by Thomas Rowlandson, n.d.  Christopher Mendez, Jan. online cat., illus. (£240).

PALMER, SAMUEL

The Bay of Baiae from Monte Nuovo, Italy.  Watercolor, 14.6 x 39.7 cm., verso label signed, datable to 1841.  CL, 3 July, #167, illus. (£22,500).  Previously sold SL, 16 March 1978, #132 (£3200), and 17 Nov. 1988, #172 (£19,800); offered Agnew’s, March 1993 cat., #38, illus. (£37,500).

Coastal Sketch with Rocks, attributed to Palmer.  Pencil, 12.3 x 17.5 cm.  Rosebery’s auction, London, 18 Sept., #808, pencil inscription upper right not transcribed, verso of mount inscribed “Samuel Palmer, c. 1835, (ex Lady Epstein),” illus. (£400).  Possibly executed by Palmer during his tours in the west of England and Wales, 1835-36.

The Shearers.  Oil and tempera, 51.4 x 71.1 cm., generally dated to c. 1833.  Richard L. Feigen & Co., advertisement in Burlington Magazine 154 (May 2012): II, dating the work to c. 1827-29, illus. (price on request).  Previously offered privately by Richard Nathanson, April 2006 (price on request).

Sunset, the Campagna and Aquaducts, Rome.  Watercolor and gouache, heightened with touches of gold, 14.5 x 40.5 cm., datable to 1843.  BL, 14 Nov., #661, illus. (£3500).

La Vocatella near Corpo di Cava, Italy.  Watercolor and body color, 26.7 x 37.8 cm., datable to 1838.  CL, 10 July, #147, illus. (£13,750).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Feb-March 2002 cat., #53, illus. (£30,000), and SL, 23 Nov. 2006, #245, illus. (not sold; estimate £20,000-30,000).

Autograph letter signed by Charles Dickens to Palmer, 2 pp., 13 May 1846, concerning Palmer’s illus. to Dickens’s Pictures from Italy.  Jarndyce, Feb. cat. 197, #66, illus. (£3000).

“The Bellman,” etching, 5th st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #15, inscribed “Samuel Palmer” in pencil, illus. (“sold”).

“Christmas,” etching.  BHL, 16 May, #18, 4th st., illus. (£937).  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #4, 2nd st., an “early proof … before the reduction of the plate,” illus. (“sold”); #5, 3rd st., “before the lettering,” illus. (“sold”); #6, 4th st., illus. (£5750); #7, 5th st., 1926 printing, illus. (£3500).

“The Early Ploughman,” etching.  DW, 8 Feb., #213, 5th st., slight marginal staining, with Palmer, “The Cypress Grove,” etching, and A Vision Recaptured (Trianon P, 1978), illus. (£760).  Swann, 8 March, #174, st. not indicated but probably 5th, illus. ($900); another impression, 20 Sept., #7, 9th (final) st., 1926 printing, illus. ($2280).  Leslie Hindman auction, Chicago, 3 May, #1171, st. not indicated but probably 5th, illus. (not sold; estimate $500-700).  BHL, 16 May, #19, 8th st., illus. (£812).  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #12, 7th st., inscribed “S. Palmer” in pencil, illus. (£8750).  GP, June online cat., 5th st. from P. G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers, 1868, illus. (£360).  AH, Aug. online cat. 419, #98, 7th st., illus. (£1500).  EB, Sept., 5th st. from P. G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers, 1868, illus. ($225).  DY, 5 Nov., #706, 5th st., with “The Herdsman’s Cottage,” 2nd st., minor foxing, illus. ($500).  BHL, 27 Nov., #24, 5th st., pencil signature, illus. (£2750).  CSK, 5 Dec., #193, 5th st., framed, illus. (£2250).

“The Herdsman’s Cottage,” etching, 2nd st.  DW, 8 Feb., #212, illus. (£780).  BHL, 16 May, #21, illus. (£1000).  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #3, an impression “before publication,” illus. (“sold”).  EB, Sept., full leaf from P. G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers, 1880, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £195.01).  BHL, 27 Nov., #23, from the Portfolio, 1872, illus. (£1125).  See also “The Early Ploughman,” above. 

“The Lonely Tower,” etching, 5th st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #16, inscribed “Trial Proof” and “S. Palmer” in pencil, illus. (“sold”).

“The Morning of Life,” etching.  EB, Feb., 7th st., trimmed close, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £500); another impression, Aug., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £850).  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #13, 4th st., backing leaf inscribed “Samuel Palmer” in pencil, illus. (£8750); #14, 6th st., illus. (“sold”).

