Abbreviations

Illuminated Books

Songs of Innocence, copy W. Twenty-two pls. on 22 leaves. For bibliographic details, see the introductory essay. Provenance: early history not known; sold from the “Property of a Nobleman” at Hodgson’s auction, London, 28 June 1940, #260 (£25 to “Private”); sold SL, 30 April 1941, #641 (£50 to the dealer B. F. Stevens); acquired at an unknown time, perhaps shortly after the 1941 auction, by a private American collector; by inheritance to the private American collector who brought the volume to John Windle, the San Francisco book dealer, in April 2015; on consignment with Windle in Oct.; disbound by Windle at the owner’s request in late Oct.; pls. 2 (frontispiece), 5 (“The Shepherd”), 15 (“Laughing Song”), 25 (“Infant Joy”), 54 (“The Voice of the Ancient Bard”), and the former paper binding and morocco folder acquired late Oct. by Essick; pls. 3 (title page), 11 (“The Blossom”), 16-17 (“A Cradle Song”), and 26 (“A Dream”) acquired Dec. by the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto; pls. 6-7 (“The Ecchoing Green”) acquired early Jan. 2016 by the Morgan Library and Museum, New York; pl. 8 (“The Lamb”) acquired early Jan. 2016 by the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; pls. 4 (“Introduction”) and 27 (“On Anothers Sorrow”) acquired late Jan. 2016 by Alan Parker, London; pls. 22-23 (“Spring”) and 24 (“Nurses Song”) acquired Feb. 2016 by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library; pls. 12 (“The Chimney Sweeper”) and 20-21 (“Night”) acquired March 2016 by the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Pl. 19 (“Holy Thursday”) is the only remaining pl. from copy W available from Windle as of mid-March 2016 (price on request). See illus. 1-3.

1. Frontispiece from Songs of Innocence, copy W, untraced between April 1941 and April 2015 (see enlargement). Relief etching printed in black ink, 1789. BB pl. 2, 10.9 x 6.9 cm., leaf of wove paper 19.7 x 11.6 cm. Numbered “1” in pencil, upper right in an unidentified hand, but written so lightly that the number is probably not visible in this reproduction. The presence of stabholes in the left margin indicates that this impression was not bound facing the title page, as in conventional books with frontispieces. The thread projecting from the middle of the left margin is probably a remnant of the binding that used multiple holes, visible as small indentations along the left edge of the leaf, and not part of the original binding with three holes. The frontispiece in Innocence copy U, printed in the same press run with this impression from copy W, is less heavily inked. The plate in copy U may be the second pull with some reinking. These two copies were probably not intended for hand coloring. All traced copies of Innocence produced c. 1789 and tinted with watercolors were more delicately printed in softer colors, including green, raw sienna, and yellow ochre. Essick collection; digital image taken after the volume was disbound.

A gray tone appears in the whites above the child’s head, surrounding the tree limbs upper left, and left of the piper’s right arm. At first glance this looks like wash applied by hand, but under magnification it becomes clear that the gray haze is composed of minute ink droplets printed from the copperplate. This foul inking of whites is very probably accidental, a product of the overinking of contiguous relief plateaus, but the effect is not unpleasing. Such deposits of ink in recessed areas of the copperplate might be considered the equivalent, for a plate etched in relief, of “plate tone”—that is, ink purposefully printed from the surface of a plate etched or engraved in intaglio, a technique famously exploited by James Whistler.

2. Title page from Songs of Innocence, copy W (see enlargement). Relief and white-line etching printed in black ink, 1789. BB pl. 3, 12.0 x 7.4 cm., leaf of wove paper 20.2 x 11.8 cm. Numbered “2” in pencil upper right in an unidentified hand. The dark patches that obscure the image lower right are the result of overinking. The title page in Innocence copy U, printed in the same press run with this impression, is more heavily inked throughout. The plate here in copy W may be a second pull with little or no reinking. E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto. Digital image taken before the volume was disbound, courtesy of John Windle.

3. “Infant Joy” from Songs of Innocence, copy W (see enlargement). Relief etching with touches of white-line work printed in black ink, 1789. BB pl. 25, 11.1 x 6.8 cm., leaf of wove paper 20.1 x 11.7 cm. Numbered “6” in pencil upper right in an unidentified hand. First st. of 2, with the 1^st letter of “Joy” in the title descending into the petal below, heretofore known only in Songs of Innocence copy U (see Viscomi 243-47 and illus. 251). Blake cut away the part of the initial “J” below the upper outline of the petal to create the 2^nd st. Pl. 25 in copy U, printed in the same press run with this impression, shows much more ink splatter in the design above the text and residual ink on the etching borders. The plate here in copy W may be a second pull after some cleaning and careful reinking. The text is more lightly printed than in copy U. Essick collection; digital image taken after the volume was disbound.

Drawings and Paintings

The Counsellor, King, Warrior, Mother and Child. Monochrome wash drawing, 19.0 x 28.3 cm., datable to c. 1780–85. Butlin #136. CL, 7 July, #93, titled The Counsellor, King, Warrior, Mother and Child, Bodies on a Battlefield, sold “the property of a lady,” possibly “one of the unidentified works, twenty-two in all, sold in a portfolio as lot 146 [error for 147, “William Blake: Slight Sketches and Studies”] at the George Richmond sale, in these Rooms, 29 April 1897, and bought by ‘Cicely’” (£2.10s. to Richard Sisley), Martin Butlin thanked for his help with the detailed cat. entry, illus. (not sold; estimate £60,000-80,000). In an email of 1 Aug., Harriet Drummond of Christie’s informed John Windle that the drawing had been sold by private treaty after the auction. The vendor was very probably the “private collection, Great Britain” (or the estate of the collector) listed as the owner in Butlin. She acquired the work by descent, probably in 1975, from David Alexander Robert Lindsay, the 28^th Earl of Crawford and 11^th Earl of Balcarres (1900–75). The suggestion that the drawing may have been in the 1897 auction is not recorded in Butlin. See illus. 4.

4. The Counsellor, King, Warrior, Mother and Child (see enlargement). Monochrome wash drawing on laid paper, 19.0 x 28.3 cm. Butlin #136, dating the work to c. 1780–85. Photo courtesy of Christie’s London.

According to David Bindman, Blake as an Artist (Oxford: Phaidon, 1977) 31, “the black cloud contains the barely distinguishable figure of Death hurling darts.” I have not seen the original, but I am unable to find this figure in a high-resolution digital image. There are a few lines extending from the center of the drawing toward the right that may not be part of the cloud, but these do not seem to constitute a figure. A cluster of diagonal lines extending toward the lower right corner might be Bindman’s “darts,” but they could also be rain in this stormy scene.

The disposition of the bodies was influenced by Blake’s study of tomb effigies in Westminster Abbey while an apprentice to James Basire. This work may form a group—although probably not a series—with at least 2 other wash drawings of the 1780s on the theme of war and its consequence, Sketch for “War Unchained by an Angel, Fire, Pestilence, and Famine Following” and Searching among the Dead on a Battlefield (Butlin #186 recto, 197A). A watercolor of War Unchained and its watercolor companion, A Breach in a City, the Morning after a Battle (Butlin #187-88), were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784; both are now untraced. Blake returned in 1805 to basic features of the design reproduced here for 1 of his illus. to Blair’s Grave, engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti as pl. 4 in R. H. Cromek’s 1808 edition. The setting is a tomb in the Grave illus., rather than a battlefield, and the figure lower left holding a sword is not included. Christie’s cat. of 7 July associates the present design with two further drawings of the 1780s, The Spirit of a Just Man Newly Departed Appearing to His Mourning Family and Burial Scene (Butlin #135, 137 recto), apparently because of their relationship to the later Grave illus. as well as their theme of mortality.

Harpers and Other Drawings (recto), preliminary sketches for America and Europe (verso). Pencil, leaf of wove paper 20.4 x 24.6 cm., datable to 1792–93. Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2010. Acquired Oct. by Essick from LL, John Windle acting as agent. For information on these drawings and illus., see Blake 46.4 (spring 2013): par. 7 and illus. 9-11, Martin Butlin, “Harpers and Other Drawings: The Case for a Unified Composition,” Blake 47.2 (fall 2013), and Blake 47.4 (spring 2014).

The Holy Family: “Christ in the Lap of Truth.”  Tempera, 60.0 x 50.0 cm., datable to c. 1810(?), overpainted in oil by another hand. Butlin #671, located in a “Private Collection, London.” SL, 27 May, #146, sold “from the estate of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe” (1915–2014), illus. (£20,000; estimate £20,000-30,000). The duchess inherited the painting from her father, the 1^st Marquess of Crewe (1858–1945). See illus. 5.

5. The Holy Family: “Christ in the Lap of Truth” (see enlargement). Tempera, 60.0 x 50.0 cm., datable to c. 1810(?), overpainted in oil by another hand no later than April 1862. Butlin #671. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.

As Butlin indicates, William Michael Rossetti appears to have recorded this work twice in his catalogue of Blake’s paintings and drawings in vol. 2 of Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 1863. The first listing (p. 230, #183) titles the work “the same” as the prior entry, “The Holy Family,” a watercolor of the same design now in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Butlin #471). Rossetti describes the medium as “tempera” and identifies the figures as “the Virgin” holding “the Infant Christ,” with Joseph and “Anna” (St. Anne, Mary’s mother) beside them and “the Infant Baptist, with a lamb,” lying on the ground. The second entry (p. 231, #191) is definitely the present painting, titled “Christ in the Lap of Truth, and between his Earthly Parents,” and described as an “oil-picture … rather concealed than displayed at the [1862] International Exhibition.” Rossetti repeats the title given in the 1862 exhibition cat. and implies that the woman seated on the right is Mary rather than Anne. The central female is thus taken to be Truth personified. Perhaps Rossetti saw the painting before it was overpainted, wrote his first entry, and saw it again at the 1862 exhibit without realizing that it was the same work, now considerably altered due to the overlay of oil paint.

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Butlin believes that the woman holding Jesus is indeed his mother. The identification of the woman on the right as St. Anne is supported by her aged appearance, with a wrinkled forehead, in both the Cleveland watercolor and the painting. A thin halo hovers above Mary’s head; Christ’s arms are prophetically extended in a cruciform position. Worshipful angels guard the family on three sides.

Sotheby’s London, which sold the work at auction on 27 May, employed Rica Jones, formerly a conservator at Tate Britain, to inspect The Holy Family, attempt to find how much of Blake’s original lies beneath the oil, and consider removing the overpainting. In a letter to Mark Griffith-Jones of Sotheby’s of 9 April 2015, Rica Jones writes as follows: “The summary answers to these questions are that the picture is almost completely repainted and that in the very few areas where Blake’s original tempera paint is visible with the aid of a microscope, it is very badly cracked and worn. Even if it were possible to remove the overpaint safely, which is very doubtful, the indications are that all the dark areas and probably many of the lights would be ghostly or barely existent. … Apart from the visible ‘Victorian’ style of the repainting, there is microscopic evidence that the repainting could have taken place around the time of the first recorded sales of the painting in the 1850s and 1860s.” Butlin records sales at auctions in June 1853 and March 1854 (the work was titled “The Holy Family: ‘Christ in the Lap of Truth’” in both sales cats.), and ownership of the painting by Richard Monckton Milnes in 1862 when he lent it to the International Exhibition, Crystal Palace, London, #221 in the “Oil-Paintings” section of the Official Catalogue of the Fine Art Department. In his Handbook to the Pictures in the International Exhibition of 1862, p. 74, Tom Taylor comments that “tameness and insipidity” are “the most striking characteristics of … Christ in the Lap of Truth.” The observation nicely befits the “oil-picture” described by Rossetti after seeing it at the Crystal Palace exhibition that opened 1 May 1862.

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St. Matthew. Tempera, datable to 1799. Butlin #396. The New York art dealer Paul Herring, April private offer, apparently representing a European owner (€600,000). Previously available through Nicholas Lott of Larkhall Fine Art, Nov. 2013 (price on request). See illus. 6.

6. St. Matthew (see enlargement). Tempera on canvas, 37.2 x 25.7 cm., datable to 1799. Butlin #396. One of 4 paintings of the Evangelists, all in vertical format (2 untraced). The design represents an angel offering a divine revelation to the saint; it does not appear to be based on any specific passage in the Gospel of Matthew. The red marks on the scroll suggest Hebrew letters, but these do not constitute a legible text. The rectangular object behind and to the left of the figures may be a stone wall or altar. The paint layer is unusually thin for a tempera of 1799. The weave of the canvas support is visible, possibly the result of overcleaning. Photo courtesy of John Windle.

The Virgin Hushing the Young Baptist, Who Approaches the Sleeping Infant Jesus. Tempera, 1799. Butlin #406. LL, Jan. cat., pp. 64-69, extensively described, illus. (not priced). For previous offers to sell, see the 2014 sales review, Blake 48.4 (spring 2015). See illus. 7.

