Abbreviations

Illuminated Books

“The Ancient of Days” (Europe pl. 1). Relief and white-line etching with hand coloring, 2^nd st., 1794. Designated as copy D of “The Ancient of Days” in BB pp. 109, 339 (#100), 340 (#F1). Windle, on consignment from an American private collector, offered at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April ($375,000; acquired by Alan Parker, London). Illus. 1; see the caption for comments on the printing and hand coloring.

Provenance: Probably inherited from Blake by his wife, Catherine, in 1827; probably acquired by Frederick Tatham upon Catherine Blake’s death in 1831; acquired by George A. Smith and bound by him in “about 1853 in half Red morocco” (BB p. 337) with other works by Blake, including the manuscript “Order” of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience;Smith probably acquired all this material from Tatham as a collection, possibly already mounted and assembled as a vol. or portfolio even if BB is correct that the morocco binding was produced for Smith “about 1853.” the vol. offered, presumably by Smith, at a Puttick and Simpson auction, London, 3-4 July 1863 (£15.15s., possibly bought in by Smith given the reappearance of the vol. in the Smith auction of 1880);This auction is known to me only because of its listing in G. E. Bentley, Jr., Sale Catalogues of Blake’s Works <http://​library.​vicu.​utoronto.​ca/​collections/​special_collections/​bentley_​blake_​collection/​sale_​catalogue/​1800.​html>, accessed 20 July 2016. Bentley gives the price but no lot number; the speculation that the vol. was bought in is mine, not Bentley’s. the vol. offered by Bernard Quaritch, 1864 Catalogue of Books, #6521, possibly on consignment from, or in partnership with, Smith (£21); the vol. sold by Smith, Christie’s, 1 April 1880, #168 (£66 to Quaritch); the vol. apparently lent by Quaritch to William Muir, who used some works as the basis for his facsimiles;For a list of the works from this vol. reproduced by Muir, see BB p. 339. Bentley states that Quaritch “evidently sold” the vol. to Muir, but I suspect that the dealer only lent it to Muir no later than 1885 in order to produce facsimiles that Quaritch subsequently distributed. Muir may have had physical possession (but not ownership) of the vol. until its sale to Macgeorge between 1892 and 1906. This would not have been the only time that Quaritch lent a work to Muir for reproduction. According to the dealer’s Miscellaneous Catalogue no. 62 of June 1893, p. 34: “Mr. Quaritch generously lent to Mr. Muir to copy” The Marriage of Heaven and Hell copy A. Muir’s facsimile is dated 1885. the vol. offered by Quaritch, Oct. 1883 Catalogue of Works on the Fine Arts, #10,252 (£80), May 1885 cat., William Blake’s Original Drawings, p. 2, no entry # (£80), and 1887 General Catalogue of Books, vol. 2, #10,252 (£80); the vol. acquired by Bernard Buchanan Macgeorge between 1892 and 1906;The vol. is not listed in the cat. of the Macgeorge collection of 1892 but is recorded in Catalogue of the Library of Bernard B. Macgeorge (Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons, 1906) 17 (BB #589A-B). the vol. sold from the Macgeorge collection, Sotheby’s, 1 July 1924, #133 (£345 to the dealer E. Parsons & Sons); the vol., possibly with some leaves removed, offered by Maggs Bros., 1924 cat. 456, #53 (£630), this print described as an “Original Impression in Colours”; the vol. acquired no later than 1927 by George C. Smith, who broke it up and rebound “The Ancient of Days” with 18 other pls. from Europe, this impression of “The Ancient of Days” wrongly described as printed in “black” in the cat. of Smith’s collection, William Blake: The Description of a Small Collection of His Works in the Library of a New York Collector (New York: privately printed, 1927), #12; “The Ancient of Days” disbound and sold from Smith’s collection, Parke-Bernet, New York, 2 Nov. 1938, #28, “inlaid to size” and again wrongly described as printed in “black” ($300 to a “private buyer,” according to BB p. 340); A. E. Newton, probably the private buyer at the 1938 auction, and sold from his collection, Parke-Bernet, New York, 16 April 1941, #130, “inlaid to 4to size,” no description of ink color ($175—possibly bought in rather than sold at that price);This record from the Newton sale of 1941 to 2016 was supplied in part by the American private collector who owned the print from c. 2000 to April 2016 and was 1st published in Blake 31.4 (spring 1998): 113, caption to illus. 3. This provenance record updates and corrects the one published in 1998. BB p. 109 indicates that the impression sold from the Newton collection in 1941 is copy B, owned by George Goyder until his death in 1997 (present whereabouts unknown, possibly retained by the Goyder family). That, however, is a Muir facsimile, printed in golden yellow rather than blue or “black” ink and hand colored in imitation of the frontispiece to Europe copy D. The description of the impression in the 1941 auction cat. of Newton’s collection as “inlaid to 4to size” associates it with “The Ancient of Days” copy D, not B. A pencil inscription in the dealer A. S. W. Rosenbach’s copy of the auction cat. notes that #130 is “very red”—a fitting description of the tinting surrounding the figure in “The Ancient of Days” copy D. A. E. Newton’s daughter, Caroline Newton; given by Caroline Newton to the poet W. H. Auden no later than 1954;See Humphrey Carpenter, W. H. Auden: A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981) 376: “He [Auden] and Chester [Kallman] moved in [to a New York City apartment] during February 1954 …. Among the pictures that he and Chester hung on the walls was an original Blake watercolour, ‘The Act of Creation’, which had been a gift from Caroline Newton ….” Auden’s friend, Chester Kallman, upon Auden’s death in 1973; Edward Kallman, Chester Kallman’s father, by gift or bequest no later than 1975 upon his son’s death; Dorothy Farnan, Edward Kallman’s wife, by bequest upon her husband’s death in 1986; given by Farnan c. 2000 to an American private collector, who placed the work on consignment with Windle in April 2016; sold in the same month for $375,000 to Alan Parker, London.

1. “The Ancient of Days” (Europe pl. 1), copy D (see enlargement). Relief and white-line etching, 1794, 2^nd st., printed in blue ink, image and platemark 23.2 x 16.9 cm. on a leaf of wove paper 23.9 x 17.5 cm. Mounted in a window cut into a backing leaf of wove paper, 30.7 x 23.5 cm., pen and ink framing lines on the mount, inscribed in pencil in the lower margin of the mount by an unidentified hand, “From Europe, Frontispiece.” The only known impression of the 1^st st. is in proof copy a in the British Museum. Collection of Alan Parker, London; photo courtesy of John Windle.

The size of this print and the reticulations in the ink indicate that it is a lifetime impression, probably printed by Blake and his wife, Catherine, in 1794. Blake dampened his papers before printing; they would shrink slightly as they dried. Frederick Tatham printed on dry paper and consequently his posthumous impressions are a little larger than Blake’s own. The surface of the ink in Tatham’s prints is much flatter and less reticulated than the intaglio ink of lifetime prints. Neither Catherine, after Blake’s death, nor Tatham is known to have printed in blue ink. The watercolors on the figure and the orange red within the disc of the sun were probably added by an unidentified hand some years after printing, although I cannot rule out the possibility that this tinting was executed by William or Catherine Blake. The tones on the figure are similar to what we see in the frontispieces in Europe copies D, F, and G, although applied with less skill. The blotchy appearance of the washes on the figure’s right upper leg may be the result of later staining or pigment decay. The haphazard coloring in dark rosy red on the rays of light and clouds surrounding the sun is certainly not by either Blake; indeed, it obscures and disrupts part of Blake’s most famous design. For the relationship between this impression and William Muir’s 1887 facsimile of Europe, see Blake 31.4 (spring 1998): 112-13, captions to illus. 2-3.

This “Ancient of Days” may have been printed by Blake as a separate pl. rather than as part of a press-run of copies of Europe. Four other impressions, printed in 3 different colors of ink and without hand coloring by Blake, fit the same production scenario: blue green (Essick), dark blue (Keynes Family Trust, on deposit at the Fitzwilliam Museum), and 2 in reddish brown (Yale Center for British Art and the Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia, the latter with hand tinting not by Blake). An example with questionable hand coloring in the Library of Congress, printed in blue green, brick red, and black, may be an early experiment in printing a single copperplate in multiple colors (Butlin #270). The 2 impressions in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1 with the upper 3^rd of the image trimmed off and 1 with the upper half trimmed off, may also be early printings, c. 1794. Their versos, like the verso of the Yale Center example, were later used by Blake to print individual designs from Jerusalem. The impression in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, may be from a 1794 printing but was elaborately hand colored by Blake near the end of his life (Butlin #271). Butlin #268-69 are Muir facsimiles (see SP 258-60).

For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise copy N (see BBS pp. 78-80). Ten pls. (3-8, 13-15, 17) on 10 leaves of wove paper without watermark, 5^th (final) sts. Windle, on consignment from an American foundation, offered at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April ($350,000); late April, the pls. offered individually at $40,000 each. Pls. 7, 15, and 17 acquired late April by Essick; pl. 3 acquired early May by the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto. Windle, May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #3-8, pls. 4-6, 8, 13, and 14 offered individually ($40,000 each); same 6 pls. and prices, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, all illus. See illus. 2-3.

All 10 pls. previously sold SNY, 9 May 1991, #8, with Blake’s pl. for Ariosto, Orlando furioso, pl. 7 of For the Sexes illus. in black and white ($115,500). Exhibited at the University of Virginia Art Museum, 26 Jan.-31 March 2002, images only of pls. 3, 13, and 15 illus. in the cat., Prints by William Blake: “Portions of the Eternal World,” pp. 15-16. For comments on the 1991 auction, see Blake 25.4 (spring 1992): 144-46.

The skillfully inked and printed impressions in copy N may have been produced in the final lifetime printing of the work. The wove paper without watermark ranges in thickness between 0.21 and 0.25 mm. The J Whatman / 1826 wove paper of copies F-I, all probably posthumous, is a little thinner at 0.17 to 0.18 mm. and has a much smoother texture than the paper of copy N.All measurements of paper thickness were made by me with a blade micrometer calibrated to 0.01 mm. The thickness of the 1826 Whatman paper is based on copy F at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California. Copies F-I are recorded as posthumous in Joseph Viscomi, Blake and the Idea of the Book (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993) 381. In e-mails to me of 8 and 23 May, Viscomi stated that he now believes that copies J (Morgan Library and Museum) and K (Library of Congress) are also posthumous and that all posthumous impressions were probably printed c. 1827-28 by Blake’s widow, Catherine, perhaps with John Linnell’s assistance. Sheelagh Bevan, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Curator, Printed Books and Bindings, at the Morgan Library compared the impressions in copy N with those in copy J. In an e-mail of 11 April to Windle and me, she reported that the impressions of pl. 8 in these 2 copies are of comparable quality, but all other prints in copy N are “superior” in inking and printing to those in copy J. Stephen Tabor, Curator of Early Printed Books at the Huntington, and I came to the same conclusion after comparing all copy N impressions with those in copy F. Posthumous impressions are generally more heavily inked than those in copy N and other lifetime printings. Some posthumous prints show plate tone printed (intentionally or not) from their surfaces; some have gray washes added by hand to create tonal effects.For examples of both plate tone and gray wash, see copy F, pls. 4, 7, 9, 10, and 13 in the Huntington Digital Library at <http://​hdl.​huntington.​org/​cdm/​compoundobject/​collection/​p15150coll3/​id/5133/​rec/​1>, accessed 3 Aug. 2016. The 1991 auction cat. states that the “prints” in copy N are “in good condition apart from a little foxing and minor discoloration.” There are presently 2 spots of foxing in the margin of pl. 4 and a small light-brown stain lower right on pl. 15 just within the platemark. The absence of any other “foxing” or “discoloration” and the whiteness of the paper indicate that the leaves of copy N were cleaned at some time after the 1991 auction. The illus. of pl. 7 in the 1991 auction cat. shows slight dust stains or foxing in the top left corner of the platemark; these are no longer present. The paper apparently shrunk a little when dried after immersion in water and a non-chlorine bleach. This explains why the platemark sizes of copy N are about 1 mm. smaller than those recorded in BB p. 67.

2. For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise copy N, pl. 7, titled “Fire” (see enlargement of design). Etching/engraving, design 8.0 x 6.5 cm., platemark 8.9 x 7.1 cm., leaf of wove paper 12.0 x 9.8 cm. Fifth (final) st. The pl. 1^st executed in 1793, this st. probably c. 1825-26. Essick collection.

The preliminary drawing in Blake’s Notebook associates the figure with Milton’s Satan because of the passage from Paradise Lost, book 1, lines 221-22, inscribed as a caption: “Forthwith upright he [Satan] rears from off the pool / His mighty stature / Milton” (see The Notebook of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman, rev. ed. [N.p.: Readex Books, 1977] N91). In the 1^st and 2^nd sts. of the pl., appearing in copies of For Children: The Gates of Paradise (1793), there are no scales on the figure’s lower torso or in the flames. See For Children copy D in the William Blake Archive for the 2^nd st. In the 3^rd st. (copy B of For the Sexes in the British Museum), Blake has closed the figure’s eyes and eliminated the outline of genitalia in the 2 earlier sts. Large scales have been added to the flames right, left, and above the figure; clusters of short lines on his lower torso may hint at, but do not clearly represent, small scales. Two loops suggesting horns now appear on the top of his head. These changes accord with the description of Fire in “The Keys of the Gates,” added to the work as pls. 19-20 when Blake converted For Children into For the Sexes: Blind in Fire with shield & spear
Two Horn’d Reasoning Cloven Fiction
In Doubt which is Self contradiction
A dark Hermaphrodite We stood
Rational Truth Root of Evil & Good (E 268) In the 4^th st. (see For the Sexes copy D in the Blake Archive), scales are clearly pictured on the figure’s lower stomach. Here in the 5^th st., they have been extended to the figure’s navel. Blake has also added long hatching lines to the lower right leg of this personification of Fire in its final st. The scales and the figure’s triumphant stance associate him with Blake’s portrayal of Satan in Satan Smiting Job with Boils in the Butts series of Job watercolors, c. 1805-06 (Butlin #550.6); see also pl. numbered 6 among the Job engravings and Satan, Sin, and Death: Satan Comes to the Gates of Hell among the Butts series of watercolor illus. to Paradise Lost of 1808 (Butlin #536.2, this design possibly c. 1806).

3. For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise copy N, pl. 15, titled “Fear & Hope are __ Vision” (see enlargement of design). Etching/engraving, design 7.1 x 6.5 cm., platemark 8.0 x 7.1 cm., leaf of wove paper 22.4 x 14.5 cm. Fifth (final) st. The pl. 1^st executed in 1793, this st. probably c. 1825-26. Essick collection.