“Opening the Fold,” etching.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #17, 5th st., inscribed “S. Palmer” in pencil, illus. (“sold”).  GP, Nov. online cat., 8th st., illus. (£2000).  EB, Nov., 8th st., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £500).

“The Rising Moon,” etching, 7th st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #9, illus. (“sold”).

“The Skylark,” etching, 7th st.  DW, 8 Feb., #211, illus. (£800).  BHL, 16 May, #20, illus. (£2000; estimate £400-600).  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #2, illus. (£4000).  DL, 1 Nov., #333, framed, illus. (£650).

“The Sleeping Shepherd,” etching, 3rd st.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #8, “early proof … before publication in 1857,” illus. (“sold”).

“The Weary Ploughman,” etching.  BHL, 22 Feb., #59, 8th st., 1865 printing on laid India, illus. (£812.50).  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #10, probably 6th st., inscribed “Samuel Palmer” in pencil, illus. (£5500); #11, 8th st., illus. (£2500).

“The Willow,” etching, 2nd st.  DL, 1 Nov., #332, framed, illus. (£320).  Addisons auction, Barnard Castle, Durham, 8 Dec., #365, illus. (£280).

Dickens, Pictures from Italy, 1st ed., 1846.  Maggs, Dec. 2011 cat. 1452, #38, “primary (fine-diaper cloth) binding” (£850).  EB, Jan., publisher’s cloth, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £295 or “best offer”); same copy, March, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £245 or “best offer”); another copy, April, publisher’s cloth, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $450); another copy, Oct., publisher’s cloth worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $350 or “best offer”).  Jarndyce, Feb. cat. 197, #65, publisher’s cloth, later slipcase, illus. (£1500).  John Windle, Feb. Occasional List 1, #20, 1st issue, publisher’s cloth “restored,” illus. ($1000).

Hamerton, Etching and Etchers, 1868.  BL, 5 July, #93, with Palmer’s etching “The Early Ploughman,” 5th st., with pencil annotations, publisher’s roan-backed cloth rubbed, illus. (£700).

Milton, Shorter Poems, 1889.  John Robertshaw, Jan. cat. 123, #162, small-paper issue, marginal spotting, publisher’s cloth (£85).

Palmer, English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil.  John Robertshaw, Jan. cat. 123, #163, 1884 ed., publisher’s cloth very worn (£760).  BHO, 31 Jan., #98, 1883 ed., small-paper issue, foxed, publisher’s cloth worn, illus. (£750); another copy, 26 June, #392, small-paper issue, publisher’s cloth, illus. (estimate £750).  Bellmans auction, Billingshurst, 20 April, #3404, 1883 ed., large-paper issue, “some marginal marks & spotting,” rebound in half morocco worn (£420).  Chiswick auction, London, 4 Sept., #73, 1884 ed., rebound in vellum, illus. (£230).  Brightwells auction, Leominster, 19 Sept., #122, 1883 ed., small-paper issue, publisher’s cloth worn (£180).  Individual pls. are not listed.

PARKER, JAMES

“Commemoration of the xivth. February mdccxcvii,” engraved by Parker and Worthington after Robert Smirke, 1803.  GP, Feb. online cat., “proof,” minor stains and foxing, illus. (£450).

“Fair Fatima” (provisional title), engraving.  See “Jolie Fatime” under Stothard, below.

RICHMOND, GEORGE (excluding most portraits)

Comus—The Measure.  Black chalk, 24.4 x 29.3 cm., with figure studies on the verso.  CSK, 18 July, #845, with another, related drawing of a male nude observed from behind, recto and verso, recto black chalk, verso pencil, leaf 29.2 x 22.4 cm., main drawing illus. (£2000).  Both drawings previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #76 (£3500) and #77, main drawing, illus. (£6500); the main drawing in this group previously offered W/S Fine Art, July 2008 cat., #39, titled A Composition Study for “Comus—The Measure,” illus. (£6000).

The Crucifixion.  Pen and brown ink, brown wash, 22.9 x 14.0 cm.  CSK, 6 Dec., #289, with 4 other drawings by Richmond on the life of Christ, Crucifixion illus. (£750).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., all illus.: #3, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, after Leonardo (£1250), #32, Crucifixion (£5000), #33, Two Studies of a Figure of Christ (£6000), #40, The Three Maries at the Sepulchre (£650), and #75, Studies for the Hands of Christ and the Angel in the “Agony in the Garden” (£3750).