7. The Virgin Hushing the Young Baptist, Who Approaches the Sleeping Infant Jesus (see enlargement). Tempera on paper mounted on canvas, 27.0 x 38.2 cm., inscribed “WB inv [in monogram] 1799.” Butlin #406. St. John carries a butterfly in his right hand; another flies in the sky upper right. Traditionally associated with Psyche in classical mythology, butterflies became an emblem of the soul, particularly when liberated from the body, in Christian iconography. Blake may have included butterflies in this painting as prophetic symbols of Jesus’s baptism, when the “Spirit” of God appeared as another winged creature, “a dove” (Mark 1.10), and his resurrection. The butterfly soaring heavenward adumbrates the assumption of the Virgin, Jesus, or both. These events are far in the future, and thus the Virgin admonishes John not to awaken Jesus prematurely. Two butterflies are pictured in Blake’s engraving of “The Conjugal Union of Cupid” and Psyche after a design by George Cumberland, published in Cumberland’s Thoughts on Outline, 1796, Blake’s pl. 4. Henry Fuseli’s use of moths and butterflies in his designs may have influenced The Virgin Hushing as well as the lepidopteric imagery in the 2^nd st. of “Albion rose” and the title page of Blake’s Jerusalem. The book held by the Virgin might be the Old Testament, with its prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, now closed as it is being replaced by the new dispensation of Christ. The landscape seen through the doorway includes the “wilderness” where John will baptize his followers (Mark 1.4). The white cloth below the sleeping child evokes Christ’s burial shroud—the “linen clothes folded up” (The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, E 34) after his resurrection. Blake’s images constitute a typological and prophetic iconography. Photo courtesy of John Windle.

Wat Tyler. Pencil, 24.2 x 19.2 cm., inscribed “Octr 30. 1819,” probably p. 66 from the larger Blake-Varley Sketchbook. Butlin #737, then in the collection of Edwin Wolf 2^nd. Described by Butlin as the original, but the discovery of the larger Blake-Varley Sketchbook revealed the original drawing, p. 65, of which this version is a counterproof. Bauman Rare Books, Sept. online cat., marginal stains, framed, illus. ($65,000). For earlier sales and attempts to sell, see the 2014 sales review, Blake 48.4 (spring 2015).

Manuscripts

Letter of 18 Jan. 1808 to Ozias Humphry, 4 pp. describing Blake’s Vision of the Last Judgment watercolor (Butlin #642). BHL, 18 March, #91, “on two separated leaves, paper watermarked ‘Ivy Mill / 1806,’ central fold professionally strengthened, trace of former guards, slight overall dust staining,” illus. (£43,750 to the London dealer Benjamin Spademan; estimate £10,000-15,000). Each leaf measures 22.0 x 18.4 cm.; the watermark appears in the 2^nd leaf (pp. 3/4).According to Sarah Lindberg, Manuscript Specialist, Bonhams, email of 2 March 2015. Earlier sales and attempts to sell since the provenance recorded in BB p. 280 and BBS p. 95: Roy Davids, March 2000 cat. for The Artist as a Portrait exhibition and sale (3-14 April 2000) at the Fine Art Society, London, #10, 1^st and last pp. illus. (£40,000); reportedly sold by Davids late 2002 to an anonymous private collector but returned to Davids by 2008; BHL, 29 March 2011, #264, from the stock of Roy Davids, 1^st and last pp. illus. (not sold; estimate £50,000-60,000). Davids was almost certainly the vendor at the 2015 BHL auction. See illus. 8.

8. Page 1 of Blake’s letter of 18 Jan. 1808 to Ozias Humphry describing Blake’s Vision of the Last Judgment watercolor now at Petworth House (Butlin #642) (see enlargement). Leaf of wove paper, 22.0 x 18.4 cm. One of 3 versions of Blake’s description of his picture. Photo courtesy of Bonhams London.

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The text of the complete letter in E 552-54 is “consolidated by treating as deletions all words not in the final and briefest draft” (textual note, E 881). This editorial procedure does not permit one to determine which version of the text is the source for any specific reading recorded as a deletion. A more useful text is provided by William Blake’s Writings, ed. G. E. Bentley, Jr. (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1978) 2: 1637-41. Bentley prints the present letter, designated version A, as his reading text and supplies detailed notes on variants found in versions B (Lord Egremont, Petworth House) and C (Lord Cunliffe), the latter dated “Feb^y 1808” and thus clearly the last to be written. The same letter designations appear in BB p. 272. The Letters of William Blake, ed. Geoffrey Keynes, 3^rd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1980) 131-35, prints this letter, which Keynes also calls version A, with substantive variants in version B in italic and inserted within brackets, followed by Bentley’s version C (which Keynes calls a “second draft”) as a separate text. Keynes claims that “it is difficult to say which version [A or B] was written first” (210), but Bentley states that “Blake copied this letter (A) twice” (2: 1637n1), thereby implying that it is the 1^st version. Roy Davids’s 2000 cat., The Artist as a Portrait, presents evidence, repeated in the BHL cat. of 29 March 2011, that the present letter (Bentley’s A) is the 2^nd, a revision of B that is closer in its substantive variants to C than B is to C. For example, in the 1^st paragraph shown here, both A and C read “by your recommendation for The Countess of Egremont,” whereas B reads “by your recommendation under a fortunate star, for the [Countess del] Earl of Egremont” (Writings, ed. Bentley, 2: 1638n5). The final line on p. 1 in A, “into which the Wicked are descending,” reads the same in C but is very different in B: “into which the Wicked are descending while others rise from their Graves on the brink of the Pit” (Writings, ed. Bentley, 2: 1639n35). This pattern supports Davids’s chronology of composition, B-A-C. How, then, did version B, if a 1^st draft, find its way to Lord Egremont, while version A, if a revised version, stayed with Humphry until it passed to his son, William Upcott (see the provenance record in BB p. 280)? Davids answers this question by suggesting that Humphry, to whom all 3 versions are addressed, sent the wrong version to Egremont “as a result of confusion arising from Humphry’s near-blindness” (The Artist as a Portrait 18).

The letter shows 4 emendations. In the penultimate line on p. 1, shown here, and in the 5^th line from the end on p. 2, the word “Harlots” has been changed to “Harlot’s” by scraping away the terminal “s” and substituting an apostrophe and a new terminal “s” to create the possessive. In both cases, the ink differs from the rest of the text and has stained the surrounding paper brown. No such browning appears elsewhere in the document. As Alexander Gourlay has reminded me, Blake had little concern for the consistent use of apostrophes in possessives; it is highly unlikely that he would go to the trouble to add them here. I suspect that these revisions were made by someone else, possibly Upcott, who had the letter in his possession no later than 1828. In versions B and C, the word is “Harlots” on both pages (Writings, ed. Bentley, 2: 1639n33 and 65), as in the unrevised state of the present letter (A). The word is “harlot’s” in both passages in the transcription of version A in J. T. Smith, Nollekens and His Times, 1828 (see BR[2] 622-24). Gourlay suggests that Smith, to whom Upcott apparently lent the letter, may have been the culprit as he prepared the manuscript for typesetting (email of 18 March 2015). Smith’s text does not prove that the letter itself had already been amended; his use of the apostrophe may only be an editorial regularization that also included changing the initial “H” to lower case. His published version contains other variants from the manuscript not inscribed on it.

On p. 3, line 10, the end of the word “air” is abraded. It seems as though a second “r” was added at the end of the word, but the first “r” is still present. This odd, possibly incomplete correction is in the same ink as the rest of the text (with the 2 exceptions noted above) and was probably made by Blake. The word is “air” in version B and “Air” in version C (Writings, ed. Bentley, 2: 1640n90). Also on p. 3, line 3 from the end, the second letter of “Veil” has been overwritten, probably by Blake simply to correct a poorly formed inscription of the same letter. The presence of only 2 corrections by Blake reinforces Davids’s contention that this letter (A) was not a working draft but a revised copy of version B.

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Separate Plates and Plates in Series

“Carfax Conduit, Oxford.” An impression on wove paper, trimmed to 28.2 x 22.0 cm. and thus with the title below the design and the finial and its Maltese cross at the top of the pl. cut off, was acquired in March by the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto.According to G. E. Bentley, Jr., emails of 15-16 March 2015. Bentley also tells me that the Victoria University impression was acquired from an Edinburgh dealer through Sanders of Oxford. This is not the print offered in Sanders’s online cat. of Aug. 2014, acquired by John Windle for stock, and subsequently sold to a private American collector. For information about this pl., see the 2014 sales review in Blake 48.4 (spring 2015).

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims.” Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #9, 5^th st., SP impression 5ZZ, Colnaghi printing on laid India (£9000); #10, another impression, 5^th st., Colnaghi printing on laid India, illus. (£9000).

Dante engravings. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #13, “a restrike of one of the original copperplates” (not further described) included in a copy of Blake, Illustrations of Dante (Trianon Press, 1978), 2 vols., publisher’s half morocco and folding box (£3500); #26-29, pls. 6, 2, 4, 5 offered individually, probably the 1892 printing, illus. (£5000, £6500, £9500, £6750 respectively). Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco, April New York Book Fair, complete set on laid India, probably the 1892 printing with a fragmentary “N” watermark, 2 pls. darkly and evenly browned ($82,500).

“George Cumberland’s Card.” HS, 2013 cat. 17, #5, SP untraced impression 7, apparently black ink printed on paper rather than card, illus. (not priced). Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #8, black ink printed “on thick card,” illus. (£12,750). For information on the impression offered by Blackwell’s, see the 2013 sales review in Blake 47.4 (spring 2014).

Job engravings. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #8, pl. numbered 16 only, published “Proof” impression, paper not described, illus. (not priced). Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, 1874 printing on laid India, 4 pls. offered individually as follows: #31, pl. numbered 6 (£1350), #32, pl. numbered 7 (£1125), #33, pl. numbered 8, illus. (£1400), #34, title page (£1359). Swann, 5 March, #1, pl. numbered 9 only, 1874 printing on laid India, illus. ($2750); 24 Sept., #3, pl. numbered 21 only, 1874 printing on laid India, illus. ($4160). John Windle, cat. for the London Book Fair, May, published “Proof” impressions on laid India, light foxing, 3 pls. offered individually as follows, all illus.: #11, pl. numbered 2 ($2750), #12, pl. numbered 16 ($3250), #13, pl. numbered 20 ($2750). Dirk Soulis auction, Lone Jack, Missouri, 25 Sept., #355, pl. numbered 7 only, 1874 printing on laid India, illus. ($500); same impression(?), EB, Nov., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $1200). Dennis auction, Stewartsville, New Jersey, 16 Oct., #1070-71, pls. numbered 19 and 7 only, apparently published “Proof” impressions on laid India, foxed, illus. ($850 each). SNY, 4 Dec., #879, complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, “light foxing on a few plates,” clamshell case worn, illus. ($22,500 to Windle for stock).

“Rev. John Caspar Lavater.” Andrew Edmunds, London Print Fair, 23-26 April, 3^rd st. on wove paper, illus. on the artsy.net website (price on request).

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

Allen, Roman History, 1798. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #25, pls. only (£950). Freeman’s auction, Philadelphia, 22 Oct., #360, pls. foxed, contemporary sheep very worn, covers detached, all 4 pls. illus. ($423).

Ariosto, Orlando furioso, 1785. World of Rare Books, Nov. online cat., vol. 3 only but presumably with Blake’s pl., foxed, original(?) boards very worn, illus. (£46.99).

Bible, The Royal Universal Family Bible, 1780–81. Halcyon Books, April online cat., vol. 1 only, contemporary calf very worn, shabby front cover illus. (£90). Four of Blake’s 5 pls. are in vol. 2.

Blair, The Grave. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #1, 1808 quarto, later half calf over marbled boards, rebacked, illus. (£3000); #11, Blake’s pl. 7 only from the 1813 quarto (£325). Christopher Edwards, Feb. cat. 65, #12, 1808 quarto, margins of pls. foxed, inscriptions at foot of engraved title page trimmed off, contemporary half roan with a replacement morocco spine, illus. (£2250). Doyle auction, New York, 15 April, #204, described as the 1808 “folio” but probably the quarto, leaves trimmed to 34.0 x 27.0 cm., contemporary calf rebacked, Blake’s pls. 1 (imprint cut off) and 8 in their quarto sts. illus. ($3125; estimate $800-1200). Serrell auction, Malvern, Worcestershire, 14 May, #319, apparently the 1808 quarto, imprint on title page trimmed off, no description of binding, illus. (£240). John Windle, July online cat., 1808 folio, 1^st published sts. of all pls., “slight foxing” to the frontispiece and Blake’s pl. 1, 19^th-century half calf, illus. ($8950). SL, 14 July, #66, 1808 folio, leaves trimmed slightly to 41.1 x 31.9 cm., “some light soiling and foxing to plates and text,” contemporary morocco, illus. (£2500 to Sims Reed); same copy, Sims Reed, Sept. online cat. (£9500). Heritage auction, Dallas, 5 Aug., #45345, [1870] folio, scattered foxing, publisher’s cloth rebacked, illus., previously available since July 2008 from Krown & Spellman for $1850 ($687.50). Bauman Rare Books, Sept. online cat., 1813 quarto, bookplate of Robert Hoe, “uncut” in later three-quarter morocco, illus. ($3500). Sworders auction, Stansted, Essex, 7 Oct., #433, apparently the 1808 quarto, later half calf, with 20^th-century facsimiles (not otherwise described) of The Book of Thel and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 3 vols. in all, illus. (£400). Books & Bidders, Nov. online cat., 1813 quarto, scattered light foxing, half morocco worn, illus. ($1500). Librairie Paul Jammes, Nov. cat. 294, pls. offered individually, apparently from the 1808 quarto: #295, pl. 1 (€120), #296, portrait frontispiece (€120), #297, pls. 5, 6, 8-11, pl. 10 illus. (€75 to €150 each). See also The Counsellor, King, Warrior, Mother, and Child (illus. 4) under Drawings and Paintings, above, and Portrait of Blake, 1808, under Interesting Blakeana, below.

Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations … of Shakspeare, c. 1803. John Windle, cat. for the London Book Fair, May, #18, publisher’s morocco, illus. ($7500). Previously offered at the same price by Windle, Feb. 2012 Occasional List 1, #12, illus.

Bryant, New System … of Ancient Mythology, 1775–76. Sequitur Books, Nov. online cat., 2^nd ed., 3 vols., contemporary calf worn, some covers detached ($1000).

Catullus, Poems, 1795. John Windle, March online cat., 2 vols., imprints present, pl. 1 foxed, “old half calf worn,” covers rehinged ($1250).

Darwin, Botanic Garden. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #54, 3^rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4^th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, “occasional foxing as usual,” modern calf (£2500). EB, Feb., 3^rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4^th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols., contemporary calf very worn, some covers loose and half of 1 backstrip missing, illus. (€127.55); same copy, March-April, illus. (€139.89); Nov., 1799 ed., vol. 1 only, water stains, contemporary calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £125). BG, 12 March, #366, 1^st ed. of Part 1, 3^rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols. in 1, “some spotting,” modern half morocco, illus. (£372). Oldrich Hrdina, April online cat., 1799 ed., 2 vols., contemporary half calf (€475).

Flaxman, Hesiod designs. M. D. Hawkes, Feb. online cat., 1817 ed., marginal stains, half “leather” worn (£850). John Windle, Feb. online cat., 1870 ed., pls. loose within publisher’s printed boards ($375). Robert S. Brooks, Nov. online cat., 1817 ed., “seems to be bound backwards,” quarter calf worn ($325). Tamlyns auction, Bridgwater, Somerset, 24 Nov., #228, 1817 ed., 2 copies, with the Iliad designs, 1805, all 3 vols. in original boards with cover labels, scattered foxing, illus. (£85). Fonsie Mealy auction, Castlecomer, Kilkenny, Ireland, 15 Dec., #316, 1817 ed., bound with the Iliad and Odyssey designs, 1805, and the Aeschylus designs, 1831, 19^th-century morocco, binding illus. (€200). For preliminary sketches, see Judgment of Paris and The Muses under Flaxman, below, and illus. 10.

I suspect that the odd-looking set with crude lettering sold EB, Nov., illus. (£64), is a complete suite of pen and ink tracings in another hand of Blake’s pls. on thin paper laid onto large (45.7 x 29.2 cm.) backing leaves.

Flaxman, Iliad designs, 1805. EB, Feb.-March, bound with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, some pls. badly foxed, 19^th-century half calf very worn, illus. (£100); May, Iliad only, foxed and water stained, 19^th-century half morocco, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $250 or “best offer”); Aug., Iliad only, scattered foxing, original boards with cover label, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $500); same copy of the Iliad in boards, Sept., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $175). Henry Adams auction, Chichester, 6 Aug., #266, marginal water stains, later half calf worn, illus. (£30). John Windle, Nov. online cat., original boards with cover label very worn ($575). See also Flaxman, Hesiod designs, above.

Gay, Fables. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #56, 1793 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf (£975). William Reese, April online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., light foxing, modern morocco, illus. ($1250); same copy and price, July cat. 325, #62, illus. Docet Libreria di Loris Rabiti, April online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., contemporary “leather” (€750). Frontis Books, Nov. online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., full calf (£950). Heritage Book Shop, Nov. online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., half calf ($1000). Bryn Mawr Bookstore, 1793 ed., 2 vols., foxed, calf worn and rebacked, illus. ($450). Keys auction, Norwich, 19 Nov., #370, [1811] ed., 2 vols., stained, calf very worn, illus. (£75).

Hartley, Observations, 1791. Better World Books, Nov. online cat., quarto issue, “leather” very worn, hinges cracked ($299.93).

Hayley, Ballads, 1805. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #59, 1^st sts. of the pls., “some spotting,” later boards and spine label, illus. (£4750). John Windle, cat. for the London Book Fair, May, pls. only, all 5 offered individually, 1^st sts., #6-10, all illus. ($975 each). DW, 10 June, #381, 1^st sts. of the pls., lightly foxed, contemporary calf, front cover lacking and back cover detached, all 5 pls. illus. (no bids on an estimate of £500-800); same copy, 15 July, #312 (£220).

Hayley, Essay on Sculpture, 1800. Royoung Bookseller, April online cat., “plates toned,” modern boards, binding illus. ($200). See also Tuer, Follies & Fashions of Our Grandfathers, below.

Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803–04. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #60, 2^nd ed., 3 vols., some foxing, contemporary half calf (£800). EB, Feb., 1^st ed., vols. 1-2 only in 1 vol., recent half calf, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £95); Aug., 2^nd ed. of vol. 2 only with pls. 3-4 but apparently also with pls. 5-6 from vol. 3, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (£62); Sept., 1^st ed., 3 vols., scattered foxing, “full leather,” illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $129.95); Nov., pl. 3 only, 2^nd st., imprint trimmed off, minor foxing, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £40); same impression of pl. 3, Dec., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £100); Dec., 1^st ed., 3 vols., foxed, contemporary calf very worn, backstrips missing, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $89.95 or “best offer”). Baeyer, Aug. online cat., pl. 5 only, leaf 26.7 x 20.5 cm. (smaller than uncut copies of the book), “on the full sheet outside the edition,” illus. (£1800); pl. 6 only, illus. (£320). See also Miniature of William Cowper under Romney, below.

Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. EB, Feb.-March, “lacking frontispiece and other plates” but with Blake’s pl., scattered foxing, contemporary half calf, illus. ($49.99); July, imprint on Blake’s pl. bound into the spine, title page missing, scattered foxing, contemporary calf very worn, front cover missing, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $3000); same copy, Aug., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $1000 or “best offer”). For 8 preliminary sketches by Romney for the painting copied in Blake’s engraving, see the 1^st entry under Romney, below.

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #61, large-paper issue, modern calf, illus. (£1750); #62, small-paper issue, a “little spotting,” contemporary calf rebacked, cloth slipcase (£625). Aardvark Books, April online cat., issue not indicated, calf with morocco spine ($465). EB, Sept., pl. 3 only, illus. ($134.50); pl. 4 only, illus. ($50.95).

Hogarth, The Beggar’s Opera by Hogarth and Blake, 1965. Material Culture auction, Philadelphia, 6 Feb., #401, publisher’s folding box, illus. ($125). EB, Feb., Blake’s pl. and publisher’s folding box badly water stained, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $329 or “best offer”).

Hogarth, Works. Material Culture auction, Philadelphia, 20 Dec. 2014, #465, Blake’s pl. only, a late st., probably 6^th or 7^th, framed, illus. ($50). Swann, 19 May, #206, undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 115 leaves of pls., foxed, other defects including tears, half morocco very worn ($585). EB, June-July, Blake’s pl. only, 6^th st., said by the vendor to be from “the 1822 Heath folio edition,” but the st. indicates that this is from an undated Baldwin and Cradock issue with Norman or Wade named as the printer on p. 42, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $325 or “best offer”). Winter auction, Plainville, Connecticut, 2 Nov., #44, Blake’s pl. only, a later st., illus. ($175). Belvoir Bookmonger, Nov. online cat., undated Boydell ed. (c. 1795), “107 plates,” some damp stained, modern half morocco, illus. (£3500). Argosy Book Store, Nov. online cat., undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 116 leaves of pls., “title page damaged,” three-quarter “leather” worn ($4000).

Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793, quarto issue. DW, 4 March, #22, “occasional light offsetting and soiling,” disbound, Blake’s pl. illus., imprint either not shown or trimmed off (£920); another copy, 10 June, #11, some soiling and marginal wormholes, contemporary half calf very worn, Blake’s pl. illus. (£920). David Mason, April online cat., foxed and badly damp stained, recent half calf, illus. ($4535). BL, 21 May, #353, uncut in contemporary half Russia rebacked and worn, illus. (£1860). Bellcourt Books, Nov. online cat., later calf ($4100).

Kimpton, History of the Bible, c. 1781. BoundlessBookstore, Nov. online cat., “may miss one or two” pls., foxed and soiled, “leather boards” very worn, illus. (£90).

Lavater, Aphorisms. Anybook Ltd., April online cat., 1794 ed., “in fair condition, suitable as a study copy,” half calf (£250). Second-Hand Rows, Nov. online cat., 1789 ed., 1^st st. of Blake’s pl., 20^th-century cloth, illus. ($350).

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy. Manfred Nosbüsch, April online cat., “1792” (c. 1818) ed., 3 vols. in 5, scattered foxing, “decorative bindings” worn (€3800). EB, May, “1792” (c. 1818) ed., 3 vols. in 5, “sporadic foxing, but nothing heavy,” contemporary morocco slightly worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $2250); Sept., Blake’s pl. 2 only, hand colored, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $150); Blake’s pl. 3 only, hand colored, illus. ($60.59); Oct., vols. 1-2 only but including Blake’s pls., 1789–92, contemporary calf, hinges split, illus. (£115.44).  Gonnelli auction, Florence, 27 May, #248, 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, scattered foxing, heavy on Blake’s pl. 2, later cloth with calf spines, illus. (€900). SNY, 19 June, #63, “1792” (c. 1818) ed., 3 vols. in 5, “a few plates heavily browned or spotted,” 19^th-century morocco worn “in a wooden slipcase,” illus. ($3750). Baeyer, Aug. online cat., Blake’s pl. 2 only, illus. (£2000). Librairie Jean-Étienne Huret, Nov. online cat., “1792” (c. 1818) ed., “5 vol. in-4” (actually 3 vols. in 4?), full calf (€4400). Arroyo Seco Books, Nov. online cat., 1789–98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, full calf ($2500).

Malkin, Father’s Memoirs, 1806. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #64, modern half morocco, illus. (£1200).

Novelist’s Magazine, vol. 9, 1785. EB, Jan., Sterne’s Sentimental Journey only with Blake’s pl., badly stained, bound as the frontispiece, early half calf very worn, front cover detached, several pages loose, illus. (offered at the ridiculously high “buy it now” price of $2500). Vol. 9 contains 3 pls. by Blake, but only 1 for Sterne’s novel.

Novelist’s Magazine, vols. 10-11, 1783. Lyppard Books, April online cat., 2 vols. in 4, lacking the engraved Novelist’s Magazine title pages, contemporary quarter calf, illus. (£240). Chapter 1 Books, Nov. online cat., no mention of the pls. but presumably present, foxed, contemporary boards very worn, front cover to vol. 10 missing ($133). See also Richardson, below.

Rees, Cyclopædia, 1820. Tavistock Books, Nov. online cat., text vols. in the original “80” parts bound in publisher’s “light blue paper-covered boards” with printed text, 7 vols. of pls. in half “leather,” cover of vol. 30, part 1, illus. ($8250). BB #489 specifies “79 fascicles.”

Remember Me!, 1825. John Windle, Feb. private offer, the date rubbed off the engraved title page, “occasional small spots on plates,” full calf, covers and backstrip “richly gilt-panelled with the binder’s name at the foot of the spine ‘Purgold,’ slightly worn” ($30,000). Purgold was a binder in Paris c. 1800–35; see the “Index of Binders and Binding” in A Catalogue of Fifteen Hundred Books Remarkable for the Beauty or the Age of Their Bindings (London: Quaritch, 1889) 222.

Richardson, Sir Charles Grandison, printed for T. Kelly, 1818. James Cummins, April online cat., 2 vols., contemporary calf rebacked ($300). Francis Edwards, April online cat., 2 vols., scattered stains, later half calf worn (£55). Contains the 4^th sts. of Blake’s 3 pls. 1^st published in Novelist’s Magazine, vol. 10 (see above).

Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. GB, 22 Oct., #608, 3 vols., contemporary calf, illus. (€500). Madoc Books, Nov. online cat., 3 vols., contemporary calf, illus. (£950).

Salzmann, Elements of Morality. Wonder Books, Jan. online cat., 1791 ed., 3 vols. in 1, lacking title pages to vols. 1-2 and the pls. numbered 1, 5, 12, 21, 30-33, 44, early 19^th-century half calf worn ($850). The missing pls., except for the pl. numbered 1, are attributed to Blake in CB 51-59. Mair Wilkes Books, Nov. online cat., 1792 ed., vols. 1 and 3 offered individually, marginal stains, full calf (£165 each).

Scott, Poetical Works, 1782. EB, Nov., Blake’s pl. 2 only, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $19.99).

Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802. EB, May-June, 8 (of 9) vols. only, lacking vol. 4 but apparently with Blake’s pl. in vol. 9, scattered foxing on pls., contemporary calf worn and repaired, illus. ($935.98). Robert Frew, Nov. online cat., 9 vols., scattered marginal foxing, contemporary morocco, possibly the same copy 1^st offered by Frew in his Aug. 1993 cat., #197, for £1100 (£12,500).

Shakespeare, Plays. EB, July, 1805 ed., 9 vol. issue, scattered foxing, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $249.99); same copy, July-Aug., illus. ($249.99). McConnell Fine Books, Nov. online cat., 1811 ed., 9 vols., later calf, illus. (£1500).

Stedman, Narrative, hand-colored copies. Peter Harrington, April online cat., 1806 ed., 2 vols., wrongly stating that “the first edition of 1796 was not issued in a coloured state,” contemporary half Russia, illus. (£15,000). SL, 17 Nov., #148, 1796 ed., 2 vols., “occasional spotting or slight soiling,” contemporary Russia worn and rebacked, illus. (£8750). The coloring of some pls. in the Harrington copy suggests that they may be remainders from the 1796 ed.    

Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies. EB, Feb., 1806 ed., 2 vols., pls. foxed and stained, contemporary half calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $3000); same copy, Feb.-March, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $3500 or “best offer”); same copy, March, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $2750); same copy, April, illus. (withdrawn by the vendor); same copy, May, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $3500 or “best offer”). BHO, 24 March, #291, 1813 ed., apparently 2 vols. in 1, “occasional spotting,” contemporary half calf worn and rebacked, illus. (£937). Swann, 26 March, #20, 1796 ed., 2 vols., pls. foxed, contemporary calf repaired, illus. ($1250); another copy, 14 April, #356, 2 vols., foxed and damp stained, “unsightly modern buckram,” illus. ($2125). John Windle, July online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf repaired, illus. ($6500). Bauman Rare Books, Sept. online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., later calf, illus., 1^st offered privately in Sept. 2011 ($8500). SL, 30 Sept., #1203, 1796 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf, illus. (£3250). Argosy Book Store, Nov. online cat., 1813 ed., vol. 2 only, contemporary quarter calf very worn ($1750). National Book auction, Ithaca, New York, 13 Dec., #4244, 1813 ed., 2 vols., imprints apparently trimmed off some pls., scattered foxing, later calf worn, 3 covers detached, illus. ($1800).

Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens, 1762–1816. Mary Louise Bryan/Paralos Gallery, Nov. online cat., 4 vols., 19^th-century half calf, illus. (€25,000).

Tuer, Follies & Fashions of Our Grandfathers, 1886–87. GP, April online cat., Blake’s pl. only, a restrike in sanguine ink of his pl. 3 from Hayley’s Essay on Sculpture, 1800, illus. (£40). Vera Enterprises, Nov. online cat., large-paper issue, publisher’s boards ($458.25). Louella Kerr Books, Nov. online cat., large-paper issue rebound in half morocco ($355). Anne Godfrey, Nov. online cat., large-paper issue, publisher’s boards worn, illus. (£190). Goldcrest Books, Nov. online cat., issue not indicated, publisher’s boards repaired with “leather” spine and corners, illus. (£170). Jeffrey Marks, Nov. online cat., issue not indicated, publisher’s boards ($250). Poor Man’s Books, Nov. online cat., small-paper issue, publisher’s boards worn, illus. ($240). Church Stretton Books, Nov. online cat., large-paper issue, publisher’s boards, library markings (£25).

Varley, Zodiacal Physiognomy, 1828. BG, 16 July, #97, “presentation copy with ink inscription at head of title, … foxed and browned, … original boards, rubbed, covers detached, spine worn with loss, edges uncut” (£1240 to John Windle for stock; estimate £300-400); same copy, Aug. private offer from Windle, inscribed “M. A. Shee Esq. with the author’s best respects,” covers now “re-attached, plates cleaned, restoration by Court Benson,” housed in a “folding box” ($10,950). Blake’s pls. 2-3 are in the 1^st sts. before the addition of the page references. The presentation inscription is to the artist Martin Archer Shee (1769–1850), one of the Royal Academicians named as a subscriber to the 1808 ed. of Blair’s Grave in prospectuses and advertisements for that publication—see BR(2) 210, 214, 226, and 256.

Virgil, Pastorals, 1821. SNY, 4 Dec., 2 vols., “presentation copy from thornton [sic] to his daughter,” publisher’s sheep although the binding is not mentioned in the cat., illus. ($30,000 to John Windle for stock).

Wit’s Magazine, 1784. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #30, 1784–85, with the 2^nd version of Blake’s frontispiece (BB pl. 2, CB pl. 1B), contemporary boards rebacked with calf, illus. (£3750).

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #35-53, unspecified pls. offered individually, pls. 13 and 32 illus. (£400-975 each). John Windle, cat. for the London Book Fair, May, #14, pl. 3 only, illus. ($495). Pook & Pook online auction closing 2 Sept., #1068, pl. 12 only, framed, illus. ($49); same impression, EB, Sept., illus. ($68).

Interesting Blakeana

Blake’s cottage, 1 Blake’s Road, Felpham, West Sussex. Sold Sept. to a charitable trust established by the Blake Society, London—see <http://​www.​blakesociety.​org/​blakecottage>.

“Man on a Drinking Horse.” Etching by Thomas Butts, Jr., 1806, probably with Blake’s assistance. EB, Aug., c. 1942 printing on original mount with letterpress text, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $199); Sept., same impression, minimum bid, and result; Oct., same impression, minimum bid $99, same result. For the discovery of this print, see Alexander S. Gourlay, “‘Man on a Drinking Horse’: A Print by Thomas Butts, Jr.,” Blake 37.1 (summer 2003): 35-36.

Portrait of Blake, engraved by Schiavonetti after Phillips, 1808. Christopher Mendez, April private offer, 1^st published st. printed on India paper backed with laid paper, as in the 1808 folio issue of Blair’s Grave, leaf 46.5 x 31.0 cm., “from Dawson Turner’s volume of prints after Thomas Phillips” (£1250); same impression and price, Oct. online cat., illus. Previously sold, in a “book of portraits” of and after Thomas Phillips from Turner’s collection, SL, 12 July 1972, #110 (£1100 to Andrew Edmunds). The height of the leaf is greater than uncut copies of the 1808 folio (41.5 cm.), and thus this impression may have been printed independently.

Tomb Effigy of Two Knights, attributed to George Cumberland. Watercolor, 17.8 x 22.9 cm., framed, typed label on back stating “Mayors Chapel, Bristol 1809.” EB, Jan., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $125); March, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $100). The front figure may be based on the effigy of Maurice de Gaunt in the south aisle of the Lord Mayor’s Chapel, St. Mark’s, Bristol. If the attribution and date are correct, Cumberland’s interest in this subject may have been prompted by Blake’s design of tomb effigies published in Blair’s Grave, 1808, “The Counseller, King, Warrior, Mother & Child, in the Tomb.”

W. Blake, plaster life mask, 1823. BHO, 1 July, #774, “with green black painted finish,” illus. (£562 on an estimate of £200-250). Very probably 1 of the many 20^th-century reproductions made from the version in the National Portrait Gallery, London, although the price suggests that at least 2 bidders thought it a cast from the original mold.

John Martin (British artist, 1789–1854), autograph letter signed to Bernard Barton (British Quaker poet, 1784–1849), 12 Feb. 1830. Three pp. on 2 leaves. Samuel Gedge, June cat. 20, #68, illus. (£750; acquired June by the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto). Gedge notes that Martin expresses “his pleasure in discovering that Barton’s opinion of the life of Blake [in Allan Cunningham’s Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, vol. 2, 1830] coincided with his own.” The cat. quotes as follows from Martin’s letter: “I had no conception that he [Blake] would prove so especially interesting, he was indeed a most important character. … [Blake’s Night Thoughts illus. are] exceedingly good, indeed I like them better than any of his works that I have seen.”

W. Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, ed. James John Garth Wilkinson, Pickering ed., 1839. John Windle, Feb. online cat., issue without “The Little Vagabond,” publisher’s cloth worn, the copy previously offered for £5500 by Blackwell’s, Aug. 2014 Short List 26, #1, illus., and Sept. cat. B180, #5 ($15,000); another copy, Feb. private offer, issue without “The Little Vagabond,” recto of front free endpaper signed “Rossetti” in both pencil and ink, top right, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and inscribed in ink at the bottom “This is I believe the first form in / wh. poems by Blake became known / to Gabriel (whose penciling is above) / & to myself — The Editor, as I understand / was D^r. Wilkinson. / W.M.R. [William Michael Rossetti] / 1905.”, publisher’s cloth worn ($27,500); another copy, cat. for the London Book Fair, May, #15, issue without “The Little Vagabond,” 1^st st. of the publisher’s binding with “BLAKE’S POEMS.” gilt stamped on the spine rather than the front cover, “upper joint just splitting but holding, similar split to the [rear?] hinge,” binding and p. 46 illus. ($17,500); same copy and price, Oct. online cat., binding illus.The only other recorded copy with the 1^st st. of the binding includes “The Little Vagabond”—see Blake 31.4 (spring 1998): 125. Bauman Rare Books, Sept. online cat., issue with “The Little Vagabond,” publisher’s cloth “recased,” morocco clamshell box, illus. ($14,000).

Windle tells me that the Rossetti copy has 1 manuscript revision in the text of “The Tiger” [sic], p. 46, last line of the 3^rd stanza: “? And what” crossed out and “formed thy” inserted (thus the line reads “What dread hand formed thy dread feet?”). This same revision, probably in Blake’s hand, appears in copy P of Songs of Innocence and of Experience—see the illus. in Geoffrey Keynes and Edwin Wolf 2^nd, William Blake’s Illuminated Books: A Census (New York: Grolier Club, 1953), facing 53. The whereabouts of copy P between 1833 and 1931 are not known; see BB p. 419. Rossetti’s source might have been 1 of the 2 facsimiles based on copy P, although neither can be linked to the Rossetti family; see the “Alpha” and “Beta” copies in BBS pp. 132-34. The copy P revision also appears in the versions of “The Tiger” [sic] printed in Nightingale Valley, ed. “Giraldus” [William Allingham] (London: Bell and Daldy, 1860) 95-96, and in Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake (London: Macmillan, 1863) 2: 59.

B. Disraeli, autograph letter signed to Anne Gilchrist, 4 pp., 5 Nov. 1862. Lion Heart Autographs auction, New York, 15 May, #29, all 4 pp. illus. (not sold; highest bid $1000 on an estimate of $1500-1800). For the text of this letter about Isaac D’Israeli’s Blake collection, see Raymond Lister, “A Letter from Benjamin Disraeli to Anne Gilchrist,” Blake 14.2 (fall 1980): 99.

A. Gilchrist, Life of Blake, 1863, extra-illus. copies only. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #57 (£2250). See the 2012 and 2014 sales reviews in Blake 46.4 (spring 2013) and Blake 48.4 (spring 2015) for details.

W. Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Camden Hotten facsimile, 1868. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #16, publisher’s roan-backed boards, spotted as usual, illus. (£1500).

A. C. Swinburne, William Blake, 1868. EB, May, the rare 1^st issue with “Zamiel” printed below the title-page vignette, modern cloth, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $149.99).

W. Muir facsimiles of Blake’s illuminated books, 1885–86. Blackwell’s, Jan. online William Blake Short List 30, #5, The Book of Thel, 1885, copy no. 21, original wrappers, cloth slipcase, illus. (£3000); #17, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1885, copy no. 35, original wrappers, “backstrip largely defective” (£2900); #18, Songs of Experience, 1885, copy no. 32, original wrappers (£6500); #20, Songs of Innocence, 1885, copy no. 35, with Songs of Experience, 1885, copy no. 50, 2 vols., 20^th-century half morocco with original wrappers bound in, illus. (£6850); #21, There is No Natural Religion, 1886, copy no. 34, original wrappers worn (£1750); #22, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, 1885, copy no. 34, 20^th-century half morocco, original wrappers bound in (£3000).

G. Keynes, autograph letter signed to Eduard Rosenbaum, 2 pp., dated “14—2—[19]43.” BL, 31 March, #91, illus. (£199). Keynes states that it had occurred to him, “after the war,” that “it would be worth collecting some Blake papers …. But no one else has ever made the suggestion. I am encouraged to think it may be worth while to do so, and I am grateful for your interest. I have been working at W. B. since 1908, and a good deal has accumulated!” By “Blake papers” Keynes may be referring to his own essays on Blake, revised and published in his Blake Studies of 1949. Notice to Blake scholars: save your letters from Sir Geoffrey!

Blake and the Youthful Ancients: Being Portraits of William Blake and His Followers Engraved on Wood by Leonard Baskin, 1956. John Windle, June online cat., a “proof copy” in wrappers, numbered “X,” rather than 1 of the 50 copies issued in quarter morocco ($3750).

