John Windle provided an auspicious beginning for the 2022 Blake market with his February publication of catalogue 70, Present Joy. At 160 pages offering 809 items, this is the second-largest sale catalogue devoted to Blake and his circle, exceeded only by Windle’s October 2009 catalogue 46. The organization of Present Joy is unusual for its genre. The main section is arranged chronologically, with works listed by the year they were originally created, even for later reproductions. Thus, a 1955 facsimile of Songs of Innocence and of Experience appears in the subsection on Blake’s productions of 1789–94. The catalogue includes three drawings from the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, separate plates including “Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” print series such as the Job and Dante engravings, a large group of Blake’s commercial book illustrations, ranging from his apprentice work in Jacob Bryant’s A New System, or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology (1774–76) to John Varley’s Treatise on Zodiacal Physiognomy (1828), and most of the William Muir and Blake Trust/Trianon Press facsimiles of Blake’s illuminated books. All but a few works by Blake are illustrated. Many items are recorded as “Sold,” including “Holy Thursday” from Songs of Innocence copy W and “A Cradle Song” (both plates) from Songs of Innocence copy Y, and have been listed in earlier installments of these sales reviews. In the listings below, I have included all original materials for the record.An exception to my usual practice of not including individual plates extracted from letterpress books or incomplete sets of the Job and Dante engravings. The Muir and Blake Trust facsimiles are not included. A PDF version of the catalogue is available at <https://www.johnwindle.com/catalogues.php> (accessed 17 December).
Windle continued at the forefront of the Blake market when in late February he received on consignment for sale an unrecorded posthumous copy of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Printed by Frederick Tatham c. 1831–32, the volume contains the full complement of 54 plates plus an impression of plate b, “A Divine Image.” See the entry below and illus. 1-2. In partnership with the London dealer Sims Reed Rare Books, Windle acquired one of the sixteen traced impressions of Blake’s white-line metal cut “The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour” in April—see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series and illus. 3. Finally, in August Windle purchased for stock, and promptly sold, a manuscript signed by Blake concerning the prevention of banknote forgeries—see Alexander Tilloch under Manuscripts.
The summer auction market included three notable works by Blake: his separate plate of “The Fall of Rosamond,” engraved after a design by Thomas Stothard; a copy of Edward Young’s Night Thoughts with seventeen of Blake’s illustrations hand colored (illus. 5); and a copy of William Hayley’s “The Eagle” among the Designs to a Series of Ballads (1802), with Blake’s three engravings after his own designs (see the entries below). A letter by Dante Gabriel Rossetti with a draft of his poem on Blake’s workroom and death room was auctioned in June—see the entry for 1880 under Interesting Blakeana and illus. 6. The run of books with Blake’s commercial engravings continued during the fall and early winter in its usual tireless and unexciting way, but no drawings, paintings, or plates from the illuminated books made an appearance.
The year of all sales, catalogues, and correspondence in the following lists is 2022, unless indicated otherwise. With a few exceptions, such as Blake’s engraving after William Hogarth, rare items such as prepublication proofs, and original works in Windle’s Present Joy catalogue noted above, only complete copies of plates in series and letterpress books with Blake’s commercial illustrations are included. Most reports about auction catalogues are based on the online versions. Illustrations are in color, unless noted otherwise. Coverage of regional auctions is selective. Dates for dealers’ online catalogues are the dates accessed, not the dates of publication. Works offered online by dealers and listed in previous sales reviews are not repeated here. Most of the auction houses add their purchaser’s surcharge to the hammer price in their price lists. These net amounts are given here, following the official price lists. Estimates in auction catalogues are usually for hammer prices. I am grateful for help in compiling this review to Sidney Berger, David Bindman, Mark Crosby, Detlef W. Dörrbecker, Rachel Eley, Annika Green, John Holmes, Morton Paley, Justin Schiller, Joseph Viscomi, and John Windle. My special thanks go to Jenijoy La Belle for assistance in all matters. Once again, Sarah Jones’s editorial expertise has been invaluable.