Each of the 5 sts. of the pl. shows increasing definition and expression in the faces. There is no halo or light rays around the hovering figure in the 1^st and 2^nd sts., published in For Children: The Gates of Paradise, 1793. In the 3^rd st. (For the Sexes copy B in the British Museum), Blake burnished an aura of light around the head and upper body of “The Immortal Man that cannot Die” (“The Keys of the Gates,” E 269). The aura is intensified and diffused over a larger area in the next st. (see copy D in the William Blake Archive), with many slender beams of light added along its left and right edges. The surrounding background and the outer reaches of the illumination above and right of the figure have been darkened in this 5^th st. to create stronger contrasts with the light closer to him, particularly the halo around his head. This “Immortal Man” enveloped in light is similar to Blake’s representation of God in pl. numbered 9 in his Job engravings. In both pls., the interplay of light and darkness becomes a major actor in the drama of fear and vision, death and life. For an illus. of the 2^nd st. and further discussion of the development of the pl. and its iconography, see the 2012 sales review in Blake 46.4 (spring 2013): illus. 1 and its caption.

Songs of Innocence copy J. In the possession of the estate of Maurice Sendak upon his death in May 2012. Legal title to the work granted to the Maurice Sendak Foundation by court order, Oct. 2016. See comments in the prefatory essay.

Songs of Innocence copy W. Pl. 19 (“Holy Thursday”) only, offered by Windle at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April ($150,000); same impression and price, May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #20; same impression, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus. (price on request). Still with Windle, March 2017. See illus. 4. For information about copy W and sales of other pls. from it, see the 2015 sales review, Blake 49.4 (spring 2016): pars. 3-7 and illus. 1-3.

4. “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence copy W (see enlargement of design). Relief etching printed in black ink, 1789. BB pl. 19, 11.4 x 7.7 cm., leaf of wove paper 20.1 x 11.7 cm. Numbered “9” in pencil upper right in an unidentified hand. The weak inking of much of the text on the left suggests that Blake used a relatively large inking ball, like those employed by letterpress printers, insufficiently charged with ink over a roughly triangular area on one side. If Blake had used small inking balls, like the “dolls” used in color printing intaglio pls. à la poupée, the patterns of adequate and inadequate inking would be much smaller. Blake and his wife, Catherine, were already familiar with intaglio inking and printing techniques by 1789, but relief printing was probably new to them. Photo courtesy of John Windle, taken before the vol. was disbound in Oct. 2015.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy H. In the possession of the estate of Maurice Sendak upon his death in May 2012. Legal title to the work granted to the Maurice Sendak Foundation by court order, Oct. 2016. See comments in the prefatory essay.

Drawings and Paintings

The Descent of Man into the Vale of Death, an illus. to Robert Blair’s The Grave. Watercolor, 23.4 x 13.5 cm., datable to 1805. Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2001. SNY, 28 Jan., #184, illus. ($225,000 to an anonymous bidder on the telephone; estimate $200,000-300,000). Previously offered SNY, 2 May 2006, #8, illus. (not sold; highest bid $480,000 on an estimate of $700,000-$1,000,000). The vendor may have been Libby Howie acting for Marburg Ltd., as in the 2006 auction. See illus. 5.

5. The Descent of Man into the Vale of Death (see enlargement). Watercolor, 23.4 x 13.5 cm., datable to 1805. One of Blake’s watercolor illus. for Robert Blair’s The Grave commissioned by Robert H. Cromek in Oct. 1805. Louis Schiavonetti’s engraving, published in Cromek’s 1808 ed. of the poem, is very faithful to this watercolor. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.

For information about 19 of the Grave watercolors, their discovery in 2001, and their appearance at auction in 2006, see Martin Butlin, “New Risen from the Grave: Nineteen Unknown Watercolors by William Blake,” Blake 35.3 (winter 2002): 68-73; SNY, 2 May 2006 cat., William Blake: Designs for Blair’s Grave; E. B. Bentley, “Grave Indignities: Greed, Hucksterism, and Oblivion: Blake’s Watercolors for Blair’s Grave,” Blake 40.2 (fall 2006): 66-71; and Essick, “Blake in the Marketplace, 2006,” Blake 40.4 (spring 2007): 116-26. The Gambols of Ghosts According with Their Affections Previous to the Final Judgement was sold at SNY, 30 Jan. 2013, #285 ($722,500)—see the 2013 sales review in Blake 47.4 (spring 2014): illus. 7. For all 20 Grave watercolors, see the William Blake Archive.

A Girl in Profile, Perhaps Corinna. Pencil, leaf 15.5 x 20.5 cm., from the Smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, c. 1819. Butlin #692.80. DW, 6 Oct., #349, illus. (£15,312.50 to an anonymous bidder on the telephone; estimate £5000-8000). Previously offered CL, 15 June 1971, #146, illus. black and white (“b[ought]t. in” at £441 by “Spurling” according to Butlin), and CL, 20 March 1990, #152, illus. black and white (not sold; estimate £1500-2000).

The Hymn of Christ and the Apostles. Watercolor, 37.7 x 32.2 cm. Butlin #490. SNY, 28 Jan., #176, illus. ($322,000 to Windle for Essick; estimate $200,000-300,000). According to the auction cat., the vendor was a descendant of Dorothy Braude Edinburg of Brookline, Massachusetts (1921–2015). Edinburg’s collection is probably the “Private Collection, U.S.A.” listed by Butlin. For the 1986 court case involving the ownership of this and 18 drawings by other artists owned by Edinburg, see <http://​masscases.​com/​cases/​app/​22/​22massappct199.​html>, accessed 21 July 2016. See illus. 6.

6. The Hymn of Christ and the Apostles (see enlargement). Watercolor, 37.7 x 32.2 cm. on a leaf of wove paper 39.8 x 34.7 cm. Butlin #490, dating the work to c. 1805 on stylistic grounds. Inscribed by Blake lower right “inv / WB” in monogram and “Mark .XIV c 26 v”. Essick collection. In Feb. 2017 the conservator Mark Watters determined that some of the watercolors would become unstable if immersed in water. Thus, the paper could not be cleaned.

The passage illus. describes the activities of Christ and his apostles at and immediately following the Last Supper: “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (Mark 14.26; see also Matthew 26.30). This statement implies that the group sang in the “house” (Matthew 26.18) or “large upper room” (Luke 22.12) where the meal was held and before going to the Mount of Olives, but the background trees and their ovoid fruit in Blake’s design indicate that he has placed the singing in the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the mount. As Butlin points out, this “composition was developed in the last of the illustrations to the Book of Job.”

Christ’s lowered right hand may point toward the tomb, while his raised left hand and eyes direct us toward heaven. Both destinations will soon be his. The knitted brows and slightly saddened expressions of at least two of the apostles, far right and third from left, may be their reaction to what Christ has told them during the Last Supper. The figures with lute and lyre on either side of Christ appear to have feminine breasts and coiffures. They are strikingly similar to the portrayals of Job’s daughters right and left of their father in the final Job design—see particularly the watercolor in the Butts series of c. 1805–06, Butlin #550.21. Has Blake introduced female musicians into the scene, unwarranted by the biblical text? A “woman” anoints Christ in Mark 14.3, but this would seem to be an event at least 1 day earlier than the “evening” of the “passover” feast (Mark 14.16-17). Gender in Blake’s designs is sometimes ambiguous; perhaps these are youthful (androgynous? transgendered?) apostles. The beardless male at the left margin may be John, traditionally believed to be the youngest of Christ’s followers. The letters on the scroll he holds are illegible squiggles, but would nicely suit this scene if they are meant to evoke the words referring to the incarnation in the opening chapter of the Gospel of St. John: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (1.14).

In his letter of 1 Sept. 1800 to George Cumberland, Blake claims that by moving to Felpham he “can be Poet Painter & Musician as the Inspiration comes.”For transcriptions of this letter, see Blake 32.1 (summer 1998): 4-5 and the William Blake Archive at <http://​www.​blakearchive.​org/​copy/​letters?descId=lt1sept1800.1.ltr.02>. All three arts are either literally present or represented in The Hymn of Christ and the Apostles.

Standing King Holding a Sceptre, a Fortified Town Behind. Pencil, leaf 20.5 x 15.5 cm., from the Smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, c. 1819. Butlin #692.74. DW, 6 Oct., #350, illus. (£8330 to an anonymous bidder on the telephone; estimate £5000-8000). Previously sold CL, 15 June 1971, #159, illus. black and white (£210 to “Marks,” probably the book dealer Marks & Co., London); previously offered CL, 20 March 1990, #150, illus. black and white (not sold; estimate £1500-2000).

St. Matthew. Tempera, 37.2 x 25.7 cm., datable to 1799. Butlin #396. Offered at the Biennale des Antiquaires, Paris, 10-18 Sept. (€840,000), according to a notice posted 17 Sept. on the listserv of the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism. I have not been able to discover the dealer who had this painting at the Paris show. Acquired March 2017 by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. For earlier offers and illus., see the 2015 sales review, Blake 49.4 (spring 2016).

The Virgin Hushing the Young Baptist, Who Approaches the Sleeping Infant Jesus. Tempera, 27.0 x 38.2 cm., 1799. Butlin #406. Windle, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus. (price on request). Sold Dec. to Alan Parker, London. For previous offers to sell, see the 2014 and 2015 sales reviews, Blake 48.4 (spring 2015), and Blake 49.4 (spring 2016). For illus. and discussion, see the 2015 review, illus. 7 and its caption.

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, Dec. online cat., marginal stains, framed, illus. (Sept. 2015 price of $65,000 reduced to $42,500). For earlier sales and attempts to sell, see the 2014 sales review, Blake 48.4 (spring 2015).

Separate Plates and Plates in Series

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims.” Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #iv, 5^th st., Colnaghi printing on laid India, “recently cleaned and matted,” illus. ($12,500); same impression, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus. (“sold” to a private collector in Vancouver, British Columbia). An impression of the pl. in the 5^th st. was acquired by Tate Britain in 2016, reference no. P14339, the gift of a descendant of John Giles, Samuel Palmer’s cousin, who owned the copperplate from the 1860s or 1870s until its sale at auction to Colnaghi in Feb. 1881 (see SP 76, 85).

Dante engravings. SA, Jan. 2015 online William Blake, Printmaker cat., #18-22, pls. 2, 3, 5-7 only, 1968 printing, all illus. (pls. 2 and 5 £2650 each, pls. 3, 6, 7 £2300 each). Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #v, pl. 4 only on laid India, probably the 1892 printing, illus. ($12,500); same impression and price, June Short List 3 (New Series), #1, illus.; complete set on consignment from an American foundation, offered at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April, laid paper, chain lines 3.7 cm. apart, pl. 3 with an “A & D” watermark or countermark ($300,000); same set, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus. ($350,000). FM, 14 July, #374, complete set on laid India, pl. 1 with a partial “N” watermark, probably the 1892 printing, all 7 pls. illus. (not sold; highest bid £19,000 on an estimate of £30,000-50,000).

The set on laid paper on consignment with Windle was previously sold from the Doheny Library, 21 Feb. 1989, #1712, pl. 2 illus. ($60,500 to the dealer Donald Heald; acquired by the foundation in 1990). For a discussion of this set as an early printing, see Essick, “The Printings of Blake’s Dante Engravings,” Blake 24.3 (winter 1990-91): 84-85 (lot # in the 1989 auction incorrectly given as 1713). This set was badly foxed when sold in 1989 but was subsequently cleaned. Windle tells me that the pls. offered at FM are the same set offered by Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco at the April 2015 New York Book Fair for $82,500.

“George Cumberland’s Card.” Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #iii, printed in black ink “on thick card … trimmed close to the image,” illus. ($20,000); same impression and price, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus.

Job engravings. SA, Jan. 2015 online William Blake, Printmaker cat., #7-17, pls. numbered 1, 3-6, 8, 11, 16-19 only, 1826 printing on Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, all illus. (£2850 each). Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #ii, complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, loose in a morocco box slightly worn, illus. ($47,500); same copy and price, Feb. list for the California Antiquarian Book Fair, #7; complete set, on consignment from an American foundation, offered at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April, published “Proof” impressions on laid India, loose in portfolio ($125,000); same copy and price, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus.; May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #14-19, pls. numbered 2, 4, 6, 16, 19, 20 offered individually, “Proof” impressions on laid India ($2750-3250 each); June Short List 3 (New Series), #2, pl. numbered 16 only, published “Proof” impression on laid India, illus. ($3250). Cottone auction, Geneseo, New York, 19 March, #350, pl. numbered 4 only, with the “Proof” inscription, possibly an impression on so-called “French” paper, from the estate of Prof. M. H. Abrams, illus. ($2415). De Baecque auction, Paris, 20 April, #55, The Holy Bible, notes by John Kitto (London: Charles Knight, 1847), greatly expanded with extra-illus. to at least 8 vols., vol. 8 only with pp. 469-534, with prints by Blake bound in, including the Job engravings, lacking pls. numbered 9, 11, and 13, 1826 printing on Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, oval pieces of paper pasted over the face of God on pls. numbered 2, 5, 16, and 17, 19^th-century morocco, title page to Job illus. (€3000 to an American private collector); the vol. on consignment with Windle, May ($39,500).Whoever covered God’s face on 4 pls., probably because of religious objections to representing the deity, overlooked the images of God on pls. numbered 14 and 15. Perhaps the pls. numbered 9, 11, and 13 were omitted because they picture God. The other Blake materials in this vol. are pl. 1 (frontispiece) to Hayley, Designs to a Series of Ballads, 1802; the frontispiece to Malkin, Father’s Memoirs of His Child, 1806, imprint trimmed off and mounted on a larger leaf; Schiavonetti’s engravings after Blake for Blair, The Grave, 1808 or 1813, pls. 4, 6, 7, 9, and 11, imprints trimmed off or bound into the gutter; Blake’s pl. in Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809, imprint trimmed off; and Blake’s pl. 10 (the 6^th wood engraving) in Virgil, Pastorals, 1821, a Linnell impression on India paper, trimmed close and mounted on a larger leaf. Windle removed these pls. from the vol. in Sept. and offered the pl. from the 1802 Ballads in his Oct. cat.; see Hayley, Designs to a Series of Ballads, below. Swann, 28 April, #337, pl. numbered 18 only, 1874 printing on laid India, illus. ($3250). SNY, 14 June, #187, complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, “light foxing on a few plates,” housed in a “hinged wooden box with glazed viewing panel,” the same set offered BL, 30 May 2013, #108 (not sold) and 11 July 2013, #215 (not sold), illus. ($18,750).

“Moore & Co.’s Advertisement.” Marlborough Rare Books, Feb. private offer, foxed in the top margin, pinhole right of the right leg of the boy next to the column lower left (acquired by Essick). See illus. 7.

7. “Moore & Co.’s Advertisement” (see enlargement). Etching/engraving by Blake, in part after his own design. Wove paper without watermark, leaf trimmed within the platemark to 31.8 x 28.4 cm., uneven at the top. Datable to c. 1797–98 (see SP 47-48). The inscription between the columns and the Latin quotation from Martial below the design were probably executed by an anonymous writing engraver; the references to the “Loom[s]” and “Frame” and the signature (“Blake. d. & sc:”) immediately below the design were scratched in drypoint by Blake. The st. is probably the same as the only previously recorded impression, British Museum registration no. 1868,0711.439. Differences between these impressions in the clouds upper right are probably the result of inking variations. The drypoint inscriptions are more clearly printed in this impression than in the British Museum example. Discovered early 2016 by Jolyon Hudson of Marlborough Rare Books, London, in a pile of miscellaneous prints; earlier history unknown. Essick collection.