A Dancing, Contrapposto Figure.  Chalk drawing, 40.6 x 22.9 cm., dated by the vendor to c. 1830.  AH, Jan. online cat. 413, #58 (£2250).

Elijah at the Mouth of the Cave.  Pen and ink, 19.4 x 14.0 cm., inscribed with a quotation from 1 Kings 19.12-13 and dated 1827.  CL, 10 July, #133, illus. (£3750; estimate £1200-1800).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #2, illus. (£16,000), and W/S Fine Art, June 2006 cat., #47, illus. (£7500), and June 2010 cat., #23, illus. (£5500).

A Gathering at Fulham Palace.  Pen and ink, 22.9 x 19.0 cm.  CL, 10 July, #141, illus. (£6250).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #44, illus. (£16,000).

Heathland with a Wood Beyond.  Watercolor and body color, 18.2 x 27.3 cm.  CL, 10 July, #145, illus. (£275; estimate £800-1200).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #62, illus. (£3500).

Isaac Going Forth to Meditate.  Oil, 53.3 x 33.0 cm., datable to c. 1828.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #26, illus. (£45,000).  For earlier sales, see Blake 42.4 (spring 2009): 139.

Jocund Day Stands Tip Toe on the Misty Mountain Tops.  Pencil, 40.6 x 25.4 cm.  AH, Dec. online “Archive 2012” backlist, no entry #, illus. (£1750).

A Male Nude Figure in a Rocky Landscape.  Watercolor with gold highlights on blue paper, 19.0 x 10.3 cm., signed with initials and dated 1829.  CL, 10 July, #137, illus. (not sold; highest bid £950 on an estimate of £1500-2000).  CSK, 6 Dec., #286, illus. (£500). Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #12, illus. (£1500). 

Portrait of Henry Richmond.  Pencil, 43.0 x 31.0 cm., signed “G. R. NOV 1823” and inscribed “This drawing of / Henry Richmond aged 6 years my / brother, was made by me / Novr 8. 1823. and restored / and Touched upon in parts Jany 21 / 1861 / Geo Richmond” (lower left) and “G Richmond Born 28 March 1809 / Henry Richmond. Br 17 Oct.r 1817 / died. 27 Jan.y 1825” (lower right).  CSK, 17 Jan., #174, illus. (£625).

A Profile of a Sculptural Head, Probably from a “Figure of Jupiter” or “The Nile.”  Pencil, pen and ink, 28.0 x 21.5 cm.  CSK, 18 July, #848, with “study of a woman’s left hand” and “study of a man’s right leg,” illus. (£750).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #21, illus. (£1500). 

Ruth and Naomi.  Black chalk heightened with white on buff paper, 29.8 x 40.0 cm., datable to c. 1837-40, inscribed in pencil (possibly at a much later date) “Ruth & Naomi / Rome.”  CL, 10 July, #132, illus. (£2500).

A Sheet of Studies after the Antique Including a Sculpture of Antinous, and Study of a Standing Male Nude.  Two leaves, pencil and pen and ink, 26.7 x 19.0 cm. and 32.8 x 21.9 cm.  CL, 10 July, #139, antique studies illus. (not sold; highest bid £1100 on an estimate of £2000-3000).  CSK, 6 Dec., #287, illus. (not sold; estimate £1500-2000).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #31, antique studies (£3750) and #22, standing nude (£3000).

A Sheet of Studies Including a Head Study of Samuel Palmer, an Angel, and Other Figures.  Pencil, 20.4 x 15.9 cm. on paper with an 1838 watermark.  CL, 10 July, #136, illus. (not sold; highest bid £950 on an estimate of £1500-2000).  CSK, 6 Dec., #290, illus. (not sold; estimate £700-1000).   Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #41, illus. (£5000).

A Shepherd Waking.  Pencil and pen and ink, 21.0 x 33.0 cm., title inscribed in pencil.  CL, 10 July, #135, illus. (not sold; highest bid £950 on an estimate of £1500-2000).  CSK, 6 Dec., #288, illus. (£500).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #8, illus. (£3500).

Study of a Classical Bust of a Young Man (recto), Study of a Kneeling Figure (verso).  Recto pen and ink, verso pencil, 27.0 x 19.4 cm.  CL, 10 July, #138, illus. (£1000).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #20, recto illus. (£1500).

Study of a Female Nude.  Red and black chalk, 21.5 x 28.5 cm.  CL, 10 July, #134, illus. (£2250).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #89, illus. (£5500).

Study of a Tree.  Watercolor, 22.5 x 18.5 cm.  CSK, 18 June, #847, with 4 other drawings by Richmond, illus. (£1250).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #66, illus. (£3500). 