Robert Longo (American artist, born 1953). Precise copy in charcoal of Blake’s frontispiece to Europe (“The Ancient of Days”), 16.5 x 11.6 cm., dated “[20]08.” SL, 11 Feb., #342, illus. (£10,000). Probably a record price for a reproduction of a single image by Blake—unless one considers the overpainted Holy Family (see above under Drawings and Paintings) a reproduction.

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) the artist.

BARRY, JAMES
Drawings, paintings, and original graphics

The William and Nancy Pressly Collection of James Barry Prints. Acquired Jan. by the Snite Museum, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. The collection includes the following original graphics listed in the order given in Catherine Bindman, “A genius of first rank, lost to the world”: Prints by James Barry from the Collection of William L. Pressly ([New York]: C. G. Boerner, 2014): “King Lear and Cordelia” st. 5, “The Temptation of Adam” st. 8, “Birth of Venus,” 2 impressions, sts. 2 and 7, “The Phoenix or the Resurrection of Freedom” st. 3, “Job Reproved by His Friends” st. 5, “William Pitt, Earl of Chatham,” 2 impressions, sts. 1 and 5, “Ticket of Admission for Horace’s ‘Carmen Seculare,’” 2 impressions, st. 1, “The Discovery of Adam and Eve” st. 5, “Lear” (lithograph) only st., “Milton Dictating to Ellwood the Quaker,” 2 impressions printed recto/verso, sts. 2 and 3, “Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida” st. 3, “Minerva Turning from Scenes of Destruction & Violence to Religion and Art” st. 2, “Orpheus Instructing the Savage People in the Art of Social Life” st. 2, “A Grecian Harvest Home” st. 2, “The Distribution of Premiums at the Society of Arts” st. 4, “King George and Queen Charlotte” st. 4, “The Glorious Sextumvirate,” proof before letters, “Queen Isabella, Las Casas and Magellan” st. 2, “Two of Elysium’s Pensive Sages” only st., “Blessed Exegesis” only st. All pls. illus., no prices listed.

“Job Reproved by His Friends,” etching/engraving, 1777. GB, 28 May, #5285, 3^rd st., illus. (€25,000; estimate €16,000-18,000). The recent increase in prices for Barry’s prints is astonishing.

“Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida,” etching/engraving, 1777. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #2, “with residual traces of aquatint,” illus. (not priced).

“King Lear,” lithograph, c. 1803. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #4, “first edition” with the original mounting leaf with aquatint border, illus. (not priced).

“King Lear and Cordelia,” etching/engraving, 1776. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #3, “apparently a proof impression aside from those bound into some copies of the artist’s etched works,” illus. (not priced).

“Philoctetes,” etching/engraving, 1777. Baeyer, Aug. online cat., 2^nd st., 1872 printing, illus. (price on request).

BASIRE, JAMES
Engravings during Blake’s apprenticeship, 1772–79

“Le Champ de Drap d’Or,” imprint dated 10 Nov. 1774, engraved by Basire after a watercolor by Edward Edwards of 1771, in turn based on the anonymous original painting now in the Royal Collection, Hampton Court. Willingham auction, Willingham, Cambridge, 28 March, #786, hand colored, framed, illus. (not sold; estimate £200-400); same impression, 25 April, #673, illus. (£200).

“The Encampment of the English Forces near Portsmouth,” imprint dated 1 June 1778, engraved by Basire after an anonymous painting then at Cowdray House, Sussex. Dreweatts auction, Bristol, 29 Jan., #5, illus. (£312). Roseberys auction, London, 8 Sept., #598, center fold, bad tears and stains on right, illus. (no bids on an estimate of £300-400).

“Sir James Burrow,” inscribed in the pl. “Painted by Arthur Devis” and “Drawn & Engraved by James Basire, 1780.” EB, March, stains, center fold with marginal tears, illus. ($125). Boningtons auction, Epping, 27 July, #277, most of imprint trimmed off or covered by the frame, marginal stains, illus. (no bids on an estimate of £20-40). Basire’s shop may have been working on this large pl., 55.0 x 38.5 cm., before Blake’s apprenticeship ended in 1779.

Carter, Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga, 1777. Antiquates, Jan. online cat., 3 vols., contemporary calf worn (£1500). Contains 4 pls. by Basire after Francis Carter.

Cook, Voyage towards the South Pole, 1777. EB, Jan.-Feb., frontispiece to vol. 1 only, portrait of Cook by Basire after William Hodges, marginal stains, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $150); same impression, Aug., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $145); Aug., 1 pl. only, “Woman of the Island of Tanna,” engraved by Basire after Hodges, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £125); Aug.-Sept., 1 pl. only, “The Landing at Mallicolo,” engraved by Basire after Hodges, imprint trimmed off, illus. (€10).

Gostling, A Walk in and about the City of Canterbury, 1777. Barter Books, Jan. online cat., later faux vellum worn (£280). Contains 2 pls. by Basire after J. Raymond.

Gough, British Topography, 1780. Castle Hill Books, Jan. online cat., 2 vols., “full leather” (£650). Keogh’s Books, Jan. online cat., 2 vols., early calf rebacked, illus. (£350). Archaeology Plus, Jan. online cat., 2 vols., contemporary calf very worn, 1 cover detached and 1 missing, illus. (£300). Contains 4 pls. by Basire, possibly begun before the end of Blake’s apprenticeship.

Gray, Poems, 1775. Peter Keisogloff, Jan. online cat., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. ($325). Rulon-Miller, Jan. online cat., contemporary calf repaired, illus. ($275). Jarndyce, Jan. online cat., 19^th-century cloth (£173). Argosy Book Store, Jan. online cat., contemporary calf repaired ($200). Powell’s Bookstores, Jan. online cat., “moderate soiling throughout,” contemporary calf worn ($180). Kenneth Karmiole, July online cat., contemporary calf worn, hinges repaired ($200). The frontispiece portrait of Gray, dated 1775 in the imprint, was engraved by Basire after William Mason and Benjamin Wilson.

Hutchins, History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 1774. Stella & Rose’s Books, Jan. online cat., 2 vols., modern cloth, illus. (£1133). Contains 6 pls. by Basire.

Martin, History of the Town of Thetford, 1779. Sue Lowell Books, Jan. online cat., later half calf, illus. (£850). Jackdaw Books, Jan. online cat., later calf worn, illus. (£825). Tombland Bookshop, Jan. online cat., light foxing, later half calf, illus. (£425). Missing Books, Jan. online cat., original boards very worn with later endpapers (£412.50). Contains 3 pls. by Basire.

Monro, Works of Alexander Monro, 1781. GP, Sept. 2014 online cat., frontispiece portrait of Monro, engraved by Basire after Allan Ramsay, illus. (£120, acquired by Essick May 2015). See illus. 9.

9. Two Blakean serpents (see enlargement).

Top image: Detail of the serpent’s head from the frontispiece portrait of Alexander Monro published in The Works of Alexander Monro (Edinburgh: Charles Elliot, 1781). Etching/engraving by James Basire, the portrait after Allan Ramsay’s painting. Dated 1781 in the imprint, but “1776” following Basire’s signature. Area shown 3.1 x 4.5 cm. Essick collection. This serpent coils around the rod of Asclepius (an emblem of medicine) pictured below the oval frame surrounding the portrait of Dr. Monro (1697–1767, founder of the Edinburgh Medical School). The artist who designed the serpent and other framing motifs is unknown, but the images may have been developed in Basire’s shop. It is even possible that Blake played a role in the invention and/or execution of the serpent during his apprenticeship with Basire, 1772–79. A line on the serpent’s head suggests a nascent crest; a triangular shape toward the back of the head may indicate a small horn. For a mere framing device, the serpent is surprisingly lively and expressive. Is he pleased with his ferocity? For the full pl., see the impressions in the British Museum, registration nos. 1850,1014.267 and 1890,0415.224.

Bottom image: Detail of the serpent’s head from Blake’s Europe, pl. 13. Relief etching with hand coloring, 1794. Area shown 3.3 x 8.6 cm. Essick collection. Basire’s engraving may have influenced Blake’s development of his own serpents, although this dramatic example from Europe, with its flame-like crest, larger tongue, and more open mouth, moves further from the zoological toward the mythic. The eye of each snake is emphasized, the pupil darkly engraved in Basire’s rendering and deepened with black watercolor in Blake’s. In both prints, scales are indicated by crossing strokes that form X patterns. The snakes in The Book of Thel pl. 8 and America pl. 13 have horns rather than crests; see also the looping serpent dominating the Europe title page, the small snake pictured on the cup held by the good Samaritan in Blake’s watercolor illustration to Young’s Night Thoughts, Night the Second, p. 35 (Butlin #330.68), and the very large serpent on the fly-title to Night the Third in the Young designs (Butlin #330.78). Snakes coil around human figures, similar to the way Basire’s version twists around the rod of Asclepius, in America pl. 15, Jerusalem pl. 63, and the large color print of Satan Exulting over Eve.

FLAXMAN, JOHN
Drawings and sculpture

See also Flaxman under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.

A folio of 17 small pencil studies attributed to Flaxman. Lawrences auction, Crewkerne, 16 Jan., #1823, “various sizes,” with a small group of works “by other hands,” from the Alfred de Pass collection, illus. (£360). David Bindman, who inspected these drawings shortly before the auction, believes that a few of these slight sketches are by Flaxman but others are questionable. Three of the Flaxman drawings were offered and illus. in AH, March online cat. 445, as follows: #43, A Line of Figures (recto), Man Consoling a Woman (verso), 9.5 x 22.9 cm. (£325); #44, Women Ascending to Heaven, 17.8 x 21.6 cm. (£325); #45, A Little Group of Figures, inscribed “throwing over the bridge,” 8.3 x 19.1 cm. (£225).

Two pencil and pen and ink drawings, Orestes Standing over the Bodies of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, 20.3 x 29.2 cm., and Oceanus and Prometheus Bound, 22.9 x 28.5 cm., the latter signed, both datable to c. 1793. LL, Jan. cat., pp. 60-63, illus. (not priced; both sold to a “private collection, USA” by March). These designs were engraved by Tommaso Piroli for the 1^st ed. of Flaxman’s Aeschylus illus., 1795.

But God Is Faithful & Will Not Suffer You to Be Tempted. Pen and ink over pencil, 19.0 x 15.0 cm. Bellmans auction, Wisborough Green, West Sussex, 2 Dec., #1026, extensively inscribed, illus. (£220). Apparently an illus. to 1 Corinthians 10.13; the illus. in the auction cat. is not clear enough to read the full inscription.

Doris Bearing a Letter over the Sea, pencil sketch. See The Muses, below, and illus. 10.

Flaxman, anonymous oval miniature portrait on ivory, 5.5 x 4.2 cm., inscribed “J F / 1786,” mounted in a gilt frame 6.0 x 4.7 cm. Acquired Feb. by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California (bequest). The donor suggested that this is a self-portrait, but that is unlikely.

Flaxman, self-portrait in profile, age 14. Oval jasperware medallion by Wedgwood, 8.2 x 6.3 cm., c. 1779. EB, May, possibly a later replica, hairline crack, illus. (£240.99).

Flaxman, self-portrait in profile. Circular plaster medallion, 15.0 cm. diameter. Woolley & Wallis auction, Salisbury, 8 Jan., #444, based on a “wax portrait bust [that] was almost certainly carried out while Flaxman was living in Rome under Josiah Wedgwood’s sponsorship c. 1790,” with “a painted plaster model of a classical female figure standing on a ledge cast after John Flaxman,” illus. (£550).

Holy Family. Pen and wash, 71.5 x 50.5 cm. BHL, 28 Oct., #292, a design based on Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo and “lithographed by Henry Noel Humphreys and published in 1829,” illus. (£1875). A proof before letters of the lithograph is in the Rosenwald Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession no. 1980.45.1713.

Judgment of Paris. Pencil and pen and ink, leaf 13.0 x 17.8 cm. Stair Galleries auction, Hudson, New York, 14 March, #89, with Study of Classical Figures, pencil, leaf 21.6 x 18.1 cm., framed together, illus. ($950). Judgment of Paris is a study for Flaxman’s Iliad designs, pl. 37, engraved by James Parker in the 1805 ed. The Classical Figures are studies for the Hesiod designs, pl. 33, engraved by Blake in the 1817 ed. Previously offered EB, May 2012 (no bids on a required minimum bid of $2500).

The Muses, a preliminary sketch for Flaxman’s Hesiod designs, pl. 23. Feb. private offer by a representative of the Tulk and Ley families, with Doris Bearing a Letter over the Sea on the same backing mount (acquired by Essick). See illus. 10.

10. John Flaxman, 2 pencil and pen and ink sketches pasted to a backing mount, 21.4 x 17.2 cm., the mount showing a “J Whatman / Turkey Mill / 1832” watermark, the date trimmed in half by the bottom edge of the leaf (see enlargement). This leaf was removed from an album compiled by Caroline Tulk, the 2^nd daughter of Charles Augustus Tulk (1786–1849), the Swedenborgian friend of Flaxman and Blake. The pencil inscriptions, “J. Flaxman” below each drawing, were probably written by Caroline Tulk. Essick collection.