A preliminary pencil sketch in the Fondazione Horne, Florence (Butlin #340 verso) shows that Blake designed all the motifs below the clouds at the top. The upper margin of the drawing is defined by curving lines that suggest drapery rather than clouds. Above in the center are slight pencil indications of the royal arms clearly pictured in the engraving. This motif and the feathers (left) and coat of arms (right) of the Prince of Wales are of course not of Blake’s own design. Blake may have been known to Moore & Co. through his family’s hosiery and haberdashery business, continued by his brother James until about 1812 (see BR[2] 7-8). The spinning wheel and its table-like base in pl. 7 of Blake’s Designs to a Series of Ballads, Written by William Hayley (1802) are basically similar to those pictured here, left of the base of the column on the right. See also the spinning wheels in the Night Thoughts watercolors, Butlin #330.294 and 330.353. The fiery spinning wheels in Jerusalem pl. 59 are much larger in relation to the figures. The carpet rollers lower left and center may have reminded Blake of his own rolling press, a machine that in turn influenced images in his later poetry such as “a wheel to turn the cogs of the adverse wheel” (Milton, E 124). The interwoven etymologies of “textile” and “text” offer another context for investigation. For Blake’s use of weaving and clothmaking imagery in his poetry, see Morton D. Paley, “The Figure of the Garment in The Four Zoas, Milton, and Jerusalem,” Blake’s Sublime Allegory, ed. Stuart Curran and Joseph Anthony Wittreich, Jr. (Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1973) 119-39, and Nelson Hilton, Literal Imagination: Blake’s Vision of Words (Berkeley: U of California P, 1983) 102-26, “Spinning and Weaving [The Text, 1].” For Blake’s engravings that picture carpets with patterns similar to those represented in this advertisement, see Essick, “The Figure in the Carpet: Blake’s Engravings in Salzmann’s Elements of Morality,” Blake 12.1 (summer 1978): 10-14.

“M^rs Q.” Ian Marr, May cat. 14, #4, “small holes in the sky, … acid burning along the edges,” illus. (£300). Probably an original impression rather than the convincing, but slightly smaller, lithographic facsimile (see SP 199-200). The print was sold to a private collector before I could obtain measurements from the dealer.

“Rev. John Caspar Lavater.” DW, 3 March, #278, 3^rd st., trimmed to the image on both sides and at top, in a bundle of approx. 130 engravings by others, illus. (£1254.75; estimate £300-500). Windle, April private offer, 3^rd st., removed from an extra-illus. copy of Blair’s Grave ($1250, sold to an American private collector).

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

Ariosto, Orlando furioso. GP, April online cat., Blake’s pl. only, 1^st st., illus. (£130); another impression, trimmed close, 1^st st., inscriptions top right and left rubbed off, illus. (£95). Windle, May online cat., on consignment from an American foundation, Blake’s pl. only, 1^st or 2^nd st., inscriptions top right and left rubbed off, illus. ($200). EB, Aug., 1799 ed., 5 vols., modern half calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $750); same copy and price, Sept. and again in Oct., illus. Plain Tales Books, Oct. online cat., 1799 ed., 5 vols., three-quarter “leather,” possibly the same as the EB copy ($750). Brimstones, Oct. online cat., 1799 ed., 5 vols., Raymond Lister’s copy with his bookplate in each vol., contemporary calf worn, front cover to vol. 2 detached, bindings illus. (£200). The pl. on consignment with Windle was sold at auction in 1991 in the same lot as For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise copy N—see above under Illuminated Books.

Blair, The Grave. EB, Jan., 1870 Camden Hotten issue of pls. only loose in publisher’s portfolio, scattered marginal foxing, possibly the same copy offered on EB twice in 2014, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £700); Feb., 1808 quarto, scattered foxing, contemporary boards rebacked with calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $2750); July, 1858 New York ed. with the pls. engraved by A. L. Dick, foxed and stained, publisher’s cloth rebacked, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $135 or “best offer,” reduced in several stages to $69); July, pls. 5 and 12 only, 1870 printing with 1813 imprints, leaves 36.0 x 26.0 cm., illus. (£4); Nov., pls. 5 and 10 only from the 1808 quarto, framed, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $350). BHL, 8 March, #148, 1808 “folio” (actually the quarto), “additional 21 illustrations (11 [actually 9] engraved by Blake) pasted-in on endpapers, blank versos of plates and in some margins, … contemporary calf-backed boards” worn, illus. (£600 to Windle for stock).The other Blake materials in this copy are as follows: Blake’s pl. 2 (“Democritus”) from Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1789; the 6 pls. from Mary Wollstonecraft, Original Stories from Real Life, 1791, 2^nd sts.; the portrait frontispiece for David Hartley, Observations on Man, 1791; and “Rev. John Caspar Lavater,” the separate pl., 3^rd st., 1801. Windle removed these pls. from the book and began offering them in April; see the entries for each. James Cummins, April online cat. for the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, no item #, 1808 quarto, “original drab boards, printed paper label on upper cover, untrimmed” ($5500). GP, April online cat., frontispiece portrait of Blake only, Schiavonetti after Phillips, laid India paper impression from the 1808 folio, marginal foxing, illus. (£420). Blue Sage Books, May online cat., 1808 quarto, 2 pls. water damaged, binding not described other than badly worn with front cover detached ($995). BL, 25 May, #62, 1808 quarto, “occasional light spotting and minor finger soiling,” later morocco worn, illus. (£1054). Swann, 14 June, #20, “1813” (actually 1870) folio, scattered foxing, modern quarter morocco, cloth slipcase, illus. ($1063); 1 Dec., #13, 1808 quarto, scattered foxing, “original paper label from publisher’s binding preserved and bound in rear,” later three-quarter morocco, illus. ($1187.50). Potomack Company auction, Alexandria, Virginia, 25 Sept., #570, pls. 5 and 10 only, 1808 imprints, framed, illus. (not sold; highest bid $225 on an estimate of $400-600). David Killen Gallery auction, New York, 25 Sept., #126, pl. 6 only, 1813 imprint, minor foxing, framed, illus. ($525; estimate $100-200). Windle, Oct. list for the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, #6, 1808 quarto uncut in original boards ($9750). Nick Bikoff, Oct. online cat., 1808 quarto, “library markings on reverse side of illustrations,” uncut in later cloth, illus. ($1200). Blue Sage Books, Oct. online cat., 1808 quarto, 2 pls. water stained, “light smudging to pages,” no description of binding other than “front cover is deteriorated and detached” ($995). CNY, 14 Dec., #110, 1808 quarto, portrait of Schiavonetti engraved by Anthony Cardon after Henry Edridge laid in, original boards with printed label on upper cover, rebacked and with “a few leaves disbound,” quarter morocco slipcase, illus. ($1625; estimate $800-1200). See also note 11 and, for a pen and ink copy of pl. 8, the 1^st entry under Interesting Blakeana.

Blair, The Grave, 1808, prepublication proof of pl. 5, “Death of the Strong Wicked Man.” Nicholas Lott, June private offer, before all letters on laid paper trimmed on or just within the platemark to 23.8 x 28.0 cm., lacking some lines and stipple in the image, with pencil lines (most smudged) to indicate work to be added to the copperplate, “old pin-holes at the corners indicating perhaps that it may have been in front of the engraver as he continued his labours” (Lott’s e-mail of 2 June), inscribed in pen and ink on the verso “RUL” or “BUL” (acquired by Essick).

This proof lacks engraved lines or stipple in the flames between the soaring male’s right leg and the woman on the far right, on the soaring male’s eyebrow, on the left leg of the woman hovering over the dying male, on his left hand and upper left arm, on the mountains seen through the window, and on the windowsill. Pencil lines indicate the work to be added on the sill, in the flames in the area noted above, and on the dying man’s left arm just below and above his bicep. There are also pencil lines on the bicep, but nothing was added in that area in the published st. As a result, the bicep is surrounded by darker areas and thus highlighted to emphasize the musculature of this “Strong Wicked Man.” The paper of this proof, 0.21 to 0.25 mm. thick, appears to be the same as that used for the prepublication proof of pl. 4 in my collection; see Essick, “Blake in the Marketplace, 2013,” Blake 47.4 (spring 2014): caption to illus. 15. In both examples, the wire lines are clearly evident but the chain lines are so faint that I have not been able to measure the distance between them.

Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations of … Shakspeare, 1803. Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #ix, publisher’s morocco, illus. ($7500; sold Feb. to the Stanford University Library, Stanford, California). EB, May, Blake’s pl. only, marginal light foxing, water stain along bottom edge, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $2500 or “best offer”). Royoung Bookseller, Aug. online cat., publisher’s morocco, illus. ($4500). Blake’s pl. also appears in Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802—see below.

Bryant, New System … of Ancient Mythology, 2^nd ed., 1775. Xerxes Books, Oct. online cat., vol. 1 only, “full leather” worn and repaired ($190).

Catullus, Poems, 1795. EB, Oct., 2 vols. in 1, imprints trimmed off pls., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $250 or “best offer”).

Darwin, Botanic Garden. SA, Jan. 2015 online William Blake, Printmaker cat., #2 and 3, Blake’s pls. 1 (from a quarto ed.) and 6 (from the 3^rd ed. of Part 1, 1795) only, imprints trimmed off, light marginal stains, both illus. (£580 each). EB, Feb., 4^th ed., 1799, vol. 1 only, stained, contemporary boards with later calf spine, illus. (£126). Rodger Friedman, May online cat., 4^th ed., 1799, 2 vols., contemporary calf worn ($400). Anah Dunsheath, Oct. online cat., 1^st ed. of Part 1, 3^rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols. in 1, 4 pls. (none by Blake) hand colored, contemporary half calf “recased” ($2656). Richard Smith, Oct. online cat., 3^rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4^th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, some pls. foxed in margins, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (£1400). West Grove Books, Oct. online cat., 2^nd ed. of Part 1, 1791, 4^th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (£800). Tintagel Books, Oct. online cat., 4^th ed., 1799, 2 vols., “minor foxing,” quarter buckram over boards dated 1935 ($800). Peachtree & Bennett auction, Atlanta, 12 Nov., #284, Blake’s pl. 1 only, light foxing, illus. ($102.40).

Enfield, The Speaker, 1781. EB, Nov., large margins, contemporary calf, illus. (sold to Essick at the “buy it now” price of $50).

Flaxman, Classical Compositions, 1870. Better World Books, May online cat., “some moisture staining,” half calf (£135). Includes Blake’s pls. for Hesiod and the Iliad.

Flaxman, Hesiod designs, 1817. Swann, 14 June, #50, “scattered foxing, 4 plates damaged,” modern half morocco, with Flaxman’s Iliad and Odyssey designs, 1805, foxed, bound together in three-quarter morocco, illus. ($228). Fonsie Mealy auction, Dublin, 13 Dec., #256, bound with Flaxman’s Aeschylus designs, 1831, with the Iliad and Odyssey designs, 1805, in a 2^nd vol., scattered foxing, fancy 19^th-century morocco, offered mainly “as a binding,” previously reported to be sold for €200 by the same auctioneer, 15 Dec. 2015, #316, illus. (€221.40).

Flaxman, Iliad designs, 1805. PBA Galleries auction, San Francisco, 24 March, #212, with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, both in original boards with cover labels, spines damaged, illus. ($300). EB, June, foxed, 19^th-century half calf very worn, front cover detached, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £100); same copy, June, illus. (£41.13). A Squared Books, Oct. online cat., with Flaxman’s Odyssey, 1805, and Aeschylus, 1831, designs, “light foxing throughout,” bound together in “leather” worn ($590). National Book auction, Freeville, New York, 20 Nov., #3022, with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, 2 vols., both badly foxed, matching half calf, illus. ($137.50).

Fuseli, Lectures on Painting, 1801. Roe and Moore, Oct. online cat., uncut and unopened in “contemporary” (original?) boards, water stains in the margin of Blake’s pl. and elsewhere (£280).

Gay, Fables. Heritage auction, New York, 6 April, #45282, 1793 ed., 2 vols., with Aesop, Fables, 1793, 2 vols., uniformly bound in half morocco, illus. ($875). Strand Book Store, May online cat., [1811] ed., 2 vols. in 1, “mild foxing throughout,” full calf worn ($250). EB, May, [1811] ed., 2 vols., scattered marginal foxing, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $450); Oct.-Nov., 1793 ed., 2 vols., later 19^th-century calf, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £499.95); Dec., [1811] ed., 2 vols., later morocco, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $1850 or “best offer”). Swann, 14 June, #114, 1793 ed., 2 vols., calf rebacked, slipcase, with 4 vols. unrelated to Blake, illus. ($875). Sanctuary Books, Oct. online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., contemporary morocco worn ($1250). Johnnycake Books, Oct. online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols., foxed, later calf, illus. ($975). Antiquariat Heiner Henke, Oct. online cat., 1793 ed., 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf (€750). Eclectic Tastes Books, Oct. online cat., [1811] ed., 2 vols., “leather” worn ($650).

Gough, Sepulchral Monuments, 1786. Rickaro Books, Oct. online cat., 2 vols. in 5, water stains and foxing, half “leather” worn, some covers detached ($504.68, but now “out of stock”); same copy, C. W. Harrison & Son auction, Ossett, West Yorkshire, 9 Nov., #378A, bindings illus. (£731.25; estimate £150-250).

Hartley, Observations on Man, 1791. Windle, April private offer, Blake’s pl. (frontispiece portrait of Hartley) only, horizontal creases, removed from an extra-illus. copy of Blair’s Grave ($750).

Hayley, Ballads, 1805. Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #viii, 1^st sts. of the pls., “original drab gray boards, printed paper label,” illus. ($10,500); same copy and price, Feb. list for the California Antiquarian Book Fair, #6; same copy, May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #9 ($6500); #10-13, pls. 1, 3-5 offered individually, 1^st sts. ($975 each); same 4 pls. and prices offered individually, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, illus. LK, Nov. online cat., pls. 1-3 only, 1^st sts., marginal dust stains, all illus. (£325 for pl. 1, £295 each for pls. 2 and 3). See also Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, below.

Hayley, Designs to a Series of Ballads, 1802. BL, 21 April, #175, pl. 1 only, the frontispiece, published st., lightly foxed throughout and with a brown stain within the image just above the eagle’s left wing, “framed and glazed with gallery label of P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. on backboard,” illus. (£9920 to Nicholas Lott of LK; estimate £1000-1500); same impression, LK, Dec. online cat., leaf 25.3 x 20.9 cm., now said to be from Douglas Cleverdon’s collection, illus. (price on request). Windle, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, pl. 1 only, published st., leaf 25.0 x 17.4 cm., impression removed from an 1847 extra-illus. Bible (see under Job engravings, above), illus. ($49,500).

Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803-04. Windle, April private offer, pl. 4 only, 4^th st. from the 2^nd ed. ($250). EB, Aug., pls. 1-2 only, 1^st sts., imprint on pl. 1 trimmed off, illus. (£3). George Jeffery, Oct. online cat., 2^nd ed., vols. 1-2 only bound in 1, later quarter calf, illus. (£120). Peachtree & Bennett auction, Atlanta, 12 Nov., #282, pl. 1 only, 1^st st., illus. ($32); #371, pl. 2 only, 1^st st., illus. ($12.80); #373, pl. 4 only, 2^nd st., stained, illus. ($1.28).

Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. Thomson Roddick & Medcalf auction, Carlisle, Cumbria, 14 Jan., #232, with “another [vol.] re. Romney,” later calf, illus. (£152.75). Biddle & Webb auction, Birmingham, 9 July, #27, contemporary half calf worn, with 2 unrelated vols., illus. (£24.30). DW, 14 Sept., #269, contemporary calf worn, with an unrelated vol. of Matthew Prior’s poems (£122.50). See also note 11 and, for preliminary sketches for the design engraved by Blake, the 1^st entry under Romney, below.

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803. Libreria Malavasi, Oct. online cat., bound with Thomas Campbell, The Pleasures of Hope, 1800, contemporary calf (€250). CNY, 14 Dec., #111, large-paper copy, lacking the half-title, “occasional light spotting,” contemporary calf, with Hayley, Ballads, 1805, lacking pls. 1, 3, and 5, contemporary calf rebacked, and Malkin, Father’s Memoirs of His Child, 1806, some marginal soiling, uncut in original boards worn and rebacked, illus. ($1625 to Windle for stock; estimate $600-800).

Hoare, Inquiry, 1806. FM, 8 Dec., #64, Blake’s pl. stained, original boards uncut, with 3 unrelated vols., illus. (not sold; estimate £300-400).

Hogarth, The Beggar’s Opera by Hogarth and Blake, 1965. J. Hood, Feb. online cat., publisher’s portfolio worn ($900). Swann, 14 June, #166, title page foxed, publisher’s portfolio worn, illus. (not sold; estimate $350-500).

Hogarth, Works. SA, Jan. 2015 online William Blake, Printmaker cat., #1, Blake’s pl. only trimmed to the image, probably 3^rd st., illus. (£400). Storey’s, Jan. online cat., Blake’s pl. only, st. uncertain but possibly 4^th, illus. (£83). Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, Feb. online cat., Blake’s pl. only from a “Baldwin and Cradock” ed. of “circa 1838” (thus 5^th or 6^th st.?), “some foxing,” illus. ($500). EB, March-April, Blake’s pl. only, 6^th st., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €57.49); May-June, Blake’s pl. only, a late st. (6^th or 7^th?) very worn, leaf badly cockled, illus. ($25); Aug., Blake’s pl. only, 3^rd st., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $199.99 or “best offer”; acquired by Windle for stock); Sept., Blake’s pl. only, st. uncertain but probably 5^th or later, marginal foxing, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $599). David Brass, May online cat., issue with the pls. restored by Heath, n.d., 116 leaves of pls., contemporary calf rebacked ($2500). Windle, Oct. exhibition and sales cat., no item #, 3^rd st., the impression acquired on EB (see above), illus. ($3500). Charles Russell, Oct. online cat., 1822 ed., 119 pls., scattered foxing, “binding worn with boards detached,” illus. (£2250). Sophie Schneideman, Oct. online cat., undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 116 leaves of pls., 19^th-century half morocco worn, illus. (£2600). Sequitur Books, Oct. online cat., undated Baldwin and Cradock issue, 116 leaves of pls., foxed, contemporary half morocco very worn, front cover detached, illus. ($1960). Taylor’s auction, Montrose, Scotland, 10 Dec., #1035, Blake’s pl. only, a late st. showing wear, illus. (£6.25).

Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793. DW, 27 Jan., #135, quarto issue, “a few tears and repairs,” contemporary half calf rebacked, apparently not the same copy sold DW, 10 June 2015, #11, for £920, Blake’s pl. illus. (£1147.20). Hordern House, May online cat., quarto issue, “period-style calf,” illus. ($7850 Australian). Berkelouw, May online cat., quarto issue, some foxing, contemporary calf ($7500 Australian). McIlreavy.Buderim Rare Books, May online cat., octavo issue, some margins foxed, modern “leather” ($2090 Australian). Mossgreen auction, Armadale, Australia, 18 June, #58, quarto issue, few stains, modern calf, illus. ($3810 Australian). Roger Middleton, Oct. online cat., quarto issue, Blake’s pl. badly foxed in margins, modern half calf, illus. (£1750).

Josephus, Works. EB, May, BB issue E, dated to “?1792-3” in BBS p. 228, 2 vols., contemporary calf very worn, front cover of vol. 1 detached, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $200); June, same copy, starting bid, and result; Sept., Blake’s 3 pls. only, 2^nd sts., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £27.99 each); Nov., another copy of BB issue E, contemporary calf very worn, front cover detached, illus. (£156).

Kimpton, History of the Holy Bible, c. 1781. Infinitebooks, Oct. online cat., leaves soiled, “plates are belived [sic] to be present but may miss one or two,” contemporary calf very worn, title page illus. (£143.24); same copy, BoundlessBookstore, Oct. online cat., title page illus. (£90).

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy. EB, Jan., Blake’s pl. 2 only, tear in lower margin, illus. ($152.50); Blake’s pl. 3 only, illus. ($122.50); Feb., “1792” (c. 1818) ed., 3 vols. in 5, Blake’s pl. 2 foxed, contemporary calf worn, illus. ($305); March, 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $1650); April, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary calf worn, 2 covers detached, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £745 quickly reduced to £590); same copy, May, illus. (£292); Sept.-Oct., 1810 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary calf, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $500); same copy, Oct.-Nov., illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $300); Dec., 1789-98 ed., vol. 1 only, scattered foxing on most pls., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (£122). Windle, April private offer, Blake’s pl. 2 (“Democritus”) only, removed from an extra-illus. copy of Blair’s Grave ($400). BL, 28 April, #233, 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary Russia rebacked, illus. (“withdrawn”; estimate £400-500). Swann, 14 June, #75, apparently only vols. 1-2, 1789-92, of the 3-vol. 1789-98 ed., “scattered infrequent soiling,” contemporary half vellum, illus. ($1063). Sam Gatteño, Nov. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary Russia ($2500). Whitmore Rare Books, Nov. online cat., 1789-98 ed., 3 vols. in 5, contemporary Russia repaired ($950). Blake’s 4 pls. are in vol. 1.

Malkin, Father’s Memoirs of His Child, 1806. Vashon Island Books, Nov. online cat., “a second frontis sheet [i.e., the pl. based in part on Blake’s design] is laid-in,” inscribed in pen and ink on the half-title “M. & L. Ellis- / From A. T. Malkin” (the author’s third son, Arthur Thomas Malkin, 1803-88), scattered foxing, uncut in original boards rebacked with paper ($1000 to Windle acting for Essick). Windle, Nov. online cat., uncut in modern half morocco, illus. ($1875). See also Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, above, and note 11 for an impression of Blake’s pl.

One of the 2 impressions of the pl. of Blake’s design in the Vashon Island/Essick copy is bound following the title page, rather than in its usual position as a frontispiece facing the title page, and is inscribed “Page” top right in the copperplate with any following number, if present, cut off by the right edge of the leaf. Apparently the engraver, Robert H. Cromek, believed that this pl. was meant to be bound internally in the vol. facing a numbered page. Two unsigned pls. in the book include similar “Page” inscriptions top right, each followed by a number. When Blake’s pl. was converted to a frontispiece, the “Page” inscription was scraped and burnished off the copper. This is the only impression known to me of the pl. with the “Page” inscription. It may not have been published in the book but inserted into this copy when it was rebacked. The leaf measures 22.9 x 14.1 cm., whereas the text leaves in this and other uncut copies of the book are 24.9 x 15.0 cm. The other impression, on a leaf 23.2 x 14.0 cm., is in the usual published state, without “Page.” It was formerly bound following the title page but had become detached when I acquired the vol. Both impressions are on the wove paper used in other copies.

Novelist’s Magazine, 1782. GP, April online cat., Blake’s pls. 1-2 from vol. 8, 1^st sts., imprints trimmed off, illus. (£95 each); Blake’s pl. 3 from vol. 9, probably 1^st st., trimmed to the image, only the cartouche below the design retained from the framing motifs, illus. (£75).

Olivier, Fencing Familiarized, 1780. C. M. Garrido, May online cat., later half morocco, illus. (€1125). Clarendon Books, May online cat., “boards detached” (£395). Collinge & Clark, May online cat., lacking 3 pls. but with Blake’s, contemporary morocco (£1850). Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco, Nov. online cat., modern quarter calf, illus. (€1350).

Rees, Cyclopædia, London, 1820. GP, April online cat., 2 impressions of Blake’s pl. 2, 1 with imprint trimmed off, both illus. (£110 each); another impression of Blake’s pl. 2, imprint trimmed off, illus. (£45).

Rees, Cyclopædia, published in Philadelphia by Samuel F. Bradford and Murray, Fairman and Co., n.d. (c. 1811-22). EB, June, “Sculpture. plate i ” only, same design as Blake’s pl. 4 in the London ed., image including inscriptions 24.7 x 17.6 cm. on a leaf of wove paper 29.4 x 22.5 cm., water stain lower right, illus. ($29.99 to Essick). Eat My Words Books, Aug. online cat., complete in 47 vols., contemporary calf very worn, some covers detached, illus. ($9000). Sequitur Books, Aug. online cat., complete in 47 vols., contemporary quarter calf worn, most covers detached, illus. ($6860, reduced to $4900 in Dec.). Copies of Blake’s 7 pls. for the London ed. appear without imprints in this “First American Edition” (title pages). The pls. are signed by their engravers as follows: “C. G. Childs, Sc^t” (bottom center, copy of Blake’s pl. 1), “G. M.” (lower right, copies of Blake’s pls. 2, 3, 5-7), and “G M” (lower right, copy of Blake’s pl. 4). These are the Philadelphia engravers Cephas G. Childs, 1793-1871, and George Murray, active from 1800 until his death in 1822. Murray joined with Fairman and Co. in 1810-11 to create a partnership that copublished the American ed. of Rees. The dates of the partnership, dissolved upon Murray’s death, provide the date range given above for the publication of this undated ed.Information about these engravers is taken from David McNeely Stauffer, American Engravers upon Copper and Steel, 2 vols. (New York: Grolier Club, 1907) 1: 47-48, 186-87.

The American pls. are close copies of Blake’s, but there are differences in facial expressions, shading, the distances between motifs, and letter formation and spacing. In the copy of Blake’s pl. 4, “Statues” is on the 1^st line of the inscription below “Jupiter Olympius,” bottom center; in Blake’s pl., the word appears in the 2^nd line of text.  

Remember Me!, 1825. Windle, Feb. list for the California Antiquarian Book Fair, #8, no description of the binding ($30,000); same copy and price, Oct. list for the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, #3. This is the copy in full calf by the Parisian binder Purgold listed in the 2015 sales review; see Blake 49.4 (spring 2016).

Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. Librairie Pottier, May online cat., 3 vols., contemporary morocco (€900).

Salzmann, Elements of Morality, 1799. Auctionata auction, New York, 28 April, #17, 3 vols., some pls. lightly stained, contemporary calf, illus. (no bids on an estimate of $1700-2210); same copy, 17 May, #21, illus. ($562.50).

Scott, Poetical Works, 1782. GP, April online cat., Blake’s pl. 4 only, illus. (£160). W. Hornby, Nov. online cat., 19^th-century calf, newer spine (£150).

Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802. Erasmushaus, May online cat., 9 vols., with Boydell’s Collection of Prints … Illustrating the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare, 1803, contemporary morocco ($37,792). Daniel Crouch, May cat., no item #, 9 vols., contemporary morocco, illus. (not priced). Swann, 14 June, #78, 9 vols., scattered foxing, 19^th-century half morocco, illus. ($7500). DW, 15 June, #349, 9 vols. in “18 original parts of text, … untrimmed, original plain turquoise blue boards, with original printed label to upper cover of each volume,” the pls. “all loose (presumably as issued) … loosely contained in original calf-backed boards, worn,” illus. (not sold; estimate £2000-3000). SL, 12 July, #49, 9 vols., pls. foxed, contemporary morocco worn, illus. (apparently withdrawn; estimate £1500-2000); same copy, 13 Dec., #121, illus. (not sold; highest bid £1400 on the same estimate); another copy, 13 Dec., #55, 9 vols., contemporary morocco, “some light spotting and browning,” illus. (£5250). Some of these copies may not contain Blake’s pl., which also appears in Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations of … Shakspeare, 1803—see above.

Shakespeare, Plays. Henry Adams auction, Chichester, 13 Jan., #444, 1811 ed., 9 vols., contemporary calf very worn, with Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, 2 vols., 1807, illus. (£24.40). Schoolhouse Books, May online cat., 1805 ed., 9 vol. issue, “leather” worn (£400). EB, May, 1805 ed., 9 vol. issue, some stains on pls., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. ($475). Swann, 14 June, #80, 1805 ed., 9 vol. issue extended to 12 vols. with the addition of “over 700” extra illus., 19^th-century three-quarter morocco, illus. ($1625). Spiegel-Bestseller via Amazon.de, Nov. online cat., 1811 ed., 9 vols., scattered foxing, contemporary calf worn, illus. (€1724.25); same copy, MW Books, Nov. online cat. ($1719.25). Charles Russell, Nov. online cat., 1805 ed., 10 vol. issue, “some spotting,” contemporary calf worn, illus. (£375). Keogh’s Books, Nov. online cat., 1805 ed., 9 vol. issue, contemporary calf worn, illus. (£150). GP, Nov. online cat., Blake’s pls. only, imprints trimmed off, marginal stains on pl. 1, illus. (£260 for pl. 1, £360 for pl. 2).

Stedman, Narrative, colored copies. Eureka Books on EB, Jan., 1813 ed., 2 vols., later half calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $9374.95 or “best offer”); same copy and price, Feb.; same copy, March, priced at $12,499.95; same copy and price, April; same copy, Eureka Books, Nov. online cat. ($10,000). Pennymead Books, Nov. online cat., 1806 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (£15,120).

Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies. Argosy Book Store, May online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., foxed, imprints “partially cropped” on some pls., Blake’s pl. 8 “amateurishly colored,” modern calf ($4000). EB, June, Blake’s pl. 1 only, stained, illus. ($102.50); July, Blake’s pl. 3 only, stained and creased, illus. ($22.50); July-Aug., Blake’s pl. 6 only, stained, illus. ($125); Aug., Blake’s pl. 8 only, badly stained, illus. ($103.50); Sept., Blake’s pl. 2 only, stained, illus. ($213.01); Sept.-Oct., Blake’s pl. 8 only, most of imprint trimmed off, minor foxing, illus. ($152.50). Windle, July “Short List 4 (New Series),” #20, 1813 ed., 2 vols. in 1, early marbled boards rebacked with calf, the copy sold at a Bonham’s auction, Oxford, 24 March 2015, #291, for £937, illus. ($6750). Bow Windows Bookshop, Aug. online cat., 1806 ed., 2 vols. in 1, many imprints trimmed off the pls., foxed, some damp stains, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, illus. (£2950). SNY, 26 Oct., #283, 1796 ed., 2 vols., pls. foxed, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, illus. (not sold; highest bid $2400 on an estimate of $3500-4500). Antiquariat Düwal, Nov. online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., 19^th-century half calf, badly foxed, illus. (€5280). Sue Lowell Books, Nov. online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., foxed and stained, recent half calf, previously listed at £7500 (£3500). Elaine Beardsell, Nov. online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., lacking Blake’s pl. 16 and 2 others not by Blake, scattered foxing, contemporary calf rebacked, binding illus. (£1950). Doyle auction, New York, 22 Nov., #70, 1796 ed., 2 vols., lacking Blake’s pl. 16, most imprints trimmed off, scattered foxing on pls., contemporary calf very worn, front cover of vol. 1 detached, illus. ($687.50). Bauman Rare Books, Dec. online cat., 1796 ed., 2 vols., later calf, previously offered at $8500, illus. ($5500).

Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens. CL, 9 March, #377, 1762-94, 3 vols., some stains and tears, contemporary Russia worn, illus. (£6875). Sotheran’s, March Highlights cat., #5, 1762-1816, 4 vols., early 19^th-century morocco rebacked, illus. (£18,000); same copy and price, July cat., Two Hundred Years of Bookselling in London, #1, illus. SL, 15 Nov., #185, 1762-1830, 5 vols., scattered foxing, 19^th-century half morocco worn, illus. (£15,000). Blake’s 4 pls. are in vol. 3 of 1794.

Varley, Zodiacal Physiognomy, 1828. Odyssey Books, Jan. online cat., Blake’s pls. 2-3 in their 2^nd sts., some pls. stained, later cloth, illus., previously offered June 2013 online cat. for $10,500 ($6800, reduced to $6375 in Dec.). Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #vii, Blake’s pls. 2-3 in their 1^st sts. before the addition of page references, presentation inscription from Varley to Martin Archer Shee, “original boards, covers re-attached, plates cleaned,” folding box, illus. ($10,950); same copy and price, Feb. list for the California Antiquarian Book Fair, #12 (acquired by Essick). DW, 14 Sept., #282, lacking Blake’s pl. 1, his pl. 3 in 1^st st., several torn leaves with repairs, stained, “page block becoming loose in near contemporary half cloth over marbled boards, soiled and worn,” Blake’s pl. 3 illus. (£2511.25 to Windle for stock on an estimate of £500-800). For further information about the Windle/Essick copy, see the 2015 sales review in Blake 49.4 (spring 2016).

Vetusta Monumenta, vol. 2, c. 1789. EB, June, the Ayloffe essay with the Basire/Blake pls. along with “twenty engraved plates and twenty leaves (40 pp.) of letterpress from vols. I-III of the Society of Antiquaries’ Vetusta Monumenta,” some marginal tears and scattered foxing, contemporary quarter calf worn, illus. ($455).

Virgil, Pastorals, 1821. SA, Jan. 2015 online William Blake, Printmaker cat., #4-5, Blake’s pls. 13 and 8 (the 9^th and 4^th wood engravings) only, Linnell impressions on laid India, printed “circa May 1892” according to this cat., “believed to have been formerly in the possession of John Linnell’s great grandson,” both illus. (£1250 each). Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #i, 2 vols., “presentation copy inscribed by Thornton to his daughter,” publisher’s sheep slightly worn, illus. ($67,500); same copy and price, Feb. list for the California Antiquarian Book Fair, #11; same copy and price, May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #21; same copy and price, Oct. list for the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, #7. LK, June online cat., no entry #, Blake’s 4^th wood engraving on laid India, “one of a small number of impressions printed for John Linnell Jnr in or around May 1892,” leaf 8.7 x 12.6 cm., illus. (£950). The inscription in pen and ink in Windle’s copy reads “Presented to M^rs Goldsworthy / as a Mark of his regard & / esteem to her his eldest daughter / R.^t John Thornton M. D.” For more information on the LK print, see the 2011 sales review, Blake 45.4 (spring 2012). See also note 11.

Virgil, The Wood Engravings of William Blake for Thornton’s Virgil, 1977. SA, Jan. 2015 online William Blake, Printmaker cat., #6, with the prospectus, publisher’s box (£3750). Windle, Dec. online cat., with the prospectus, publisher’s box, illus. ($12,500).

Wit’s Magazine, 1784. GP, April online cat., Blake’s pl. 4 only, imprint trimmed off, illus. (£180).

Wollstonecraft, Original Stories, 1791. Windle, May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #22, Blake’s 6 pls. only, 2^nd sts., imprints trimmed off, removed from an extra-illus. copy of Blair’s Grave ($3000).

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797. James Cummins, April online cat. for the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, no item #, lacking the “Explanation” leaf, full morocco ($12,000); same copy, May online cat. ($12,500). Windle, on consignment from an American foundation, offered at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April, with the “Explanation” leaf, contemporary quarter calf ($15,000); pls. 17, 22, 29, and 43 offered individually, May online cat. for the London Book Fair, #23-26 ($495 each for pls. 17, 22, and 29, $995 for pl. 43). Swann, 14 June, #19, leaves trimmed to 42.0 x 31.8 cm., “Explanation” leaf “supplied in facsimile and laid in,” 19^th-century morocco, cloth slipcase, illus. ($7500); 1 Dec., #14, with the “Explanation” leaf and the rare 1^st st. of pl. 11 (fly-title to Night the Second), leaves trimmed to 41.0 x 31.8 cm., “contents dampstained but professionally restored,” some soiling, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. ($4000). DW, 20 July, #277, leaves trimmed to 40.8 x 32.0 cm., light spotting and small tears in 3 leaves, lacking the “Explanation” leaf, contemporary morocco worn with covers detached, illus. (£2572.50). Neal auction, New Orleans, 24 Sept., #143, with the “Explanation” leaf, “gilt-tooled leather,” possibly the copy sold for $2600 at a Neal auction, 4 Dec. 2004, #92, offered with the 1960 Blake Trust/Trianon Press facsimile of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and the 1875 reproduction of Blake’s Job engravings ed. Charles Eliot Norton, illus. ($6400). Heritage Book Shop, Nov. online cat., with the “Explanation” leaf “supplied in facsimile,” scattered light foxing, with “tissue guards between nearly every leaf,” 19^th-century morocco with “all edges gilt,” slipcase, probably the copy sold Swann, 14 June, noted above ($15,000). CL, 30 Nov., #281, lacking the “Explanation” leaf, letterpress “title [page] printed on laid paper watermarked with a fleur-de-lys” rather than the usual wove paper, leaves 42.4 x 32.7 cm. “with deckle edges,” some soiling, the Herschel V. Jones copy previously sold from the Doheny Library, CNY, 21 Feb. 1989, #1707, for $4950, later morocco worn, illus. (£3750). CNY, 14 Dec., #109, with the “Explanation” leaf, uncut in original boards worn, upper cover detached, cloth folding case, illus. ($21,250; estimate $8000-12,000).

Interesting Blakeana

The Day of Judgment. Unattributed pen and ink copy, 29.2 x 22.9 cm., of Blake’s pl. 8 in Blair, The Grave, 1808. AH, April online cat. 457, #23, “on tracing paper,” dating the work to “circa 1810,” illus. (£375, acquired by a private collector). The cat. gives no reason for the early dating. If a tracing, why are the dimensions given by AH, apparently of the design rather than the leaf, larger than Schiavonetti’s 27.7 x 22.3 cm. engraving?

Possibly a portrait of Blake’s wife, Catherine, attributed to John Linnell, c. 1820. See Profile of a Woman, Eyes Turned Upward, under Linnell, below, and illus. 8.

A Destroying Deity: A Winged Figure Grasping Thunderbolts, Butlin #778, dating the work to c. 1820-25. An unattributed pencil copy, 20.0 x 28.0 cm. on laid paper with an 1801 watermark, of Blake’s wash drawing in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. EB, April, drawing and watermark illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $175); again in April, illus. ($95). Blake’s own pencil sketch of the same figure, with variants, is in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, accession no. B1977.14.6079 (not in Butlin because not attributed to Blake until 1997).

Archangel Michael and Lucifer Arguing over the Body of Moses. Monochrome wash, 24.8 x 21.6 cm., inscribed lower left in pen and ink “WBlake. / 1824.” Nye & Company auction, Bloomfield, New Jersey, 18 May, #266, illus. (not sold; estimate $40,000-60,000). Probably by a professional artist of the period, but not by Blake. A loop over the first 3 letters of the inscription suggests an attempt to imitate a characteristic feature of Blake’s WB monogram.

W. Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Pickering ed., 1839. Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #x, issue lacking “The Little Vagabond,” Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s copy, publisher’s cloth worn, illus. ($27,500); same copy and price, Feb. list for the California Antiquarian Book Fair, #10 (sold Feb. to the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois); another copy, Oct. list for the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair, #4, apparently lacking “The Little Vagabond,” 1^st publisher’s binding ($17,500). SNY, 14 June, #7, issue with “The Little Vagabond,” Robert Browning’s copy, title page inscribed in ink “W A Dow to / his friend Browning / Augt 3, 1839,” publisher’s cloth, “spine faded, … cloth case,” from the collection of Gerald N. Wachs, title page illus. ($9375 to Jerry Kelly, New York). For details about the Rossetti copy, see the 2015 sales review, Blake 49.4 (spring 2016). Browning’s friendship with the lawyer William Alexander Dow began “after 1835”; see The Poems of Browning, ed. John Woolford and Daniel Karlin (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014) 1: 339.

C. Varley, A Treatise on Optical Drawing Instruments, 1845. Ken Spelman, Aug. cat. 91, #40, publisher’s cloth bit worn, binding illus. (£650). Describes (pp. 33-54) and illustrates (pls. VIII-X) the graphic telescope, Cornelius Varley’s invention that his brother John Varley and John Linnell may have used to copy some of Blake’s Visionary Heads. For discussion, see Martin Butlin, “Blake, the Varleys, and the Patent Graphic Telescope,” William Blake: Essays in Honour of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, ed. Morton D. Paley and Michael Phillips (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1973) 294-304. Butlin quotes C. Varley’s 1811 patent for the graphic telescope, but he does not cite this Treatise, now available on Google Books.

A. Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 1863, extra-illus. copies only. Windle, June “Short List 3 (New Series),” #4, 2 vols., 34 added pls., 19^th-century calf, illus. ($3500). See the 2012 and 2014 sales reviews in Blake 46.4 (spring 2013) and Blake 48.4 (spring 2015) for details.

Blake, Poetical Sketches, Pickering ed., 1868. Peter Harrington, Jan. online cat., publisher’s cloth and spine label, illus. (£750); another copy, rebound in morocco by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, illus. (£850). The 2^nd printing of the work, preceded only by the privately printed ed. of 1783.

Walt Whitman, autograph letter signed to “My dear Swinton” (John Swinton, managing editor of the New York Times), dated 31 March 1868, 1 p. CNY, 16 June, #143, illus. ($3750). The body of the letter reads as follows: “Could you send me two or three copies of the Sunday edition, Times, March 29—containing Swinburne’s William Blake—or any other edition—(Weekly or Semi Weekly) containy [sic] that article? —Or, if plenty, send me half a dozen copies. Direct.” Whitman is referring to an unsigned article, titled “Swinburne’s William Blake,” published in the 29 March 1868 issue of the Times. This essay quotes a passage in A. C. Swinburne, William Blake. A Critical Essay (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868), pp. 300-03, comparing Blake and Whitman. For discussions of Blake, Whitman, and Swinton, see Gary Schmidgall, Containing Multitudes: Walt Whitman and the British Literary Tradition (New York: Oxford UP, 2014) 162-63, and Sarah Ferguson-Wagstaffe, “‘Points of Contact’: Blake and Whitman,” <https://​www.​rc.​umd.​edu/​praxis/​sullenfires/​sfw​/sfw_essay.​html>, par. 5 (accessed 17 May 2016).

Century Guild Hobby Horse, 1884, 1886-94. Sims Reed, Oct. cat., #14, complete with all issues, vols. 1-3, 5-6 in “publisher’s vellum backed boards,” all others in original wrappers, illus. (£7500). Includes the first letterpress printings of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and The Book of Los, Muir’s facsimile of Little Tom the Sailor (see below under Muir facsimiles), and reproductions of On Homers Poetry [and] On Virgil and three of Blake’s wood engravings for Virgil’s Pastorals.