Study of Soldiers.  Watercolor and gouache, 24.0 x 16.0 cm., signed with initials and dated 1838.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #28, illus. (£12,000).

View across a Wooded Valley.  Watercolor, 20.0 x 39.0 cm.  CL, 10 July, #144, illus. (£3750).  Previously offered SL, 8 Dec. 2005, #182, illus. (not sold; estimate £1000-1500), and W/S Fine Art, July 2008 cat., #40, illus., and June 2011 cat., #45, illus. (£7500 both times).

A Woman with Two Children in a Hilly Landscape.  Oil, 41.0 x 30.5 cm., signed with initials and dated 1834.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #27, illus. (£38,000).

A Young Man in a Cornfield.  Pencil and black chalk, 18.7 x 22.3 cm. on paper with an 1827 watermark.  CL, 10 July, #146, illus. (not sold; highest bid £900 on an estimate of £1200-1800).  CSK, 6 Dec., #291, illus. (not sold; estimate £700-1000).  Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 cat., #61, illus. (£3000).

“The Fatal Bellman,” engraving.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #25, only st., this impression on laid India, illus. (“sold”).

ROMNEY, GEORGE (excluding most portraits)

A sketchbook with 45 drawings, 15 in pen and ink, the remainder in pencil, leaves 9.0 x 19.2 cm., bound in calf.  SL, 4 July, #170, illus. (£10,625; estimate £3000-5000).

Three pencil sketches, all scenes of John Howard visiting prisoners, each about 16.0 x 28.0 cm.  Chorley’s auction, Cheltenham, 10 Oct., #448, illus. (£900).

Classical Figures (recto), another sketch (verso), attributed to Romney.  Pencil, 34.0 x 20.0 cm.  Golding Young & Mawer auction, Grantham, Lincolnshire, 5 Sept., #410, recto and verso illus. (£100).  The attribution to Romney seems correct to me.

Emma Hamilton as a Wood Nymph.  Pencil, 44.8 x 27.3 cm.  CSK, 6 Dec., #196, illus. (£3500).

Figures Grieving.  Pen and ink, 11.1 x 18.4 cm.  CL, 10 July, #33, illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).  Previously offered Agnew’s, June 2002 cat., #19, illus. (£12,000).

A Group of Standing Figures.  Brown wash over pencil, 27.0 x 21.0 cm., datable to the 1770s.  SNY, 25 Jan., #18, illus. ($22,500).  Previously sold SL, 19 Feb. 1987, #92, titled Waiting Souls, illus. (£4400).

The Infant Shakespeare Nursed by Comedy and Tragedy.  Pen and ink, 11.4 x 18.5 cm.  CL, 10 July, #30, illus. (£5625; estimate £700-1000).  Previously sold CL, 22 Feb. 1966, #24, as part of an album, and SL, 18 June 1970, #89 (no price records); offered W/S Fine Art, “Master Drawings” exhibit at Dickinson, New York, 14-26 Jan. 2008, #21, illus. (price on request).

Jason and the Argonauts, attributed to Romney.  2 wash drawings, the larger 23.5 x 18.5 cm.  Dreweatts auction, Donnington, Berkshire, 15 Feb., both with the collector’s stamp of Alfred de Pass, illus. (not sold; estimate £700-1000).  In spite of the convincing provenance (de Pass had a large Romney collection), I am slightly suspicious of the attribution.  If indeed by Romney, I suspect that these are very early drawings.

John Howard Visiting a Lazaretto.  Pencil, 14.0 x 22.9 cm.  CL, 10 July, #34, illus. (£1250).  Previously offered W/S Fine Art, July 2008 cat., #8, illus. (price on request).

John Howard Visiting a Lazaretto, recto and verso.  Pencil, 14.0 x 26.0 cm.  CSK, 18 July, #788, recto illus. (apparently withdrawn; estimate £1500-2000); 6 Dec., #198, illus. (£625).  Previously offered Agnew’s, June 2002 cat., #11, illus. (£5000), and SL, 26 March 2004, #94, illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000).

John Howard Visiting the Lazaretto.  Pencil, 14.0 x 23.5 cm. Tennants auction, Leyburn, Yorkshire, 27 Jan., #124, illus. (a bargain at £250, apparently to AH).  AH, July online cat. 418, #36, illus. (£1250).  Similar to, and possibly removed from the same sketchbook as, the drawing listed immediately above and those offered SL, 11 Nov. 1993, #23 (not sold), SL, 3 April 1996, #36, with 3 others (£402), AH, June 2006 online cat. 375, #54 (£950), and W/S Fine Art, “Master Drawings” exhibit at Dickinson, New York, 14-26 Jan. 2008, #8, illus. (price on request).