Abbreviations
| AH |
Abbott and Holder, London |
| BB |
G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1977). Plate numbers and copy designations for Blake’s illuminated books and commercial book illustrations follow BB. |
| BBS |
G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books Supplement (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1995) |
| BHL |
Bonhams auctions, London |
| BR(2) |
G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Records, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale UP, 2004) |
| Butlin |
Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale UP, 1981) |
| cat(s). |
catalogue(s) |
| CB |
Robert N. Essick, William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1991) |
| CL |
Christie’s auctions, London |
| CW |
Chiswick auctions, London |
| DW |
Dominic Winter auctions, South Cerney, Gloucestershire |
| EB |
eBay online auctions |
| EW |
Ewbank’s auctions, Woking, Surrey |
| FM |
Forum auctions, London |
| Grant |
William Blake’s Designs for Edward Young’s “Night Thoughts,” ed. John E. Grant, Edward J. Rose, and Michael J. Tolley, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon P, 1980) |
| illus. |
illustration(s), illustrated |
| JCB |
James Cummins Bookseller, New York |
| LLY |
Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker, London |
| NYBF |
New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, 21-24 April |
| PHB |
Peter Harrington Rare Books, London |
| pl(s). |
plate(s) |
| SBS |
Subun-So Book Store, Tokyo |
| SL |
Sotheby’s auctions, London |
| SNY |
Sotheby’s auctions, New York |
| SP |
Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1983) |
| SRB |
Sims Reed Rare Books, London |
| st(s). |
state(s) of an engraving, etching, or lithograph |
| SWD |
Sworders auctions, Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex |
| Windle |
John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller, San Francisco |
| # |
auction lot or catalogue item number |
Illuminated Books
Songs of Innocence, copy W, pl. 19 (“Holy Thursday”) only. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #49, illus. (“Sold” in Jan. 2020 to a Canadian private collector). For illus. and comments, see the 2016 sales review, Blake 50.4 (spring 2017): illus. 4.
Songs of Innocence, copy Y, pls. 16 and 17 (“A Cradle Song”) only. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #50, both pls. illus. (“Sold” in April 2018 to a private collector). For earlier sales and illus. of pl. 16, see the 2007 sales review, Blake 41.4 (spring 2008): illus. 5. For earlier sales and illus. of pl. 17, see the 2017 sales review, Blake 51.4 (spring 2018): illus. 1, and the 2018 sales review, Blake 52.4 (spring 2019).
Songs of Innocence and of Experience. A posthumous copy printed by Frederick Tatham c. 1831–32, previously unrecorded. Windle, Feb. private offer, illus. (price on request). See illus. 1-2.
I have not inspected this copy. The information given here is based on high-resolution digital images of all pls. and a detailed description of the volume provided by Annika Green and Rachel Eley of John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller. The description below covers the same details provided for illuminated books in BB and BBS; it is intended as a supplement to those 2 bibliographies.
Copy designation: The last posthumous copy listed in BBS is copy p. In 2014 Bentley designated an untraced volume as copy q.“William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2013,” Blake 48.1 (summer 2014): entry for “Copy q.” Apparently a posthumous copy, known only from its listing in 2 Quaritch cats., March 1871 and April 1873. In both cats., the vol. is titled “Songs of Innocence” and described as “a Series of 20 Poems” (1871) and “a Series of 20 plates” (1873). I suspect that “20 plates” is the more accurate description. Perhaps Bentley added the vol. to his census of the combined Songs, rather than Songs of Innocence, on the off-chance that it contained 1 or more pls. from Experience. Accordingly, this copy can be designated as copy r.