W. Muir facsimiles of Blake’s works, 1884-88, 1927. James Cummins, Jan. private offer, a large collection of Muir facsimiles, including all titles of the 1880s (see BB pp. 488-89) with some duplicates, some rebound, some bound together (prices on request). Many of these copies were offered in Windle’s Oct. 2009 William Blake cat. 46, #233 ($245,000 for the collection; acquired by a private American collector). See the 2009 sales review in Blake 43.4 (spring 2010): 133, for the vols. offered in Windle’s cat. A selection of these facsimiles was acquired from Cummins in Feb. by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. Cummins offered 9 remaining titles in his online cat. for the New York Antiquarian Book Fair, 7-10 April, each with 1 pl. illus., copy nos. not indicated unless noted here: #8, America, 1887, colored copy, modern boards with original wrappers retained ($9000); #9, Europe, 1887, copy no. 38, original wrappers ($11,000); #10, Milton, 1886, “in a special binding by Roger de Coverly” ($12,500); #11, Songs of Innocence, copy no. 47, and Songs of Experience, 1884-85, bound together in vellum ($12,500); #12, The Book of Thel, bound with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, and There is No Natural Religion, 1885-86, vellum ($12,500). Another Cummins online cat. for the April New York fair includes the following additional Muir facsimiles, no item #: The Gates of Paradise, 1888, original wrappers, illus. ($6000); Century Guild Hobby Horse, vol. 1, 1886, with Muir’s facsimile of Little Tom the Sailor, contemporary quarter morocco, illus. ($1750); Songs of Innocence with Songs of Experience, both 1927, 2 vols., original wrappers with cloth slipcase, illus. ($9000); There is No Natural Religion, 1886, copy no. 40, original wrappers, folding case, illus. ($2750); Visions of the Daughters of Albion, 1885, copy no. 49, original wrappers, folding case, illus. ($3500). Cummins, June cat. 132, #14, 15, 17, 18, 20, and 23, the copies of America, The Book of Thel bound with three other facsimiles, Europe, The Gates of Paradise, Milton, and Songs of Innocence with Songs of Experience, both 1927, as listed above for the Cummins April cats., all illus. (same prices), plus #16, The Book of Thel, copy no. 38, full morocco with the wrappers retained, illus. ($3750); #19, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, inscribed “for the Times,” later cloth with the wrappers retained, illus. ($3500); #21, Songs of Experience, 1927, copy no. 25, original wrappers, illus. ($2500); #22, Songs of Innocence, 1927, copy no. 47, with Songs of Experience, 1927, bound together in vellum, wrappers not retained, illus. ($12,500); and #24, Visions of the Daughters of Albion, 1884, full morocco, wrappers not retained, illus. ($4000). Windle, Feb. cat. 64, #vi, Songs of Innocence, 1884, copy no. 49, original wrappers, with Songs of Experience, 1885, copy no. 32, original wrappers, illus. ($15,000); same 2 copies, Honey & Wax Booksellers, Dec. online cat., now “housed together in custom chemises and half-morocco slipcase,” illus. ($14,500). Windle, April online cat., “a complete set of the Muir facsimiles … 1884-87,” bound in 2 vols., folio and quarto, full morocco with original wrappers bound in, illus. ($102,500; sold in April to a private collector). Previously offered privately by Windle at the same price, March 2010; see Blake 44.4 (spring 2011): 130 for a list of contents. In addition to the works recorded in 2011, the collection sold by Windle in April includes Muir’s facsimile of “The Ancient of Days,” hand-colored lithograph printed in golden yellow, copy no. 29, illus. online in April. Windle, May private offer, “The Ancient of Days,” hand-colored lithograph printed in golden yellow, inscribed in ink top left “N^o 49 W^m Muir,” acquired by Windle at the London Book Fair from a private British collector and sold at the fair to another private collector (£3000). Wilkens auction, Toronto, 18 Oct., #232, Songs of Experience, on “Antique Note” paper, no mention of Muir but apparently the 1885 issue in original wrappers, with Wright, ed., Heads of the Poets, 1925, illus. (not sold; estimate $800-1200 Canadian).

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Muir facsimile, a variant issue colored after copy I (rather than A), dated 1885 but possibly colored at a later date, lacking the framing lines and pl. nos. of copy I. Addison & Sarova auction, Macon, Georgia, 5 Nov., #195, statement about the copy reproduced on the printed “Preface” page lined through and the following written below by Muir in pen and ink, “This Copy is coloured after the Original in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge  W Muir,” with an “Appendix” containing a reproduction of the manuscript “Order in which the Songs of Innocence and Experience ought to be paged” (BB #125) and the relief etching of “A Divine Image” for Songs of Experience (BB #139 pl. b), margins badly “water-stained throughout” with the stains intruding into the images on 4 leaves, lacking the original wrappers and hence any copy no., modern half calf, illus. ($522.75 to Windle acting for Essick). The only previous records of Muir’s Marriage facsimile with coloring based on copy I are in 5 Quaritch cats. beginning with no. 261 of Jan. 1908, #266, “one of 9 copies coloured from the copy in the Fitzwilliam Museum” (£4.4s.), and ending with cat. 765 of 1957, #49, “50 copies were printed, only a very small number being coloured from the Fitzwilliam Museum copy” (£20).

J. T. Herbert Baily, Emma, Lady Hamilton: A Biographical Essay with a Catalogue of Her Published Portraits, 1905, extra illus. SL, 13 Dec., #31, the extra illus. including “an autograph letter signed by William Hayley, to John Flaxman, describing his new library in detail and requesting twelve busts” (not sold; highest bid £3200 on an estimate of £4000-6000). Blake executed his series of 18 “Heads of Poets” c. 1800-03 for Hayley’s library (Butlin #343) and refers to it in a letter to Thomas Butts of 11 Sept. 1801: “I must express my wishes to see you at Felpham & to shew you M^r Hayleys Library. which is still unfinishd but is in a finishing way & looks well” (E 716).

L. Binyon, Drawings and Engravings of William Blake, 1922. Bauman Rare Books, Jan. online cat., inscribed “Ottoline, from S.S. Xmas. 1922,” publisher’s half vellum, minor repairs to spine ($4200). Presented by the poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) to the literary hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938).

Portrait of Blake by John Flaxman. EB, twice in March, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $2500); same copy, March-April, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $2250); same copy, April, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $1995); same copy, April, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $1495). Offered as an original drawing in pencil but actually the convincing lithographic facsimile removed from William Blake’s Designs for Gray’s Poems, introduction by H. J. C. Grierson (London: Oxford UP, 1922). The original is in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, accession no. B1992.8.11(59). This is the 3^rd time in the last 2 years that someone has mistaken this lithograph for the original.

J. Wicksteed, Blake’s Vision of the Book of Job, 2^nd ed., 1924. Windle, July private offer, Wicksteed’s copy with his extensive annotations, mostly in pencil and possibly written in anticipation of a 3^rd ed. never published, presentation note to “Arnold” (Arnold Fawcus of the Trianon Press) from “Eileen” (probably a relative of Wicksteed’s) dated July 1970, publisher’s cloth worn ($150, acquired by Essick).

Minutes of the William Blake Trust, 1948-69. Windle, Dec. online cat., typescript and manuscript, 240 pp., “all reports signed by Geoffrey Keynes in his distinctive brown ink, and the text is annotated and otherwise added to by Arnold Fawcus,” half roan worn, illus. ($6500).

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

Drawing after Raphael. Pen and brown ink, 27.4 x 21.2 cm., inscribed “James Barry, Rome: a study in the Ghigi Villa.” C. G. Boerner, Jan. online cat., “copies one of the lunettes showing Cupid and the Three Graces in Raphael’s Loggia of Psyche in the Villa Farnesina in Rome,” illus. (not priced).

Madonna and Child. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, 25.8 x 19.7 cm., signed. CL, 27 Sept., #79, illus. (£15,000; estimate £2000-3000).

Milo of Croton (recto), Study of a Left Leg for One of the Figures of the Angelic Guards in Elysium and Tartarus or the State of Final Retribution in the Society of Arts (verso). Brown wash (recto), pen and brown ink (verso), leaf 26.3 x 21.0 cm., both sides signed. CL, 27 Sept., #80, illus. (£16,250; estimate £2000-3000).

Seated Male Nude. Pencil, pen and ink, chalk, 42.5 x 24.7 cm., inscribed “Js Barry.” CL, 27 Sept., #78, illus. (£87,500; estimate £20,000-30,000).

“The Distribution of Premiums at the Society of Arts,” etching/engraving, 1792. EB, May, possibly the rare 1^st st. of 4, small dark-brown stain in top margin, light browning elsewhere, framed, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $550).

“Saint Sebastian,” soft-ground etching, c. 1776. Plate 27.6 x 18.5 cm., leaf 28.3 x 19.3 cm. CL, 27 Sept., #81, illus. (£27,500). The only impression I’ve ever seen on the market.

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

Many of the books with pls. engraved by Basire listed in the 2015 sales review remain on the market; see Blake 49.4 (spring 2016).

“Ann de Laval, Lady Stanhope, Wife of Sir William Stanhope,” engraved by Basire after Benjamin Wilson, 1772. DW, 29 June, #431, margins foxed, with “The Entombment,” engraving by James Faed after Annibale Carracci (no bids on an estimate of £70-100).

“Le Champ de Drap d’Or,” engraved by Basire, 1774. Grand auction, Folkestone, 11 July, #304, 1988 reprinting of c. 50 impressions, illus. (not sold; estimate £300-500). Van de Wiele auction, Brugge, 8 Oct., #651, 3 folds, stains at top, illus. (€120).

“The Embarkation of King Henry VIII at Dover,” engraved by Basire, 1781. Grand auction, Folkestone, 11 July, #305, 1988 reprinting of c. 50 impressions, illus. (not sold; estimate £300-500). Litchfield County Auctions, Litchfield, Connecticut, 12 Oct., #382, modern restrike hand colored, illus. ($406.25). Basire probably began work on this enormous pl., 68.0 x 124.6 cm., while Blake was still an apprentice.

Cook, A Voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World, 1777. EB, April-May, 1 pl. only, “The Landing at Mallicolo,” engraved by Basire after William Hodges, imprint trimmed off, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $79.99; reduced to a minimum bid of $59.99 in June, no bids); April-May, another impression, imprint present, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $525).

CALVERT, EDWARD
Early drawings, paintings, and original graphics

“The Bride,” engraving. LK, June online cat., 3^rd st. from the Memoir, 1893, leaf 21.4 x 26.0 cm., illus. (£3500).

“The Lady with the Rooks,” wood engraving. LK, Nov. online cat., from the Memoir, 1893, leaf 16.8 x 23.0 cm., illus. (£525).

FLAXMAN, JOHN
Drawings and proof engravings

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

The Death of Caesar, attributed to Flaxman. Pen and ink, 22.2 x 35.6 cm. Duke’s auction, Dorchester, Dorset, 15 Sept., #340, illus. (£650). Probably dating from the 1780s, if indeed by Flaxman. David Bindman and I are suspicious of the attribution.

Man Wrapped in Thought. Pencil, 19.7 x 13.3 cm., datable to c. 1790. AH, July online cat. 460, #32, illus. (£1750). Previously offered AH, Feb. 2014 online cat. 433, #19, illus. (£2500), and Dec. 2014 Pictures for Christmas online cat., illus. (£2500).

Mother and Child. Pencil, 8.5 x 8.5 cm. Andrew Smith & Son auction, Winchester, Hampshire, 2 Feb., #425A, badly stained, illus. (not sold; estimate £400-500). Very slight.

Priam Begging for the Body of Hector. Pen and ink, 16.5 x 24.1 cm., inscribed in pen and ink “Achilles  Priam / These words soft pity in the chief inspire / Touch’d with the dear remembrance of his Sire. B:24, l:634: Pope’s Iliad”; inscribed “25” in pencil lower right. Rachel Davis Fine Art auction, Cleveland, 19 March, #8, illus. ($2706). Not one of the engraved designs for the Iliad.

Letter to Flaxman from Hayley. See Baily, Emma, Lady Hamilton, 1905, under Interesting Blakeana, above.

Dante designs. Antiquariat Peter Kiefer auction, Pforzheim, Germany, 20 Feb., #6378, apparently a complete set of the 1807 engravings in various proof sts., at least 1 lacking the framing lines, all(?) lacking the inscriptions below the designs but with roman numerals (I, II, III) upper left not included in the published pls., inscriptions below the designs supplied in pen and brown ink with other inscriptions above and below the designs not in the published pls., unbound, 2 pls. illus. (not sold; estimate €300).

FUSELI, HENRY
Drawings, paintings, and separate plates

A Captive Woman. Black chalk, 45.9 x 31.5 cm. SL, 6 July, #334, illus. (£13,750). The figure looks less like a captive than a hag with a profile similar to Fuseli’s pictures of the witches from Macbeth.

Leonore Discovering the Dagger Left by Alonzo. Oil, circle, 61.0 cm. diameter, datable to 1792-93. SNY, 28 Jan., #53, illus. ($310,000). The design, based on Edward Young’s play of 1721, The Revenge, was engraved by William Leney and published in 1793 in Bell’s British Theatre, vol. 8 (Weinglass #130, titled “Leonora Discovers the Dagger Alonzo Has Dropped”). The engraved version is an irregular octagon rather than a circle.

Q.E. Sept. 3. II (so inscribed). Pencil, pen and ink, black chalk, body color, 9.7 x 18.2 cm. CL, 5 July, #74, “subsidiary figure study in chalk (verso),” inscription in Latin on recto, illus. (£6250). A kneeling male and soaring female in a landscape setting.

Studies of a Woman in a Bonnet, and Two Nude Figures, a Male Seen from Behind, and a Female Looking over Her Shoulder (recto), Study of a Kneeling Nude Female Figure and Another Female Figure Surprised (verso). Pencil, pen and brown ink, leaf 35.8 x 27.2 cm. CL, 27 Sept., #75, illus. (not sold; highest bid £15,000 on an estimate of £20,000-30,000).

Studies of Figures after Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling. Pencil, pen and brown ink, 7.1 x 18.5 cm. CL, 27 Sept., #76, “extensively inscribed,” illus. (£6875). The online cat. shows 2 different drawings but does not make it clear if these are recto/verso works or separate leaves.

Study of a Lady, Wearing a Choker and an Elaborate Head-Dress. Pencil, 22.2 x 14.9 cm. SL, 6 July, #333, illus. (not sold; highest bid £1900 on an estimate of £3000-5000). Previously sold SL, 13 March 1986, #106, illus. (£3520).

Study of a Leg with Latin Inscription. Pen and ink. BL, 18 March, #2, in a “large collection of letters, photographs, notes, drawings and sketches” by various hands, no size given but apparently small, illus. (£2480).

Study of Daniel, after Michelangelo. Pen and brown ink, 19.4 x 13.4 cm. CL, 27 Sept., #77, “drawn on the back of a letter from Joseph Johnson,” illus. (not sold; highest bid £3800 on an estimate of £5000-8000).

Young Girl Leaning Over. Black crayon, 9.1 x 11.5 cm. Artcurial auction, Paris, 31 March, #56, illus. (€8000). Previously sold CL, 14 March 1992, #6, illus. (£4950).

“Beatrice Listening to Hero, & Ursula” (inscribed title), mezzotint by John Jones, 1791. Weinglass #113, titled “Beatrice Eavesdropping on Hero and Ursula.” GP, April online cat., “fine impression but damaged,” illus. (£480, “sold or reserved”).

“Fairy Mab,” engraving, probably on steel, by William Raddon, 1834. EB, June, margins damaged, small tear at top of image, illus. (£87.89). The only impression of this illus. to Milton’s L’Allegro I’ve ever seen on the market. For Fuseli’s oil painting, the basis for this print, see the 2012 sales review, Blake 46.4 (spring 2013): illus. 18.

“The Night Mare,” engraving by Laurede, n.d. EB, Nov-Dec., thread margins at top and on both sides, imprint present, illus. (€427.66). Dated by Weinglass #67A to 1782, which would make it the 1^st engraving of Fuseli’s painting (exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year), but possibly later. Also dated to 1782 and described as a “pirated” (unauthorized) pl. in Nicolas Powell, Fuseli: The Nightmare (London: Allen Lane, 1973) 98. I can find no information about “Laurede,” possibly a pseudonym.

“Prince Arthur’s Vision,” engraving by Peltro W. Tomkins, 1788. DW, 29 June, #445, brown ink, leaf of laid paper 53.2 x 40.3 cm. (£61.25). EB, Nov., leaf 57.5 x 45.5 cm., brown stains in margins, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £750 or “best offer,” lowered to £550 in Dec.).