Top drawing: The Muses. A preliminary sketch, datable to 1807–14, for Flaxman’s Hesiod designs engraved by Blake, pl. 23, “Jupiter and the Muses.” Leaf of laid paper, 7.7 x 16.1 cm., chain lines approximately 2.6 cm. apart. This drawing lacks the figure of Jupiter, far right in the engraving. The muse second from the right holds a musical instrument in the published version; the muse far right sits at a greater distance from her companions and has both arms lowered into her lap rather than the left hand raised under her chin. The pencil sketch in the British Museum, registration no. 1862,0308.44, is considerably closer to the engraving. A very similar, but more finished, drawing of the 5 muses in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, is an illus. to Flaxman’s poem “The Casket,” dated to 1812 in David Irwin, John Flaxman 1755–1826 (London: Studio Vista, 1979) 112-15 and illus. 153.

Bottom drawing: Doris Bearing a Letter over the Sea. A preliminary sketch, datable to c. 1807, for an illus. to Milton’s “Elegy IV. To His Tutor, Thomas Young,” engraved by Abraham Raimbach and published in Latin and Italian Poems of Milton Translated … by the Late William Cowper (London: J. Johnson and R. H. Evans, 1808), facing p. 20. Laid paper identical to the drawing above, leaf 8.6 x 15.1 cm. with part of a crown and Maltese cross watermark. The following lines are inscribed below the design in Raimbach’s engraving: “Hence my Epistle__skim the deep__fly o’er / Yon smooth expanse to the Teutonic shore!” The published version includes accompanying “Nymphs,” one of whose knees appears upper right in this drawing. This fragmentary motif suggests that the figure of Doris, whose neck is marred by a small hole in the paper, was cut from a larger composition. A drawing almost identical to the engraving is reproduced in Sidney Colvin, The Drawings of Flaxman in the Gallery of University College London (London: George Bell and Sons, 1876), pl. XVIII.

Autograph letter signed to Charles Augustus Tulk, 1 p., 23 Sept. 1818. Swann, 22 Oct., #369, with reference to “inscriptions” for a “Tablet,” illus. ($455).

FUSELI, HENRY
Drawings, paintings, and separate plates

Eleven previously unrecorded drawings. CNY, 29 Jan., offered in the following lots, all illus.:
90. “Psychostasia” of Achilles and Memnon (recto), A Seated Young Woman, Nude, with Elaborately Coiffed Hair, and a Man with Arms Outstretched, Possibly David and Bathsheba (verso). Pencil and wash, leaf 60.3 x 48.2 cm. (not sold; highest bid $95,000 on an estimate of $120,000-180,000). See illus. 11-12.

11. Henry Fuseli, “Psychostasia” of Achilles and Memnon (see enlargement). Pencil and gray, brown, and pink washes, leaf of wove paper 60.3 x 48.2 cm. “Psychostasia” is a weighing of a soul to determine a person’s destiny. Plutarch, in his Moralia, reports that a lost play by Aeschylus, titled Psychostasia, featured a contest between Achilles and Memnon, an Ethiopian king who fought with the Trojans. The gods determine who should prevail by weighing their souls. The scales near the top of the drawing tip toward the warrior on the right—presumably the loser, Memnon, who raises his lance in protest and may be about to flee to the right. Achilles stands in a more composed posture on the left, gesturing upward toward the scales to indicate his adversary’s fate. One of Achilles’s warriors is about to thrust a spear at Memnon. Fuseli has chosen an obscure incident in Greek mythology for his subject, but one represented in Greco-Roman art. For the pictorial tradition, see A. Kossatz-Deissmann, “Memnon,” in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 6 (Zurich: Artemis and Winkler, 1992) 451-53. See illus. 12 for the verso. Photo courtesy of Christie’s New York.

12. Henry Fuseli, A Seated Young Woman, Nude, with Elaborately Coiffed Hair (right) and A Man with Arms Outstretched, Possibly David and Bathsheba (left), the verso of illus. 11 (see enlargement). Pencil, pen and brown ink, brown wash, leaf of wove paper 60.3 x 48.2 cm. Both titles are proposed in Christie’s New York auction cat. of 29 Jan. 2015, #90. If the tentative title for the design on the left is correct, then Bathsheba is the small figure in pencil outline immediately above the man’s head. Photo courtesy of Christie’s New York.

The cat. entry for #90 comments as follows: “Not since the album sold in these Rooms in April 1992 has such a quantity of previously unknown drawings by Fuseli appeared on the art market. Purchased as a folio in the early part of the 20th Century, they have not been seen in public until now. This group of eleven drawings span Fuseli’s career, demonstrate his extraordinary ability in a variety of media and depict a wide range of subjects, dating from the late 1770s through 1819.” For the newly discovered drawings sold in 57 lots at the CL auction of 14 April 1992, see Blake 26.4 (spring 1993): 151-54 (sale incorrectly dated to 14 March 1992).

Dante Observing the Soaring Souls of Paolo and Francesca. Pen and ink, wash, 47.2 x 30.0 cm. SNY, 28 Jan., #43, illus. ($161,000; estimate $35,000-55,000).

The Intimate Concert. Pencil, 28.3 x 20.1 cm., inscribed “K. July 30. [18]14.” SNY, 28 Jan., #40, illus. (not sold; highest bid $17,000 on an estimate of $25,000-35,000). Previously sold CL, 28 Nov. 2000, #35, titled Two Lovers, One Playing a Cithern, illus. (£43,475).

Lady Susan, Countess of Gilford and Her Daughters. Oil, 69.0 x 54.0 cm., datable to c. 1810. Galerie Hans, Hamburg, advertisement in Burlington Magazine, vol. 157, whole no. 1346 (May 2015): xv, illus. (not priced).

Preliminary Sketch for “Odysseus in Front of Scylla and Charybdis.” Pencil, pen and brown ink and brown and rose washes, 12.8 x 7.6 cm. CSK, 9 Dec., #188, “with inscription in Greek (on a label verso),” illus. (£8750). A cat. note states that “the present drawing represents Fuseli’s preliminary study of Ulysses between Scylla and Charybdis (Milton Gallery no. 121; Schiff 894), in which Odysseus is the only survivor of the carnage wreaked by the Scylla on his crew.”The reference is to Gert Schiff, Johann Heinrich Füssli 1741–1825 (Zurich: Verlag Berichthaus; Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1973) 1: 517, #894; 2: 249, illus. 894. I find the attribution to Fuseli questionable; the design is completely different from the oil painting to which the cat. refers.

Salmon-Boos-Obed. Pen and ink, wash, 12.1 x 12.5 cm. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #30, “based upon Michelangelo’s fresco lunette in the Sistine Chapel,” illus. (not priced).

The Three Witches Appearing to Macbeth and Banquo. Oil, 87.3 x 111.7 cm., datable to c. 1800–10. CNY, 28 Jan., #45, illus. ($377,000). A similar design, reversed, was engraved by James Heath and 1^st published in 1807 by Stockdale in The Plays of William Shakespeare, vol. 3.

The Witches Floating above Macbeth and Banquo. Pen and ink, wash, 46.5 x 66.2 cm. SNY, 28 Jan., #166, illus. ($281,000; estimate $60,000-80,000).

A Young Woman Brandishing a Whip (recto), A Young Woman Sewing (verso). Pencil, leaf 30.4 x 17.5 cm. showing an 1812 watermark. SL, 8 July, #230, illus. (£10,000). Previously sold CNY, 24 May 1985, #344, illus. ($8800).

“Beatrice Eavesdropping on Hero and Ursula,” mezzotint by John Jones, 1791. Gerrards online auction closing 2 June, #262, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £25). Possibly the same impression offered Border auction, Hawick, Scottish Borders, 8 Feb. 2014, #278, illus. (£10). Baeyer, Aug. online cat., illus. (price on request).

“Evening Thou Bringest All,” lithograph by Fuseli after his own design, 1802. GP, April online cat., removed from the original backing leaf, “trimmed, losing printed area top and left, small nicks and tears; vertical crease on left; foxing to edges,” illus. (£1800). CL, 9 Dec., #233, printed in brown ink, removed from the original backing leaf, trimmed at top but not quite as much as in the GP impression, illus. (£1250).

“Lear & Cordelia” (inscribed title), mezzotint by John Raphael Smith, 1784. Weinglass #72, titled “Lear Awakens to Find Cordelia beside His Bed.” EB, March, 1^st st., brown ink, trimmed to the image at top and on both sides, foxed, several large tears at the top, illus. (€20.50). Biksady Galéria auction, Budapest, 2 Dec., #27, color printed, illus. (not sold; reserve price €190).

“The Nightmare,” aquatint. GP, April online cat., printed in sepia, trimmed close, “some spotting,” illus. (£380). Possibly Weinglass #67B, “Le Cochemar,” engraved by De Ville Neuve, 1784.

“The Night Mare,” engraved by W. Raddon, 1827. EB, July, all inscriptions below the title either trimmed off or covered by the mat, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £25); same impression, Aug., illus. (£17.78).

“The Spirit of Plato,” stipple engraving by Moses Haughton, with imprint “London, Publish’d 1.^st Dec.^r 1824, by H. Gibbs Great Newport Str”. Stag online auction closing 25 Jan., #198, title in open letters, imprint present, printed on laid India, backing leaf of wove paper 51.5 x 58.7 cm., margins ragged, illus. (£4 to John Windle acting for Essick). The design is based on a passage in Milton’s Il Penseroso. Weinglass #260 does not record the imprint and notes that the impression sold at auction from Fuseli’s collection in 1827 was described as “unpublished,” but the Gibbs imprint suggests otherwise. The 2 examples in the British Museum are a proof before letters (registration no. 1867,1214.204) and an impression trimmed just above the imprint (registration no. 1850,1014.883). Apparently the only other impression recorded by Weinglass, in the Kunsthaus, Zurich, also lacks the area where the imprint appears.

A. Burnett, ed., The Medical Adviser and Guide to Health and Long Life, 1823–24. Ian Marr, May cat. 11, #139, vol. 1 only, issues 1-27, “slight occasional spotting,” contemporary half calf worn, illus. (£150). Vol. 1, issue 9 (31 Jan. 1824): [129], includes an unsigned wood engraving of Fuseli’s Nightmare to illustrate an anonymous essay titled “Incubus, or Night-Mare,” pp. 129-32 and continued in 3 later issues. Fuseli is not mentioned. Not in Weinglass.

Magasin Pittoresque, year 31, 1863. EB, May, p. 29 only with an illus. of Fuseli’s witches from Macbeth, copied by Louis Alexandre Eustache Lorsay and engraved on wood by Charles Tamisier, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €25). Not in Weinglass.

Milton, Poetical Works, published by W. Suttaby and B. Crosby, 1808 (vol. 1), 1806 (vol. 2). EB, Dec., 2 vols. in 1, 2 pls. after Fuseli, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (£27.32). The frontispiece in vol. 1, engraved by Abraham Raimbach in 1806, is listed by Weinglass, #261, but this 1808 issue of Poetical Works is not noted. Weinglass #262 lists Fuseli’s design for the title-page vignette engraved by Andrew Duncan in 1821, but not this version in vol. 1 engraved by Anker Smith in 1808.

LINNELL, JOHN
Early drawings, paintings, and original graphics

Country Lane. Watercolor, 15.0 x 22.0 cm., signed. Wellers auction, Guildford, 24 Sept., #674, illus. (£720). Date uncertain, but possibly c. 1825–35.

Llanberris N. Wales (inscribed title). Watercolor, 19.0 x 28.0 cm., signed and dated 1813. David Lay auction, Penzance, 15 Jan., #49, illus. (£450).

The New Puppy. Watercolor and gouache on ivory, 18.0 x 13.0 cm. EB, April, contemporary gilt frame, “monogram on the bottom right” (not visible in the illus.), inscribed in pencil on the back “The new puppy  J Linnell” and “‘The new puppy’ / by / John Linnell / 1818,” illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £2200 or “best offer”).

Sheep Study. Pencil with touches of white, 18.5 x 28.0 cm., signed and dated 1815. Mallams auction, Oxford, 11 March, #281, illus. (£170).

Sketch of a Windmill on a Heath, attributed to Linnell. Watercolor, 10.0 x 17.0 cm. Batemans auction, Stamford, Lincolnshire, 10 July, #226, illus. (not sold; estimate £70-100). The attribution seems solid to me; date uncertain but possibly early.

View near Windsor. Charcoal with wash on gray paper, 27.0 x 27.0 cm., inscribed “J Linnell Nr Windsor 1815.” Cheffins auction, Cambridge, 26 Nov., #398, illus. (£440).

“The Just Judges,” an engraved copy of a wing of Hubert and Jan van Eyck’s Ghent altarpiece, signed “J^no Linnell Sculp^.t 1826.” EB, March, only known st. printed on laid India, backing leaf of heavy wove paper 63.3 x 33.1 cm., illus. (acquired by Essick at the “buy it now” price of €250). For discussions and illus. of this unpublished print, see David Bindman, William Blake: His Art and Times ([London]: Thames and Hudson, 1982) 188, William Vaughan, Elizabeth E. Barker, and Colin Harrison, Samuel Palmer 1805–1881: Vision and Landscape (London: British Museum P, 2005) 101-02, and Vaughan, Samuel Palmer: Shadows on the Wall (New Haven: Yale UP, 2015) 62, 67, 384n40. There are 3 impressions in the British Museum, but this is the only example I’ve seen on the market since SL, 19 June 1981, #398, illus. (£110).