Macbeth Confronts Banquo’s Ghost.  Pencil, pen, and wash, 32.7 x 49.2 cm.  CL, 10 July, #37, illus. (£11,875).  Previously offered Agnew’s, June 2002 cat., #12, illus. (£20,000), and SL, 5 June 2008, #159, illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-4000).

Portrait of William Hayley.  Oil, framed as an oval, 76.0 x 63.5 cm., datable to 1778.  SL, 6 Dec., #128, illus. (not sold; estimate £30,000-50,000).  For previous sales and attempted sales, see Blake 45.4 (spring 2012): 140. An engraving by H. Robinson of this portrait was published in The Works of William Cowper, ed. Robert Southey, 1837, vol. 10, facing p. 56. 

Portrait Study of the Rev. William Atkinson, Wearing a Broad-Brimmed Hat.  Pencil, 15.2 x 18.4 cm.  CL, 10 July, #28, illus. (£15,000; estimate £5000-8000).  Previously sold CL, 7 July 2010, #385, illus. (£6875); offered W.S Fine Art, June 2011 cat., #10, illus. (£15,000).   

The Procession.  Pencil, 10.0 x 18.0 cm.  Tennants auction, Leyburn, Yorkshire, 27 Jan., #125, illus. (a bargain at £200, apparently to AH).  AH, March online cat. 414, #32, framed, illus. (£875).  Possibly the same drawing offered by AH, May 2005 online cat. 367, #57 (£1400).

A Seated Woman and Other Studies.  Pencil and wash, 34.3 x 24.8 cm.  CL, 3 July, #114, illus. (£16,250).

Study for Elizabeth Warren as Hebe.  Pen and brown ink and wash over pencil, 17.7 x 9.6 cm., datable to 1776.  Lowell Libson, Jan. cat., p. 36, illus. (price on request).  Previously sold SL, 5 June 2008, #161, illus. (£10,000).

Study for “Initiation of a Rustic Nymph” (recto), 2 studies, 1 possibly for the recto and the other possibly for Cymon and Iphigenia (verso).  Pencil, leaf 36.8 x 54.6 cm.  AH, Oct. online cat. 420, #40, illus. (£4500).

Study of Ann Parry, Seated, with Study for a Portrait of Joannah Law.  Two leaves, pencil, 23.5 x 17.8 cm. and 9.0 x 9.5 cm.  CL, 10 July, #26, Ann Parry illus. (£1250).  Both previously offered Agnew’s, June 2002 cat., #7, Ann Parry (£15,000), and #8, Joannah Law (£25,000).

Study of Captives in a Lazaretto.  Pencil, pen and ink, wash, 35.0 x 49.5 cm.  CL, 10 July, #35, illus. (£13,750).

Study of the Destruction of Niobe’s Children.  Pencil, lightly squared, 48.5 x 69.0 cm.  CL, 10 July, #38, illus. (not sold; highest bid £3800 on an estimate of £6000-10,000).  Previously offered Agnew’s, June 2002 cat., #22, illus. (£20,000).

Study of the Figure of Charon.  Pen and ink, black chalk, 34.6 x 27.2 cm.  Hill-Stone, London Master Drawings Fair, 27 June-5 July (price on request).  Advertised and illus. in Burlington Magazine 154 (June 2012): [10].

Study of Figures Arranged in Friezes.  Pen and brown ink and wash, faint black chalk sketches on the verso, 10.6 x 18.7 cm., datable to c. 1776-77.  Lowell Libson, Jan. cat., p. 37, illus. (price on request).  Previously offered Libson, May 2011 online cat., illus. (not priced).

Study of a Gentleman, Standing.  Pencil and brown ink, 41.6 x 28.0 cm.  CL, 10 July, #27, illus. (£12,500; estimate £4000-6000).

Study of Lady Macbeth.  Pencil, 15.2 x 10.9 cm., inscribed “Romney” on the verso.  CL, 10 July, #31, illus. (£5625; estimate £600-800).  Previously sold CL, 6 June 2002, #17, with Romney, Study of a Lady Sewing (£956); offered Agnew’s, March 2003 cat., #15, illus. (£2250).

Study of a Mother and Child (recto), the same, squared (verso). Recto pen and ink, verso pencil, 24.8 x 20.3 cm.  CL, 3 July, #115, illus. (£2250).  Previously sold CL, 22 Feb. 1966, #28, with 5 others (no price record).