“Titania Embracing Bottom,” engraving by Richard Rhodes, 1794. EB, April, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $85). Included in Seventeen Engravings, to Illustrate Shakspeare, published by Alfred Woodmason in 1817, but possibly issued as a separate pl. in 1794.

“The Weird Sisters,” mezzotint by J. R. Smith, 1785. Lawrences auction, Crewkerne, Somerset, 22 Jan., #1402, trimmed to the image at top and on both sides, “worn and damaged in the margins and in the upper left corner,” illus. (no bids on an estimate of £100-150); the same impression or another similarly damaged, Rowley’s auction, Newmarket, Suffolk, 9 Nov., #869, illus. (£174.30).

LINNELL, JOHN
Early drawings, paintings, and original graphics

Eleven pencil drawings, 2 heightened with white chalk, largest 14.9 x 26.7 cm., each initialed “J.L.,” 3 dated 1806-07. Freeman’s auction, Philadelphia, 25 Jan., #98, illus. (no bids on an estimate of $1500-2000). The 3 illus. works picture plants in a landscape setting.

Two pencil drawings, A Slate Bridge and By the Riverside. Each 12.1 x 17.1 cm., A Slate Bridge signed and dated 1813. Philip Serrell auction, Malvern, Worcestershire, 5 May, #165, illus. (£229.90).

At Battersea (so inscribed). Pencil on blue paper, 19.0 x 25.5 cm., signed. Cuttlestones auction, Penkridge, Staffordshire, 2 Dec., #502, illus. (£277.15). Probably an early work.

Evening Landscape. Watercolor, 12.0 x 19.0 cm., signed. Chiswick auction, London, 13 Sept., #13, illus. (£393.60). Probably an early work datable to the 1820s or early 1830s.

Figures and Sheep in Hilly Landscape. Pen and ink, 18.0 x 25.5 cm. Biddle & Webb auction, Birmingham, 14 May, #361, illus. (£364.50). Dated to “c. 1860” by the auction house, but possibly much earlier.

Landscape with Trees and Farm Buildings, North Wales. Pencil heightened with white, 23.0 x 29.0 cm., inscribed “J. Linnell, North Wales 1813.” Cheffins auction, Cambridge, 11 Feb., #369, “with another landscape to the reverse,” illus. (£220.50).

Near Hampstead. Pen and ink, 10.2 x 21.0 cm., signed with initials and dated 1809. Gardiner Houlgate auction, Bath, 24 June, #1009, illus. (£196.80). Workers raking hay in a field.

Portrait of a Girl, attributed to Linnell. Right profile, pencil on blue paper, 17.8 x 19.1 cm. Burstow & Hewett auction, Battle, East Sussex, 25 May, #241, illus. (no bids on an estimate of £80-120). The attribution is convincing. Possibly a portrait of 1 of Linnell’s 5 daughters.

Portrait of Thomas Cadby. Oil, 29.0 x 22.5 cm., signed and dated 1821. SL, 26 Oct., #1169, illus. (not sold; estimate £3000-5000). Previously sold CL, 26 April 1985, #103, illus. (£2808).

Profile of a Woman, Eyes Turned Upward, attributed to Linnell. Pencil, 14.1 x 10.2 cm. EB, July-Aug., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £420 or “best offer”); same offer price, Oct.-Nov. (acquired by Essick). See illus. 8.

8. Profile of a Woman, Eyes Turned Upward, attributed to John Linnell (see enlargement). Pencil, 14.1 x 10.2 cm. on a leaf of wove paper 18.3 x 10.9 cm. The back of the mount is inscribed in pen and ink in a modern hand “John Linnell / 1792-1882 / (Fully Attributed Sothebys).” The backing board for the former frame is inscribed in pen and ink in a (different?) modern hand “Original Drawing by John Linnell c. 1830.” The drawing could date from an earlier period, c. 1820. I have not been able to learn anything about the provenance of the drawing. Essick collection.

The attribution of this delicate sketch to Linnell is solid. Less certain is the identity of the sitter. The informality of the woman’s costume suggests that it portrays someone in Linnell’s family or circle of friends rather than the subject of a commissioned portrait. Might this be Blake’s wife, Catherine? Pictures of her in profile or three-quarter view show that she had a prominent, but rounded and almost bulbous chin very similar to what we see in this drawing.See the portraits attributed to George Cumberland (c. 1785) and by Blake in his Notebook (c. 1793). All but 1 of the traced portraits of Catherine are illus. and described in Geoffrey Keynes, The Complete Portraiture of William and Catherine Blake (London: Trianon P for the William Blake Trust, 1977) 149-54 and illus. i-ix. The exception is a wash drawing attributed to Cumberland and datable to the mid-1780s; see Blake 39.4 (spring 2006): 164-65 and illus. 6. The woman’s nose is compatible with Catherine’s very straight nose that apparently became less sharply pointed with age. Catherine had curly hair, as in this drawing. Two ringlets dangle down her forehead in a drawing by Blake datable to c. 1803; curls frame her head in Frederick Tatham’s 1828 portrait. Geoffrey Keynes described Catherine’s hair in a now untraced portrait: “Curls hang over the forehead and down the neck” (Butlin #684; note the suggestion of curls behind the neck in this sketch). Several drawings show Catherine wearing a bonnet, day cap, or scarf over her hair. The headgear in this profile may be a turban-like day cap or a folded scarf similar to the one shown in Tatham’s portrait of Catherine. His drawing of 1828 shows a much older woman, but this sketch by Linnell could have been executed not long after he met Blake in 1818 (BR[2] 341).

The most striking feature in the drawing illus. here is the upturned left eye. This indication of a heightened state of imaginative consciousness or contemplation of the divine might seem more appropriate for the husband than for the wife, but Gilchrist tells us that “she, too, learned to have visions.”Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake (London: Macmillan, 1863) 1:316. He also notes “‘her gleaming black eyes’” described by “one who knew her” (1: 317). The darkness of the woman’s pupil is emphasized in this drawing.

Identifying the sitter is made difficult by our having no portraits of Catherine Blake executed between c. 1803 and 1828 with which to compare the present drawing. In 1818 she was 56 years old. The woman pictured here looks younger, although Linnell may have been idealizing his subject by omitting details such as wrinkles. Could her appearance have changed in 10 years to that of the much older woman portrayed by Tatham?

I sent a digital image of this drawing to several friends. Here are their basic responses to my question, “Is this Mrs. Blake?”
G. E. Bentley, Jr. Probably not, given her age in 1818.
David Bindman. 50/50 chance.
Martin Butlin. 75% chance that this is Mrs. Blake.
D. W. Dörrbecker. 50/50.
Morris Eaves. 50/50.
Alexander Gourlay. A little less than 50/50.
Sarah Jones. Doubtful.
Jenijoy La Belle (based on viewing the original, but perhaps unduly influenced by the drawing’s owner). Very probably.
Tim Linnell. One possibility among many. “Not an obvious [Linnell] family member.”
Morton Paley. An interesting possibility.
Joseph Viscomi. At least 50/50.
John Windle. Very doubtful.

Study of a Man. Colored chalk on gray paper, 25.5 x 17.0 cm. DW, 6 Oct., #304, “torn and repaired to upper right,” illus. (£539). Possibly an early work, very fine.

Woodland Landscape with Workers. Oil, 78.0 x 104.0 cm., signed and dated 1817. Golding Young & Mawer auction, Lincoln, 23 Nov., #7, illus. (£26,950; estimate £2000-3000). Similar in subject and setting to Linnell’s etching of 1818 “Woodcutters’ Repast.”

“Samuel Palmer.” Etched portrait, platemark 25.5 x 20.0 cm., signed lower left in the pl. “J. Linnell / 1843.” GP, Feb. online cat., laid India, from the “collection of the late Hon. C. Lennox-Boyd,” illus. (£650, “sold or reserved”). I can find no prior record of this portrait. Is the identity of the sitter certain? The face is reasonably similar to Henry Walter’s watercolor portrait of Palmer usually dated to c. 1835-36 (British Museum registration no. 1896,1215.1).

PALMER, SAMUEL
Drawings, paintings, and rare states of etchings

Box Hill, Surrey. Oil on paper, 24.0 x 40.1 cm., datable to 1848. LL, Jan. cat., pp. 98-101, illus. (not priced). For earlier sales, see the 2015 sales review, Blake 49.4 (spring 2016).

Mountainous Landscape, Wales. Watercolor, 12.5 x 17.0 cm. SL, 6 July, #352, illus. (£9375).

The Street of Tombs, Pompeii. Watercolor, 32.7 x 41.6 cm., datable to 1838. CNY, 27 Jan., #91, illus. ($60,000). Previously offered CL, 30 March 1993, #77, illus. (not sold; estimate £15,000-20,000).

The Vintage: An Illustration to Charles Dickens’s Pictures from Italy. Pencil, pen and brown ink, gray wash, heightened with white on tracing paper laid down on card, 13.5 x 7.5 cm., datable to 1846. CNY, 27 Jan., #90, “the property of a New York private collection,” illus. ($25,000). A wood engraving of this design was published in Dickens, Pictures from Italy, 1846, p. [270], with letterpress text filling the blank area defined by trees growing up the side margins, their branches intertwining at the top. This format may have been influenced by “The Lamb” in Songs of Innocence. Raymond Lister suggests that “the figure at the right standing on a ladder and picking fruit is comparable with a figure in Songs of Innocence, ‘The Ecchoing Green’, pl. 2, with one in ‘The School-Boy’ in Songs of Experience, and with another in ‘The Argument’, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, pl. 2.”Lister, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Samuel Palmer (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988) 151. John Linnell, Palmer’s father-in-law and mentor, owned copies of Songs of Innocence, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (see BB pp. 289, 384).

“Samuel Palmer,” etched portrait of. See under Linnell, above.

S. Palmer, The Shorter Poems of John Milton, 1889. Tennants auction, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, 21 Sept., #77, “Illustrations of Milton’s Minor Poems, handwritten list and ten pencil numbered and inscribed engravings, in titled quarter cloth folio with marbled boards,” binding and manuscript list illus. (£607.50). The list of pls. concludes with a note signed “P. &[?] H.” This note states in part that “the impressions are amongst the earliest proofs taken from the plates.”

RICHMOND, GEORGE
Early drawings, paintings, and prints

Abel the Shepherd Resting in a Landscape with His Flock. Pen and brown ink, 14.5 x 18.5 cm. FM, 15 Nov., #134, attributed to a “follower of” George Richmond, illus. (estimate £200-300; withdrawn on 9 Nov.). See illus. 9.

9. Abel the Shepherd Resting in a Landscape with His Flock (see enlargement). Pen and brown ink, leaf of wove paper 14.5 x 18.5 cm. Signed with a monogram, an interlinked “WR” dated “1858,” on the trunk of the tree. This drawing is attributed to a “follower of” George Richmond in the online FM cat. of 15 Nov., #134 (withdrawn). The cat. also claims that the monogram may be “later” and attributes it to the artist Sir William Blake Richmond, George Richmond’s son. In his detailed study of the son, Simon Reynolds discusses the influence of Edward Calvert on the young WBR’s work (Reynolds, William Blake Richmond: An Artist’s Life 1842–1921 [Norwich: Michael Russell, 1995] 14). In a footnote, Reynolds refers to this drawing and attributes it to WBR: “An Arcadian ink drawing by [WB] Richmond of a naked shepherd amongst sheep; dated 1858 (Abbott and Holder, London), it clearly emulates Calvert” (364n15). One could also point to early works by Samuel Palmer as a strong influence on the style of this drawing. The subject and motifs, however, are much closer to George Richmond’s work than to either of these other followers of Blake, particularly if one accepts the very plausible subject of Abel proposed in the FM cat. The drawing is similar in several respects to the elder Richmond’s tempera painting of 1825, Abel the Shepherd, now in the Tate collection. In both compositions, Abel reclines beneath a tree with eyes closed and with a long shepherd’s crook extending along the ground below him. Although the right side of his head and body are pictured in the painting and he is twisting toward the viewer in the drawing, his legs are almost identically positioned in relation to his torso and to the ground; the right calf is similarly delineated and emphasized. The sheep are close cousins to those in G. Richmond’s engraving “The Shepherd” of 1827. Thus, I think it possible that this work by the son is a copy of an unrecorded drawing by the father. Photo courtesy of Forum Auctions, London.

Autumn Sunset (Sunset Seen from Hyde Park). Oil, 34.9 x 43.8 cm., inscribed on the verso “Geo. Richmond / Autumn Sunset.” Heritage auction, Dallas, 27 June, #65149, illus. ($625). Possibly dating from the 1830s.

Marsyas. Oil on panel, 14.0 x 12.7 cm., inscribed “by George Richmond R.A.” on verso. Duke’s auction, Dorchester, Dorset, 14 April, #316, illus. (£425). Possibly dating from the 1830s.

Portrait of Arthur Tatham. Pastel drawing(?), size unknown. Criterion auction, Islington, London, 25 April, #105, no indication of medium or size other than “portrait study on paper,” illus. (£381 to David Bindman). Arthur Tatham (1808–74) was Richmond’s brother-in-law and the younger brother of Blake’s friend Frederick Tatham. Arthur Tatham, who later became a clergyman, attended Blake’s funeral; see BR(2) 626, 683. See also the next entry below.

Portrait of Charles Heathcote Tatham. Pastel drawing(?), size unknown. Criterion auction, Islington, London, 14 March, #115, no indication of medium or size other than “portrait study on paper,” illus. (£682). Apparently returned by the buyer, the sitter having been wrongly identified as the father rather than the brother of Blake’s friend Frederick Tatham, and sold again by the same auctioneer as a portrait of Arthur Tatham—see the entry immediately above.

A Recollection of William Blake. Watercolor, leaf 27.5 x 18.5 cm. SL, 6 July, #338, illus. (£11,250; estimate £4000-6000). Previously sold SL, 8 April 1998, #105, “the property of a descendant of the artist,” illus. in black and white (£4140; estimate £400-600). See illus. 10.

10. George Richmond. A Recollection of William Blake (see enlargement). Watercolor, leaf of wove paper 27.5 x 18.5 cm., inscribed top left in ink “Prepared side” and bottom right in pencil “William Blake—”. With a “[J WH]ATMAN / [TURKEY] MILL / [18]36” watermark according to the auction cat., SL, 6 July, #338. The pencil inscription is probably by Richmond; the pen and ink inscription would appear to be in a different hand. As I pointed out in my 1998 sales review, “This drawing is not so much a ‘recollection’ of Blake as a copy of Blake’s left profile as represented in his life mask—note the closed eye (odd in a portrait, but necessary when making a plaster cast of someone’s head), the slight flattening of the nose, the way the corner of the mouth is drawn down (caused by drying plaster), and the way the hair is (literally) plastered against the head. Richmond owned the life mask now in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge” (Blake 32.4 [spring 1999]: caption to illus. 8). For the provenance of the Fitzwilliam life mask of 1823, see William Blake: Catalogue of the Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, ed. David Bindman (Cambridge: Heffer and Sons, 1970) 58. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s London.