“Portrait of William Bray,” etching. Baeyer, Aug. online cat., dated to 1832 (the year of Bray’s death), “proof impression before all letters,” inscribed (signed?) “Linnell” in pencil lower left, leaf 43.9 x 29.8 cm., illus. (£850). Story lists a “mezzotint” portrait of Bray dated to 1833, but not this etching; see Alfred T. Story, The Life of John Linnell (London: Richard Bentley, 1892) 2: 243. Story’s note that the oil portrait of Bray was “Engraved” (2: 249) is probably a reference to the mezzotint he lists in the section of his book devoted to Linnell’s “Engravings.”

Michael Angelo’s Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, 1833–37. Special Auction Services auction, Newbury, Berkshire, 17 Sept., #237, 39 (of 42?) pls., hand colored possibly by Linnell’s daughter Hannah, wife of Samuel Palmer, early (original?) boards with cloth spine, no title page, illus. (£1100; estimate £100-150).

PALMER, SAMUEL
Drawings, paintings, and rare states of original graphics

Box Hill, Surrey. Oil on paper, 24.0 x 40.1 cm., datable to 1848. SNY, 28 Jan., #42, illus. ($32,500; estimate $5000-7000). Previously sold SL, 19 Feb. 1987, #123, illus. (£1430).

The Campagna and Aqueducts of Rome. Watercolor, gouache, and gum arabic, 14.6 x 40.2 cm., datable to 1843. GPF, May cat., #44, illus. (£16,000).

The Goatherd. Watercolor, 20.9 x 29.2 cm., datable to c. 1879. Arader Galleries auction, New York, 13 June, #205, illus. ($12,000). Previously offered CL, 3 June 2004, #72, from the collection of George Goyder, illus. (not sold; estimate £50,000-80,000); previously sold CL, 5 June 2006, #58, illus. (£21,600).

Going to Evening Church. Watercolor, gouache, and gum arabic, 30.0 x 70.0 cm. Fine Art Society, spring 2014 cat., #30, illus. (not priced). Offered Jan. 2015 to John Windle for $600,000. Previously sold SL, 19 Nov. 2013, #13, titled Old England’s Sunday Evening, illus. (£266,500). See illus. 13.

13. Samuel Palmer, Going to Evening Church (see enlargement). Watercolor, gouache, and gum arabic, 30.0 x 70.0 cm., signed lower left and datable to 1874 when Palmer exhibited the work at the Society of Painters in Water Colours, #91, titled Old England’s Sunday Evening. Lister 208, #669. Photo courtesy of the Fine Art Society, London.

Like many of Palmer’s works beginning in the 1840s, Going to Evening Church shows his attempt to combine the density of oil painting for the landscape with the translucency of watercolors for the sky. The subject embodies his conservative Christianity and sacramental concept of nature and recalls his famous Shoreham period painting Coming from Evening Church (Tate Collection, Lister 77, #123). The dramatic sunset hints at the influence of Palmer’s father-in-law, John Linnell, and possibly Turner.

An Illustration to Milton’s “Lycidas.” Watercolor and gouache, 10.4 x 15.1 cm., signed. LL, Jan. cat., pp. 126-29, extensively described, “painted c. 1864–1870,” illus. (not priced; sold by May to a “Private Collection, USA”). Previously sold CL, 9 Nov. 1976, #131, titled The Evening Ploughman, illus. (£1700), and SL, 9 July 2014, #199, illus. (£25,000). These earlier sales cats. date the work to c. 1873, as in Lister 218, #M7.

Landscape—Twilight. Oil and tempera, 26.5 x 38.0 cm., probably the work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1834. LL, Jan. cat., pp. 96-105, extensively described and with an essay by William Vaughan, illus. (not priced). For previous offers to sell, see the 2014 sales review in Blake 48.4 (spring 2015).

The Poet. Watercolor, 19.5 x 42.0 cm., signed, datable to c. 1865. Arader Galleries auction, New York, 13 June, #204, illus. (no bids on an estimate of $35,000-45,000). Previously sold SL, 9 April 1992, #115, titled A Poet, illus. (£33,000).

Charles Dickens, autograph letter signed to Palmer, 13 May 1846, 2 pp. SL, 15 Dec., #39, assuring Palmer that “I would on no account dream of allowing the book to go to Press, without the insertion of your name on the title page,” illus. (£2000). Previously offered Jarndyce, Feb. 2012 cat. 197, The Library of a Dickensian, #66, illus. (£3000). Dickens is referring to his Pictures from Italy; “The Vignette Illustrations on Wood by Samuel Palmer” is printed on the title page. This letter is printed in Dickens 546-47.

Autograph letters signed, 1866–81. BHL, 24 June, #39, “series of over forty” letters with “substantial fragments of six” others, “one with a sketch,” illus. (£9750). The cat. entry notes that 1 letter mentions “the Blake Exhibition” (probably the 1876 exhibit at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, London) and that 16 of the letters “are apparently unpublished.”

“The Early Ploughman,” etching. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #44, 5^th st., “a working proof” to which “Palmer added touches of black ink to the birds in the sky at the left and to the left-hand ox,” illus. (not priced).

“The Herdsman’s Cottage,” etching. DW, 16 Oct., #130, 1^st st., illus. (£420; estimate £100-150).

“The Lonely Tower,” etching. BHL, 17 June, #8, 5^th st., “signed in pencil, inscribed ‘Trial Proof’, with the ‘AHP Private Press’ blindstamp lower left, … with a handwritten note taped to the back of the frame by the original owner, Mr F. G. Stephens, stating that this impression was a gift from the artist in 1880 …,” illus. (£11,875).

“The Vine” or “Plumpy Bacchus,” etching. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #43, 2^nd st., “a unique, early trial proof, extensively worked by the artist in pencil,” illus. (not priced). Previously offered Campbell Fine Art, Feb. 1990 cat. 2, #75, illus. (£5500).

S. G. W. Benjamin, A Group of Etchers (New York: Dodd Mead & Company, 1882). EB, July, publisher’s cloth, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $1500). Includes an impression of Palmer’s “The Herdsman’s Cottage or Sunset,” 2^nd st., erroneously titled “Sunrise” in the list of contents. This vol. not in Lister.

Dickens, Pictures from Italy, 1846. EB, Jan., with an inserted proof before letterpress text of the wood engraving of Palmer’s design “The Villa d’Este at Tivoli from the Cypress Avenue” (letterpress caption, published st.), later morocco with the publisher’s cloth spine and covers bound in, illus. ($593.93 to Essick). See illus. 14 for the proof, now removed from the book, and Dickens’s letter to Palmer, above.

14. Proof before letterpress text of the anonymous wood engraving of Samuel Palmer’s design “The Villa d’Este at Tivoli from the Cypress Avenue,” published in Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1846) [1] (see enlargement). Printed image 13.3 x 7.4 cm. on a leaf of wove paper 16.0 x 10.4 cm. pasted to a backing leaf 20.0 x 15.0 cm. With pencil inscriptions, some extending onto the backing leaf, and corresponding corrections in the image by Palmer. Essick collection. The annotations are as follows:
Upper right: “Opposite are a few touches / on the slender cypress / two very thin lines of light / on the stem / Specks of light on the / foliage—”.
Lower left: “There is a / thick black line / on the block thus ) / which I have / here crossed with / specks of white— / although it is in / the body of the Tree / it kills the fine / work on the Villa”. This note is followed by a vertical series of curving pencil lines, perhaps representing foliage.
Bottom left: “The thickness of outline / on the light side of this / vase unfinishes the / foreground — I have / here altered it”.
Bottom right: “The thick outline of this / leaf unfinished every thing / about it”.
Bottom right corner: Possibly the top of a number (“23”?), possibly in another hand.
As the note lower left indicates, Palmer added minute droplets of white pigment to the cypress leaves in the area indicated by a parenthesis and a horizontal pencil line. Other small corrections in white appear in the cypress left of the note upper right, on the vase lower center to which Palmer drew two pencil lines, and on 1 leaf of the large plant right of the tree trunks lower right. The annotations were first printed, with some minor errors, in Frederic G. Kitton, Dickens and His Illustrators (London: George Redway, 1899) 187, “Second Proof.” Although Kitton does not explicitly identify the owner of this proof, it was probably in the collection of Palmer’s son, Alfred Herbert Palmer, in the late 19^th century. Kitton 186-87 also quotes the annotations on what he calls the “First Proof,” now untraced but apparently once in A. H. Palmer’s collection. Lister 254-55 reprints Kitton’s transcriptions.

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The proof shown here includes the wood-engraved word “ON” printed top left, also appearing in 1 of Palmer’s preliminary pencil sketches but omitted from the published engraving. As Kitton points out, the design was probably intended to appear at the beginning of the chapter titled “Going through France” with text beginning “On a fine Sunday ….” When moved to the 1^st page of the preliminary section, “The Reader’s Passport,” with text beginning “If the readers …,” an initial “ON” was no longer appropriate.Kitton 184-85. See also Dickens’s letter to Palmer of 27 April 1846: “I am afraid I cannot comfortably manage an S. What do you say to the word ‘on’? Could you possibly do that?” (Dickens 541). In a footnote to this letter, Tillotson offers the same explanation as Kitton; both are commenting on the drawing with “ON,” not this proof. The drawing containing “ON” is illus. in Kitton, facing p. 186, then in the collection of A. H. Palmer and now in Essick’s collection. Another preliminary drawing, more finished and detailed but lacking “ON,” is in the Morgan Library and Museum, New York, accession no. 1963.11; see Lister 150, illus. 412ii. This Dickens illus. recalls 2 watercolors of the villa and its cypress grove Palmer executed while in Italy in 1838. These works are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. P.29-1919 (Lister 127-28, illus. 314), and the Morgan, accession no. 1962.18 (Lister 128, illus. 315). The Victoria and Albert also holds an impression of the published st. of the wood engraving, museum no. E.3896-1920, with the letterpress caption below the design but before all other letters.

The annotations and touches of white pigment offer insights into Palmer’s working methods and habits of mind. His revisions center on the ways in which light is reflected off various surfaces. The miniscule corrections in the design can be seen only with the aid of a magnifying glass and probably seemed trivial to the craftsman responsible for the wood engraving. It would be very difficult to achieve in wood the subtle effects sought by Palmer, and thus it is not surprising that published impressions of the design show no evidence that his directions were followed. Perhaps Palmer’s unhappy experiences with this and other illus. for Dickens’s book contributed to his decision in 1850 to etch his own designs. He worked tirelessly on those copperplates to capture the play of light and shadow unachievable by journeymen wood engravers.

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RICHMOND, GEORGE
Early drawings, paintings, and original graphics

Figure Studies. Pencil, leaf 22.9 x 30.5 cm. AH, Feb. online cat. 444, #34, illus. (£125). One of these sketches might be a variant posture for the figure in Richmond’s etching of 1827, “The Shepherd.” The other drawings are much later.

Portrait Miniature of Welby Sherman. Watercolor on ivory, 1827. Matthew Barton auction, London, 24 Nov., #413, in a “gilt-metal frame,” illus. (£38,400; estimate £1500-2500). See illus. 15.

15. George Richmond, Portrait Miniature of Welby Sherman (see enlargement). Watercolor on ivory, 1827. The Matthew Barton auction cat. of 24 Nov. gives the size only as “rectangular 12cm” and states, rather confusingly because of a lack of punctuation, “backboard with applied label inscribed: Welby Sherman / Painted Geo Richmond / Jany [two deleted words]: 1825 [altered to 27 by Thomas Knyvett Richmond] and TKR / 1877.” The bracketed words in the above quotation are in the online cat. entry. The “and” before “TKR” is probably not part of the inscription. The cat. records the provenance as “the artist; his son, Thomas Knyvett Richmond (1833–1901) by 1877.” Photo courtesy of Matthew Barton Ltd.

Little is known about Sherman other than his friendship and engraving activities with Palmer, Richmond, Calvert, and other members of the “Ancients,” the circle of young artists who gathered around Blake in the last few years of his life. Sherman “was perpetually short of money, and at last, in 1836, having swindled Palmer’s brother William, a weak character, out of £500 in wagers on games of billiards, he fled abroad” (Raymond Lister, Samuel Palmer and “The Ancients,” exhibition cat. [Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum, 1984] 88). Richmond drew at least 2 pencil portraits of Sherman c. 1827–28: Portrait of Welby Sherman in the British Museum, registration no. 1929,0416.4, and Welby Sherman Asleep in a Chair in the Cleveland Museum of Art, accession no. 1981.29. For a list of Sherman’s engravings, see Campbell Dodgson, “The Engravings of George Richmond and Welby Sherman,” Print Collector’s Quarterly 17.4 (Oct. 1930): 361-62.