Study of a Mother and Child with a Doll (recto), Study of a Lady Standing by a Column (verso).  Recto pen and ink, verso pencil, 15.5 x 20.0 cm.  CL, 10 July, #36, illus. (£1000).

Study of Women and Children in an Interior.  Pencil and wash, 29.2 x 46.3 cm.  CL, 10 July, #32, illus. (£12,500).

Two Figures.  Pen and ink, 3.2 x 4.5 cm.  Lawrences auction, Crewkerne, Somerset, 12 Oct., #1684, illus. (£180).  Very slight.

SHERMAN, WELBY

“The Shepherd,” engraving after a design by Samuel Palmer.  Fine Art Society, May-June “Samuel Palmer [and] His Friends and His Followers” cat., #1, “one of only five impressions recorded,” illus. (£12,000).

STOTHARD, THOMAS

Books with illus. by Stothard are listed only for eds. not recorded in the standard reference works, Coxhead and Bennett.

Four panoramic seascapes and a study of rocks.  Pencil, pen and ink, and wash, 16.2 x 17.8 cm. and smaller.  CL, 3 July, #134, illus. (£500).

“A mixed group of drawings and watercolours,” including “several by Thomas Stothard.”  BL, 16 Feb., #215, “c. 65” works in all, a frieze-like wash drawing of dancing women by Stothard illus. (£850, apparently to AH).  Stothard’s frieze design only, AH, May online cat. 416, #48, described as “possibly for the unrealized decorations at Buckingham Palace,” illus. (£575).

The Canterbury Pilgrims.  Watercolor, 9.9 x 34.4 cm. on paper with a Whatman 1833 watermark.  CSK, 21 Feb., #248, illus. (£4000).  Justin Croft, Oct. cat. 7, #12, illus. (£8000).  Previously sold CL, 18 June 1980, #108 (£950), and CSK, 9 July 2009, #630 (£5000).  For comments, see Blake 43.4 (spring 2010): 146.

Charles II Discovering Himself to a Family Who Had Given Him Shelter, attributed to Stothard.  Oil, 29.2 x 38.1 cm.  Duke’s auction, Dorchester, 12 April, #187, illus. (£160).  EB, May-June, illus. (£446.89).  The attribution to Stothard seems reasonable; the titular subject is uncertain.

Composition Studies.  Pen and ink, 20.3 x 27.9 cm.  AH, Dec. online cat. 422, #48, illus. (£125).

Herms and Feet.  Pen and ink, 5.1 x 20.3 cm.  AH, Dec. online cat. 422, #47, illus. (£125).

Portrait of the Artist Thomas Stothard in His Studio, attributed to “English School.”  Oil, 91.0 x 71.0 cm.  BL, 19 June, #190, claimed in the cat. to be “the earliest depiction of the studio of an English artist,” datable to c. 1800, illus. (£2500).  For earlier sales and discussion, see Blake 31.4 (spring 1998): 134, 34.4 (spring 2001): 118, and 39.4 (spring 2006): 177.  For illus. and brief discussion, see Huon Mallalieu, “Personalities in Paint,” Country Life 206.33 (15 Aug. 2012): 107.

Roman Soldiers, probably related to Stothard’s illus. for Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.  Pen and ink, 11.0 x 10.0 cm.  Bigwood auction, Tiddington, Warwickshire, 24 Feb., #360, framed, illus. (£32).  EB, March, illus. (£133).  Previously offered privately by AH, June 1996 (£70).

Three Caryatids.  Pen and ink, brown wash, 10.2 x 10.2 cm.  AH, June online cat. 417, #42, illus. (£275).

“Boadicea the British Queen Animating the Britons to Defend Their Country against the Romans,” engraved by William Sharp, 1812.  EB, Sept., British Museum duplicate stamp on verso, illus. (€12.09).

“The Canterbury Pilgrimage,” etching/engraving published by R. H. Cromek, 1810.  GP, Sept. online cat., with the later st. titled “Pilgrimage to Canterbury,” published by Worthington, 1817, earlier st. illus. (£1600).  Justin Croft, Oct. cat. 7, #11, 1817 st., contemporary gilt frame, illus. (£2000).  See also “Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims” under Blake’s Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above.

“Caroline de Lichtfield,” a pair of pls. illustrating Isabelle de Montolieu’s novel, engraved by Charles Knight, 1788.  GP, Sept. online cat., illus. (£520).

“Danse Grecque,” engraved by Pietro Zancon, c. 1795?  GP, June online cat., hand colored, illus. (£240).  For a companion print, also based on the letters of Mary Wortley Montagu, see “Jolie Fatime,” below.