Study of a Nude Male Figure. Pen and ink, pencil, watercolor, 19.0 x 10.2 cm., signed with initials and dated 16 Sept. 1829. Guy Peppiatt, Sept. cat. of British Portrait and Figure Drawings, #30, illus. (£1600). For earlier offers to sell, see the 2014 sales review, Blake 48.4 (spring 2015).

Study of Comus Carrying His Cup (recto), Falling Figures (verso). Pen and ink, pencil, 33.0 x 21.2 cm., inscribed in pencil “Paris 1829 a 30” and “Comus.” LL, Jan. cat., pp. 77-79, illus. (not priced). For earlier sales, see the 2014 sales review, Blake 48.4 (spring 2015).

Study of Eve(?). Pencil, 11.4 x 8.9 cm., signed with initials. AH, April online cat. 457, #83, illus. (£250). Date uncertain.

“Portrait of Masaccio,” etching after Filippino Lippi, 1844. Fine Printed Inc., Oct. online cat., illus. (£45); same impression, EB, Nov., proof before title inscription, platemark 25.4 x 20.2 cm., India paper laid onto wove leaf 34.5 x 26.0 cm., inscribed by Richmond in pencil “Masaccio” below the image and, just above the lower platemark, “Drawn by Geo. Richmond. and Engraved by him. assisted by James Binder[?],” illus. ($50 to Essick). Only the “B” of the final word in the inscription above the platemark is clearly legible. This is the only record of Richmond receiving assistance with the execution of this work. The only other recorded impression, also before title on laid India and probably from the same printing, is in the British Museum, registration no. 1936,1022.2. A pencil inscription by Richmond on the British Museum impression, “19 Dec^r. 1844,” is the basis for the dating of the print. For illus. and description, see Raymond Lister, George Richmond: A Critical Biography (London: Robin Garton, 1981) 176. See the next entry below for the copperplate.

“The Shepherd,” original copperplate, 17.5 x 11.2 cm., datable to 1827. Halls auction, Shrewsbury, 16 March, #290, with the copperplate of Richmond’s “Portrait of Masaccio,” 25.4 x 20.1 cm., “inscribed masaccio,” apparently in the pl. (see the entry above), the steel plate of a portrait of “Mrs Richmond, inscribed Mrs Ann Richmond, Born 1^st Aug 1772, died 30^th Dec 1860,” a “steel plate inscribed Faraday, 27 Mar 1852,” and a copperplate of a “portrait of a gentleman,” with old, worn envelopes for the pls., each envelope with inscriptions naming their contents, all illus. (£13,200 to a consortium of 2 British print dealers on an estimate of £200-300).The new owners have asked me not to reveal their names. They have no immediate plans to print from the pls. The “Faraday” pl. is very probably the engraving by William Holl after Richmond’s portrait of the scientist Michael Faraday (1791–1867). Ann Richmond (née Oram) was George Richmond’s mother. The inscription on 1 envelope is signed “TR / 1886”; this was probably written by George Richmond’s eldest son, Thomas Knyvett Richmond (1833–1901).

ROMNEY, GEORGE
Drawings and paintings excluding portraits

Thirty-eight pencil drawings offered individually, each leaf 14.0 x 23.0 cm., datable to c. 1792-94. AH, “George Romney” section of Feb. online cat. 455, #1-38, all illus. (£650-1750 each). These drawings come from the 3 sketchbooks that failed to sell at BHL, 8 July 2015, #3, illus. (highest bid £15,000 on an estimate of £20,000-30,000). The group comprises 5 illus. for Macbeth and 15 for Paradise Lost, 9 sketches titled John Howard Visiting a Lazaretto, 3 titled The Effects of Envy and Pride and 3 titled Entrust Thy Care to Truth Alone, and 3 preliminary drawings for the Shipwreck painting engraved by Blake and published in Hayley’s Life of Romney, 1809. The illus. to Macbeth, Paradise Lost, and 1 drawing titled The Effects of Envy and Pride, all from the same sketchbook, were acquired in Feb. by the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.

Four pencil drawings: Titiana’s [sic] Chariot in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Opening the Ark, A Deathbed Scene, and A Group Scene. 22.0 x 22.0 cm. and smaller, some with condition issues. Woolley & Wallis auction, Salisbury, 7 Sept., #54, all illus. (£450).

Three pencil drawings: Study of a Woman in Profile, Study of a Nude Woman, and Study of a Woman and Children. Pencil, each 19.0 x 12.0 cm. or slightly smaller. Guy Peppiatt, Sept. cat. of British Portrait and Figure Drawings, #8-10, illus. (£1500 each).

Two pencil drawings, both Figure Studies, 1 titled Flood on a label on the back of the frame, each 12.7 x 22.9 cm. Campbells auction, Worthing, West Sussex, 13 Sept., #640, both illus. (£1446; estimate £150-200).

Dancing Figures. Pencil, leaf 9.5 x 12.1 cm. Locati auction, Maple Glen, Pennsylvania, 17 Oct., #1016140, large but lightly colored stain, illus. ($1508).

Erminia and Vafrino Ministering to the Wounded Tancred. Pen, brown ink and wash, recto and verso, 31.5 x 48.0 cm. SNY, 28 Jan., #185, recto and verso illus. ($32,500).

Figure Studies, Possibly a Scene from Shakespeare’s Tempest, Act V, Scene I: Miranda and Ferdinand Playing Chess in Prospero’s Cell. Pen and brown ink, brown wash, 11.1 x 18.7 cm. CSK, 7 Dec., #174, illus. (not sold; highest bid £2400 on an estimate of £4000-6000).

The Indian Woman, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Oil, 118.5 x 148.5 cm., datable to 1793 and sold to William Beckford in 1797. SL, 8 Dec., #197, “with five preparatory pencil sketches on paper by Romney relating to the composition, … with a facsimile of two further related sketches,” illus. (not sold; highest bid £35,000 on an estimate of £50,000-70,000). Previously sold CL, 22 May 1964, #160 (£252). In a letter to John Flaxman of 18 June 1804, William Hayley refers to plans (never realized) to have this painting engraved by Robert Cromek; see Geoffrey Keynes, ed., The Letters of William Blake with Related Documents, 3^rd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1980) 95.

The Infant Shakespeare, attributed to Romney. Pen and ink, 11.1 x 18.0 cm. Roseberys auction, London, 7 Sept., #706, illus. (no bids on an estimate of £600-1000).

John Howard Visiting the Lazaretto. Pencil, 15.7 x 19.1 cm. Guy Peppiatt, Sept. cat. of British Portrait and Figure Drawings, #20, datable to the early 1790s, illus. (£950). Previously offered by Peppiatt, May 2013 cat., #1, illus. (£1800).

Mary Stuart Going to the Scaffold. Pen and ink, brown wash, oval 21.0 x 25.5 cm. Lyon & Turnbull auction, Edinburgh, 24 Nov., #15, dated to “c. 1775,” illus. (£3328). Previously offered SL, 26 March 1975, #203, illus. black and white (not sold; no estimate given in the cat.).

Sketch of a Seated Woman. Pen and ink, 10.8 x 15.3 cm. Skinner auction, Marlborough, Massachusetts, 15 July, #691, “small tear to center left,” edges stained, illus. ($1599).

Sketch of Figures and an Angel. Pen and ink, 18.4 x 12.7 cm. Gorringes auction, Lewes, East Sussex, 1 Dec., #1572, illus. (£154.80).

Study for A Girl with Her Dead Fawn. Pencil and gray wash, 36.9 x 54.7 cm. CL, 27 Sept., #74, illus. (£15,000).

Study of a Man, Bust-Length, in a Plumed Hat, Traditionally Called Macbeth. Pen and brown ink, 19.7 x 15.9 cm. CSK, 7 Dec., #171, illus. (£2375).

Study of Two Figures. Pencil, 14.0 x 12.1 cm. Martyn Gregory, May online cat., “verso extensively inscribed,” illus. (not priced).

Titania’s Chariot. Pencil, 15.2 x 19.1 cm., datable to c. 1792. AH, Dec. online cat. 465, #61, illus. (£375).

SHERMAN, WELBY

“The Shepherd,” etching/engraving probably based on a design by Palmer. C. G. Boerner, 2015 Miscellanea cat. 134, #59, laid India backed with wove, illus. (not priced, but quoted at £9500 to Windle).

STOTHARD, THOMAS
Drawings, paintings, and one engraving

Thirteen pen and ink drawings attributed to Stothard of characters from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. No sizes given, bound in vellum with 1 p. of manuscript. Bromer Booksellers, Aug. online cat., “according to the text, these drawings were ‘sketched’ by Stothard ‘from old wood engravings meant to illustrate the characters of Chaucer,’” illus. ($5500). The cat. entry further states that “the handwriting in the front of this volume may indeed be [Robert] Cromek’s, as his initials can be made out below; this hypothesis is further strengthened by the presence of the signature of Cromek’s son, Thomas Harley [i.e., Hartley] Cromek.” The manuscript, initialed “R H. C.,” illus.; the handwriting appears to be Robert Cromek’s. The 6 drawings illus. are inscribed with the names of the characters: Wife of Bath, Man of Law, Prioress, Cook, “Reves” (i.e., Reeve), and “Doctour of Physyk.” These are copied from the woodcuts in William Caxton’s 2^nd ed. of the Canterbury Tales, 1483. Stothard’s painting of Chaucer’s pilgrims and the engraving based on it show no clear influence of these woodcuts.

Six drawings of figures, pen and ink, 1 with watercolors, 1 with gray wash, largest 11.4 x 12.7 cm., all but the watercolor inscribed “Stothard.” Heritage auction, New York, 6 April, #45318, described as “five original drawings” but 6 in 5 mats are illus. (not sold; estimate $1200-1800).

Four drawings, including Studies for a Fireplace Design and Floral Studies. Pencil, pen and ink, Fireplace with wash, 12.1 x 18.4 cm. and smaller. Duke’s auction, Dorchester, Dorset, 15 Sept., #341, all illus. (£137.50).

The Canterbury Pilgrims. Oil on panel, 37.5 x 141.0 cm. CL, 14 Dec., #35, illus. (£10,000). The auction cat. gives no information on date or provenance. This version is larger than the oil on panel in the Tate collection, dated to 1806-07 and measuring 31.8 x 95.2 cm., but the design and coloring are almost identical.

Classical Scene. Pencil, leaf 13.9 x 14.3 cm. EB, March, illus. ($35). Very slight.

Hermione (The Winter’s Tale), attributed to Stothard. Watercolor, 7.0 x 4.0 cm. Ramsay Cornish auction, Edinburgh, 12 March, #157, illus. (£58.50).

Ladies Quarreling over a Game of Cards at Bath. Oil, 38.7 x 30.6 cm. BHL, 18 Oct., #128, illus. (£1250). Previously sold CL, 8 June 1995, #118, illus. (£2530).

Measure for Measure. Oil, 9.0 x 8.3 cm., datable to c. 1803. Biddle & Webb auction, Birmingham, 14 May, #74, illus. (not sold; estimate £100-150). An illus. to act 2, scene 1, previously sold CSK, 11 Nov. 2008, #534, illus. (£138); previously offered AH, Jan. 2009 online cat. 393, #16 (£375). Possibly by Stothard, but this might be a copy to size of the engraving of the design by Charles Warren, published in The Plays of William Shakspeare, ed. Manley Wood (London: G. Kearsley, 1806) 2: facing 293.

Nymphs Bathing in a Pool. Watercolor, 8.9 x 15.9 cm., inscribed “T. Stothard.” Duke’s auction, Dorchester, Dorset, 10 June, #911, illus. (£275).

Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, vol. 73, July-Dec. 1783. EB, March, contemporary quarter calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $125 or “best offer”; acquired by Essick for $100). For the frontispiece engraved by Cook after Stothard, see illus. 11.

11. Frontispiece to the Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, vol. 73, July-Dec. 1783 (see enlargement). Etching/engraving by Thomas Cook after Thomas Stothard, 13.9 x 9.1 cm. (design only), 17.0 x 9.2 cm. (including inscriptions). A pyramid in the background is inscribed with the names of battles in the American Revolution, including “LEXINGTON,” “BUNKERs HILL,” “SARATOGA,” and “BRANDYWI[NE].” I have not been able to find a source for the verses inscribed in the lower margin. This pl., signed “Stothard del.” lower left, is not included in the list of Stothard’s contributions to the Universal Magazine in A. C. Coxhead, Thomas Stothard, R.A. (London: Bullen, 1906) 41-42. Essick collection.

Pages 1-2 of the July issue include a detailed “Explanation of the Frontispiece.” A “Fiend of Discord” (the dark figure with snaky hair on the left) points to the battle monument in an attempt to convince an American youth to “perpetuate … Animosities,” but a personification of Peace (center) instructs the boy not to harbor ill-will toward Britain and instead to turn his attention to the three adult figures representing “Religion, Liberty, and Commerce” on the right. A Phrygian liberty cap sits atop a pole above their heads. Two children study the peaceful arts of “GRAMMAR,” “ASTRONOMY,” and “HUSBANDRY” lower right. Might Stothard’s friends, such as Blake and George Cumberland, have held similar opinions about British-American relations in the early 1780s?

The pl. includes several odd features. The left arm of Peace seems amputated, yet a single finger projects from her short sleeve. Perhaps Cook failed to replicate the foreshortening of an arm projecting toward us—if indeed that gesture was present in Stothard’s untraced drawing. The frontmost figure on the right looks as though she is grasping the pole above her head with her right hand, but no pole is represented between her hand and head. This is probably Liberty, with Religion, her hands together in prayer, the next figure behind, leaving Commerce as the most distant personification, her face visible between the hands and head of Religion. The lengthy twisted object on which Liberty rests her left arm may be a cornucopia or intertwined tree trunks or limbs with 2 or 3 leaves on their left side. Is this an emblem of how commerce and religion support liberty? What are the 3 ovoid objects below Liberty’s left forearm? Could the large one be a beehive, a symbol of industry and community? Liberty’s left foot rests on what appears to be a box or package bound with crossing strings or ropes. The package may represent commerce, which, according to the “Explanation” of the design, “came” from “fair Liberty’s celestial Flame” (p. 2). The relationships between Stothard’s rather mechanical reinvention of emblematic imagery and Blake’s far more sophisticated and recondite uses of pictorial symbolism deserve investigation.

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. 47-48, “Moore & Co.’s Advertisement.” For a recently discovered impression, see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above, and illus. 7. The transcription of lettering on this pl. in SP p. 47 wrongly includes a period after the ampersand in Blake’s signature, lower right.

P. 63, “Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” impression 3G. According to the online British Museum cat., this impression (registration no. 1856,0209.326) was acquired from A. E. Evans in 1856, not from R. H. Evans in 1846. Thus, my speculation that the print may have come from William Upcott’s collection is no longer tenable.

William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations

Pp. 108-12, Rees, Cyclopædia. For engraved copies of Blake’s pls., see the second entry for Rees under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.