Study of a Man’s Right Leg. Ink over pencil, leaf 17.5 x 7.0 cm. Aspire auction, Cleveland, 29 Oct., #113, illus. ($383.50). Previously offered Agnew’s, Oct. 2001 Richmond cat., #1, illus. (£2750); sold SNY, 25 Jan. 2011, #153, with 2 other works by Richmond, illus. ($8125).

ROMNEY, GEORGE
Drawings and paintings excluding portraits

Three sketchbooks of figure studies, 23, 18, and 26 pp. with sketches illustrating Macbeth, Paradise Lost, John Howard Visiting a Lazaretto, and 8 for Shipwreck at the Cape of Good Hope, each booklet 14.2 x 23.6 cm. bound in quarter calf, the 3^rd vol. showing a Whatman 1794 watermark. BHL, 8 July, #3, illus. (not sold; highest bid £15,000 on an estimate of £20,000-30,000). The sketches for Shipwreck are preliminaries for the painting engraved by Blake and published in Hayley’s Life of Romney, 1809.

A sketchbook, 132 leaves, 13.3 x 17.2 cm., with 67 pencil drawings and 73 pen and ink drawings including studies for Macbeth and John Howard Visiting a Lazaretto, datable to 1791–92. CL, 7 July, #94, illus. (£62,500 to the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California).

The Death of Cordelia. Pencil, 14.0 x 23.0 cm. Dreweatts auction, Newbury, 25 March, #77, illus. (£450). AH, Nov. online cat. 452, #98, illus. (£1200). Possibly the drawing offered with Study of the Warren Family, SL, 8 July 2011, #301 (not sold; estimate £3000-5000).

The Effects of Pride and Jealousy. Pencil, 13.5 x 22.0 cm. Woolley & Wallis auction, Salisbury, 23 Sept., #80, illus. (£900).

Female Figure in Profile. Pen and ink, 7.9 x 4.7 cm. GB, 27 Nov., #6603, illus. (€800).

Miniature of William Cowper, a copy of a portrait by Romney. Pencil and watercolor on card, oval 7.6 cm. high. SNY, 5 Dec., #186, the back inscribed “William Cowper after the sketch by Romney, attributed to Ozias Humphrey” (to which the cat. adds “[sic]”), the “offered lot was probably taken from Blake’s engraving” of Romney’s portrait, gilt-copper frame, illus. ($625). The Blake engraving noted in the auction cat. is Blake’s pl. 1 in Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803. Romney’s 1792 pastel portrait of Cowper is in the National Portrait Gallery, London, cat. no. NPG 1423; Blake’s monochrome wash copy, the basis for his engraving, is in the Library of Congress, call no. NE642.B5 A465, Rosenwald Collection (Butlin #351).

Mother and Child with Attendant. Pencil, brown wash, 27.0 x 19.0 cm. CSK, 21 July, #436, illus. (£3250).

Mother and Child with Three Figures, attributed to Romney. Pen and ink, wash, over pencil, 25.4 x 26.4 cm. Freeman’s auction, Philadelphia, 16 June, #58, illus. (no bids on an estimate of $1000-1500).

Reclining Figure. Pen and ink, black wash, 14.6 x 14.0 cm. Stair Galleries auction, Hudson, New York, 24 Oct., #35, illus. ($1400).

A Seated Woman, Three-Quarter Length, with a Dog. Brown ink and wash, 31.1 x 26.7 cm. SNY, 5 Dec., #24, illus. ($8750).

Sketches for Satan Rallying His Host. Pencil, leaf 33.0 x 40.6 cm. Aspire online auction closing 10 Dec., #55, illus. ($849.60).

Studies of a Woman’s Head. Pen and ink, black chalk, wash, 18.8 x 11.1 cm. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #47, illus. (not priced).

Study for a Family Portrait. Pencil, 15.0 x 12.0 cm. Dreweatts auction, Newbury, 25 March, #76, illus. (£550). Previously offered Spink-Leger Galleries, Sept. 1999 Head and Shoulders cat., #39a, illus. (£1200).

Study for a Portrait of a Seated Lady. Pen and brown ink, 8.8 x 9.2 cm. Mitchells auction, Cockermouth, Cumbria, 4 Sept., #1024, illus. (£1900). Possibly related to the priestess in The Initiation of a Rustic Nymph and hence datable to c. 1780–84. For another study for this figure in Romney’s unfinished painting, see Priestess for “Initiation of a Rustic Nymph” in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, reproduced in Patricia Jaffé, Drawings by George Romney (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1977) pl. 31.

Study for “Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante.” Pen and ink, landscape study in pencil on verso, leaf 18.7 x 11.3 cm. GPF, May cat., #4, illus. (£3500).

Study for “The Destruction of Niobe’s Children.” Pencil, pen and ink, brown wash, 11.0 x 18.5 cm. CNY, 29 Jan., #103, illus. ($3750).

Study for “The Leveson-Gower Children.” Pen and ink, wash, 23.8 x 24.1 cm., datable to c. 1776. LL, Jan. cat., pp. 36-38, illus. (not priced).

Study for Two Figures in an Attitude of Exultation. Pen and ink, wash, 40.3 x 21.3 cm. HS, 2013 cat. 17, #46, illus. (not priced).

Study of a Nude Woman. Pencil, leaf 18.9 x 12.0 cm. GPF, May cat., #5, illus. (£2200).

Study of a Standing Woman (recto), A Man and Three Children in a Landscape (verso). Pen and ink, 11.0 x 18.5 cm. SNY, 28 Jan., #171, illus. (not sold; highest bid $3750 on an estimate of $5000-7000). SL, 8 July, #217, illus. (£2500).

Study of a Woman and Children. Pencil, leaf 19.0 x 12.0 cm. GPF, May cat., #6, illus. (£2200).

Study of a Woman in Profile. Pencil, leaf 19.0 x 12.0 cm. GPF, May cat., #3, illus. (£2200).

Study of John Milton. Oil, 63.0 x 76.0 cm., datable to 1792. Baeyer, Dec. online cat. of sold works, “a preparatory sketch for Romney’s history painting of Milton and his daughters begun in 1792,” illus. (not priced; “bought by a foundation, Germany”).

Study of Prisoners, or Inmates of a Lazaretto. Pencil, 16.5 x 24.8 cm. AH, May online cat. 447, #48, dating the work to c. 1792, stamped “G. Romney” lower right, illus. (£1500).

SHERMAN, WELBY

See Portrait Miniature of Welby Sherman under Richmond, above, and illus. 15.

STOTHARD, THOMAS
Drawings, paintings, and original graphics

Eleven drawings of Chinese punishments and one of a Chinese musician, attributed to Stothard. Watercolors, 23.8 x 16.7 cm. to 30.3 x 21.3 cm., one inscribed “T. Stothard del.” SL, 30 April, #255, illus. (£3500).

Two monochrome wash drawings, 12.0 x 7.0 cm. and 9.5 x 2.5 cm. EB, Jan., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £349.99). DW, 16 July, #137, “one showing a sword fight between a gentleman in a kilt and a semi-naked native in a turban, with a young woman kneeling beside in supplication, … the other showing a monk in an attitude of devotion gazing up at sun rays emanating from the clouds,” illus. (£170). Previously offered Moore Allen & Innocent auction, Cirencester, 25 Oct. 2013, #155, oddly titled Othello and Saint, illus. (not sold; estimate £200-300).

The Bridal of January & May. Monochrome wash, 14.0 x 9.5 cm. Litchfield County Auctions, Litchfield, Connecticut, 10 Sept., #151, illus. ($145). An illus. to Chaucer’s “The Merchant’s Tale” or to Alexander Pope’s “January and May; or, the Merchant’s Tale.” I have not been able to find an engraving of this design.

Child Listening to the Grown-Ups at Dinner. Gray wash, 8.9 x 7.0 cm., datable to 1794. AH, June online cat. 448, #43, illus. (£225). Engraved by James Parker and published in M. [J.-F.] Marmontel, Belisarius (London: E. Harding, 1794), facing p. 2.

Composition Study Inspired by the Elgin Marbles. Pen and ink, 12.7 x 16.5 cm., inscribed “Stothard,” datable to c. 1810. AH, June online cat. 448, #70, illus. (£275).

A Family’s Sorrow. Pen and ink, wash, 9.5 x 12.5 cm., inscribed “T. Stothard” (probably not his signature). EB, March-April, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £975 or “best offer”). Previously offered as A Family’s Lament; see Blake 44.4 (spring 2011): 140.

Figures Crowding Excitedly. Pen and ink, wash, 14.0 x 11.0 cm., inscribed “T. Stothard.” EB, May, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £595); again in May, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £590 or “best offer”). Previously offered AH, May 2005 online cat. 367, #61 (£250).

Genius Crowns Minerva. Monochrome wash, size not recorded. Criterion auction, London, 19 Oct., #54, illus. (not sold; highest bid £80 on an estimate of £100-200). The preliminary drawing for an engraving, a “frontispiece to an unidentified publication” (British Museum registration no. 1849,0721.671). This drawing is probably about the same size as the engraving, 13.0 x 8.0 cm.

The Lady in the Coach Discovers the Count Lying Senseless. Monochrome wash, oval, 10.0 x 8.0 cm., inscribed on the verso “[Sto]thard delt.” EB, March, framed, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €165 or “best offer”); April, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €149 or “best offer”). The design is an illus. to The Persian Letters, engraved by Walker and published in Harrison’s British Classics, 1785–87. Coxhead 79.

Music. Oil, oval, 21.6 x 27.9 cm. AH, June online cat. 448, #14, illus. (£1750). Not the oil of the same title sold SL, 7 Oct. 1992, #46, with Merrymaking, a companion painting (£1210).

Othello and Desdemona, attributed to Stothard. Oil, 25.2 x 35.3 cm. BHO, 17 Feb., #444, illus. (not sold; estimate £500-700); 14 April, #392, illus. (£437). Previously offered BHO, 3 Dec. 2014, #467, illus. (not sold; estimate £1000-1500).

A Storyteller. Pen and ink, blue wash, leaf 9.5 x 9.0 cm. Baeyer, Aug. online cat., illus. (£600).

Two Married Women and the Widow. Oil, 17.5 x 22.0 cm. Anderson & Garland auction, Newcastle, 16 June, #532, illus. (£300).

Uncle Toby Telling My Father of the Punishment of the Grenadier. Watercolor, 11.5 x 7.0 cm., datable to c. 1781. Dreweatts auction, Newbury, 14 April, #150, illus. (£55). An illus. to Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, engraved by James Heath and published in the Novelist’s Magazine, vol. 5 (1781), inscribed “Plate II.” Coxhead 63.

Venus and Adonis. Pen and ink, watercolor, 8.3 x 7.0 cm. AH, May online cat. 447, #51, illus. (£225).

“Satan, Sin, and Death,” engraved by Bartolozzi after Stothard, 1792. EB, Feb., trimmed to the image on 3 sides but retaining signatures and the 1792 John Jeffryes imprint, insect damage along left margin, with “Adam and Eve,” engraved by Bartolozzi after Stothard, both framed, both illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £120 or “best offer”). Coxhead 103. Apparently rare; only the 2^nd impression of “Satan, Sin, and Death” I’ve seen on the market. The pl. was not included in copies I’ve inspected of Graphic Illustrations of Milton’s Paradise Lost … Engraved by Francis Bartolozzi … from Paintings by Thomas Stothard, published by Jeffryes in 1818.

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. 38-40, “A Dream of Thiralatha.” A preliminary pencil sketch for the two figures is included on the recto of Harpers and Other Drawings in Essick’s collection. The figures are the reverse of the color-printed relief etching, with the legs of the descending figure together rather than spread apart. Two other figures on this leaf of sketches may be an alternative version for the print. The lower figure appears to be a child, facing away from the viewer, rather than the adult in the print. The descending figure is pictured from the back.

Pp. 125-31, “Morning Amusement” and “Evening Amusement,” after Watteau. This pair of prints is listed in Anon., “Vermischte Nachrichten,” Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste 28.1 (1783): 162, with a price of 15s.The references to Neue Bibliothek listed here are recorded in G. E. Bentley, Jr., “William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2009,” Blake 44.1 (summer 2010): 17, 19.

Pp. 132-33, “Robin Hood & Clorinda,” after Meheux. The print is listed in Anon., “Vermischte Nachrichten,” Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste 30.2 (1785): 337, with a price of 4s.

Pp. 134-38, “The Fall of Rosamond,” after Stothard. The print is listed in Anon., “Vermischte Nachrichten,” Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste 30.2 (1785): 342, with the “same” size and price as the engraving listed immediately above, “Ophelia,” Ogborn after Stothard, priced at 7½s.

William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations

Pp. 94-96, Hayley, Life of George Romney, 1809. For 8 preliminary sketches by Romney for the painting reproduced in Blake’s engraving, “Sketch of a Shipwreck after Romney,” see the 1^st entry under Romney, above.

Pp. 106-07, Flaxman, Compositions from the Works Days and Theogony of Hesiod, 1817, pls. 23, “Jupiter and the Muses,” and 33, “The Brethren of Saturn Delivered.” For preliminary sketches, see Judgment of Paris and The Muses under Flaxman, above, and illus. 10.