“The Death of Captain Faulknor,” etching/engraving, 61.4 x 45.7 cm., inscribed lower right “Bromley Aqua fortis fecit, Blackberd Sculpt,” published by Robert Bowyer as part of his “Historic Gallery,” 1801.  EB, Sept., wove paper, leaf 67.7 x 50.7 cm., a good impression in poor condition with creases, stains, and tears, illus. (£49).  Burstow & Hewett auction, Battle, East Sussex, 26 Sept., #340, framed, illus. (not sold; estimate £60-80).  Ivey-Selkirk auction, St. Louis, 1 Dec., #244, illus. ($190).  Not in Coxhead.  The “Aqua fortis” inscription indicates that the pl. was etched by William Bromley (1769-1842), one of London’s leading engravers.  “Sculpt” indicates that Blackberd added the engraved finishing lines.  Little is known about C. Blackberd, active c. 1784-1810.  He engraved in stipple the 7 pls. after Stothard in Salomon Gessner, The Death of Abel [and] New Idyls, published by T. Heptinstall in 1797.

“The Fifth of November,” engraved by Charles Knight.  GP, March online cat., illus. (£260).  One from a set of 5 oval pls., each about 17.5 x 20.5 cm., picturing children at play or in the classroom, published by J. F. Tomkins in Jan. 1790 (see Coxhead 180). 

“Jolie Fatime,” engraved by Pietro Zancon, inscribed in the pl. with 2 lines in French, beginning “Elle se mit debout …,” quoted from “Lettres de Lady M-y W-y M-es[sic?],” the pl. published “A Venise chez Joseph Remondini & Fils,” c. 1795?  EB, Jan., leaf of laid paper 40.6 x 30.5 cm., water stain top right corner, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $29.99).  GP, May online cat., hand colored, illus. (£180).  An illus. to a French translation of the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (or “Montague”).  I have not been able to find the ed. quoted in the pl.  For the passage illus., see Lettres de Milady Wortley Montague (London and Paris: Duchesne, 1764) 2: 9-10, and The Complete Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, ed. Robert Halsband (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1965-67) 1: 349-50, letter about life in Turkey “To Lady Mar,” 18 April [1717]: “On a sofa … sat the Kahya’s Lady, … and at her feet sat 2 young Girls ….  But they were hardly seen near the fair Fatima (for that was her Name), so much her beauty effac’d every thing ….  She stood up to receive me [Lady Montagu], saluteing me after their fashion, putting her hand upon her Heart ….”  Many 18th-century eds. of Montagu’s letters, first published in 1763, give the author’s name as “M-y W-y M-e.”  The same design, reversed, was also engraved by James Parker, whose pl. is known to me only through a proof with signatures but before all other letters.  Zancon’s engraving may have been copied from Parker’s, the latter incorrectly described as “British ladies in India” in Blake 41.4 (spring 2008): 162.  For a companion print, see “Danse Grecque,” above.

“Morning Lesson” and “Evening Prayer,” a pair engraved by William Nutter, 1792.  EB, Jan., framed, illus. (£67.10).

“Pilgrimage to Canterbury.”  See “The Canterbury Pilgrimage,” above.

“Procession of the Flitch of Bacon,” engraving by James Henry Watt, 1833.  Design 31.4 x 77.4 cm., platemark 43.5 x 86.7 cm.  EB, Nov.-Dec., tear into the image on the right, other marginal tears, brown stains in margins, water stain lower left margin, framed, illus. ($9.99).  This large panorama pl. is described by Coxhead as “designed [by Stothard] as a companion to the ‘Canterbury Pilgrims’” (16).

The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.  Dove’s English Classics.  3 vols.  London: Printed by J. F. Dove “For the Proprietors of the English Classics,” 1826.  EB, Oct., contemporary half calf worn, illus. (£222.78).  Includes 3 frontispieces and 3 title-page vignettes engraved by John Romney after Stothard.  Not the same designs as those published in the Novelist’s Magazine, 1785.  Coxhead 211-12 mentions only the 2 pls. in vol. 3 and does not identify the publication; Bennett 86 records “2-3(?)” pls. 

Bray, Life of Stothard, 1851, extra-illus. copies only.  BG, 27 April, #133, 125 pls. after Stothard added, contemporary morocco worn (£220).

William Dodd, The Beauties of History or Pictures of Virtue and Vice, 2nd ed., 1796.  BL, 19 April, #138, “engraved frontispiece by E. Thompson after Stothard,” browned, contemporary calf rebacked (not sold; estimate £150-200).  Not in Coxhead or Bennett.

Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1794.  Kodnor Galleries auction, Dania Beach, Florida, 18 Jan., #383, the only pl. after Stothard, “The Voyage of the Sable Venus from Angola to the West Indies” engraved by William Grainger, framed, illus. ($500; estimate $50-100).  Coxhead 169 (the pl. but not the book); Bennett 71.  For illus. and discussion see Alexander S. Gourlay, “‘Art Delivered’: Stothard’s The Sable Venus and Blake’s Visions of the Daughters of Albion,” Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 31.4 (2008): 529-50, and Regulus Allen, “‘The Sable Venus’ and Desire for the Undesirable,” SEL 51.3 (summer 2011): 667-91.

John Milton, Paradise Lost, pls. by Bartolozzi after Stothard published by Jeffryes, 1792-95.  GP, March online cat., 1 pl. only, “Adam, Eve and Raphael” mistitled “Adam, Eve and the Archangel Gabriel,” before all letters, illus. (£220).  EB, Oct., “Eve,” before title, marginal stains, framed, illus. (£82.63); “His [Satan’s] Oblique Way amongst Innumerable Stars,” before title, framed, illus. (£42.98); Nov., “The Morning Hymn,” marginal stains, framed, illus. (£49.98); “Pandemonium,” marginal stains, framed, illus. (£31.99).  Holloway’s auction, Banbury, Oxfordshire, 4 Dec., #197, “Adam and Eve” and “Adam, Eve and Raphael,” hand colored and trimmed close to the images, illus. (not sold; estimate £60-80).  “Adam, Eve and Raphael” is without letters in all copies I’ve seen of the Jeffryes publication and later reissues.  The presence of fragmentary letterpress texts on some impressions indicates that they were printed as part of an (unpublished?) ed. of Paradise Lost.

Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, n.d. (imprints in the pls. dated 1811).  With 15 pls. after Stothard first published in the Novelist’s Magazine, vol. 10 (1783).  Not in Coxhead or Bennett.  See under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

George Ruggle, Ignoramus, Comoedia.  London: T. Paine, 1787.  Frontispiece engraved by Grignion after Stothard.  EB, Sept., pl. foxed, contemporary calf worn, illus. ($217.50).  Coxhead 175 describes the pl. but does not identify the book in which it was published.  Bennett 68.

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).  Newly discovered impressions of previously recorded published sts. of Blake’s engravings are listed for only the rarer pls.

The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue

Pp. 4-5, “Joseph of Arimathea among the Rocks of Albion,” impression 2E.  This is probably the impression offered in Quaritch’s cat. of Nov. 1893, A Miscellaneous Catalogue of Valuable, Rare, and Curious Books, p. 4, no item number (£2.2s).

Pp. 55-56, “Enoch,” impression 1B.  For the sale of this impression, see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above, and the introductory essay to this sales review.  For the correct leaf dimensions and details about condition not recorded in SP, see the caption to illus. 15.

P. 71, “Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” impression 5II.  Given in 1990 by Henry E. Gerstley to Princeton University Art Museum, accession no. 1990-22.

Pp. 111-22, “George Cumberland’s Card.”  For a previously unrecorded impression printed on a card, see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above.

P. 116, “George Cumberland’s Card,” impression 1Z.  Bequeathed in 2010 by Charles Ryskamp to Princeton University Art Museum, accession no. 2010-139.

Pp. 158-64, “The Idle Laundress,” Blake after George Morland.  The prints of this work available from the Thomas Ross Collection, Binfield, Berkshire <http://www.thomasross.co.uk>, are reproductions, not impressions from the original copperplate.  The Ross pl., probably a photo-etching or zincograph, reproduces the 1st st. of the pl. with the J. R. Smith 1788 imprint.  The design, including the framing lines, in original impressions measures 21.1 x 26.1 cm.; the design in the Ross pl. measures 16.4 x 20.4 cm.

William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations

Pp. 27-28, John Bonnycastle, Introduction to Mensuration, 1787, 1791, 1794 eds.  In the 2nd st. of the title-page vignette, engraved by Blake after Stothard, 2 small stones have been added just above the lower edge of the image, approximately 2.3 cm. right of the bottom left corner.  These remain in the 3rd st.

Pp. 30-33, Novelist’s Magazine and Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, c. 1811 and 1818.  At least 1 copy (Essick collection) of the c. 1811 Grandison contains the 4th sts. of Blake’s 3 pls. rather than the 3rd sts. found in other copies.