Plates in order bound and number of leaves: b, 1-54 (55 pls. on the rectos of 55 leaves). The binding order of pls. 1-54, often considered the standard arrangement, is also found in posthumous copies b, c, and j. This sequence was established by Tatham.See Joseph Viscomi, “Posthumous Blake: The Roles of Catherine Blake, C. H. Tatham, and Frederick Tatham in Blake’s Afterlife,” Blake 53.2 (fall 2019): pars. 61-65. Viscomi demonstrates that posthumous copies a, i, and possibly copy e were originally arranged in the standard order. Indeed, “all the [posthumous] copies” may have “been initially in standard order” (par. 65). The placement of pl. b, “A Divine Image,” at the beginning of the volume, rather than as an appendix at the end, is both odd and unique.
Ink: Dark sepia (dark reddish brown). No hand coloring other than some slight touches of gray wash on pl. 28, the frontispiece to Songs of Experience (see illus. 2 and its caption for details).
Numbering: 0-54 in pencil above the top right corner of each pl. in an unidentified hand. Although Tatham established the sequence of pls. 1-54, the numbering is probably not his. The “0” on “A Divine Image” appears to be in a different hand from all the other numbers. Many leaves show evidence of erased or partly erased numbers in pencil; these indicate a different, earlier sequencing of the pls. For example, pl. 38 includes a partly erased “48” below and to the right of its number “38”.
Paper: Wove.
Leaf size: Ranging between 19.0 x 15.4 cm. and 20.0 x 16.0 cm. Fourteen leaves show deckle edges.
Watermark: J Whatman | 1831. Parts of the watermark appear on the leaves numbered 0, 6, 19, 21, 23, 26, 32, 34, 37, 38, and 47.
Stabholes: None visible.
Binding: Full red morocco by Riviere & Son, probably c. 1900–20, top edges gilt. Covers tooled in blind, backstrip with 5 raised bands, compartments with decorations and title (“Songs of Innocence”) in gilt.
Provenance: Frederick Tatham, who printed this copy; acquired, probably c. 1831–32, by Tatham’s friend Isaac Faulkner Bird (1803–84), a portrait artist; his nephew, F. Faulkner White, probably by inheritance in 1884 but no later than early 1885; the Exeter book dealer J. G. Commin by Feb. 1885; sold at an unrecorded date to the present owner’s great-great-grandfather, a member of a distinguished American family; by descent to the present American owner; on consignment with Windle Feb. 2022. I have not received permission to publish the name of the first American owner or the present owner.
The provenance to 1885 is based on a brief letter by White, addressed to Commin and dated “26th July 1886”, kept with the volume: “The copy of Blakes Songs of innocence & experience which I sold you at Cowper place, Leeds on 12th Feby 1885 was the property of my Uncle I. Faulkner Bird who was an intimate friend of the Blakes.” I. F. Bird is very probably the “Mr. Bird” who on 23 Oct. 1831 attended Catherine Blake’s funeral, according to Tatham’s “Life of Blake” (BR[2] 691), and on that occasion was given copy F of Blake’s For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise by Tatham (BB pp. 202-03). I. F. Bird may also be the “Mr Bird” who acquired a copy of Blake’s Job engravings from John Linnell on 27 Dec. 1830 (BR[2] 793, 801). Other than White’s letter, there is no record of an “intimate” friendship between Bird and the Blakes.
1. Title page to Songs of Innocence and of Experience, posthumous copy r. BB pl. 1. Relief etching printed in dark sepia (dark reddish brown) ink, image and platemark 11.4 x 7.1 cm. on leaf of Whatman wove paper 20.0 x 16.0 cm. Second st. (of 2), found only in posthumous copies. Numbered “1” in pencil upper right. Photo courtesy of John Windle.
2. Frontispiece to
Songs of Experience, posthumous copy r.
BB pl. 28. Relief etching and white-line engraving printed in dark sepia (dark reddish brown) ink with touches of gray wash, image and platemark 11.1 x 7.1 cm. on leaf of Whatman wove paper 20.0 x 16.0 cm. This illus. trimmed close to the print. Second st. (of 2), found only in posthumous copies. Numbered “28” in pencil upper right with fragments of an erased pencil number further to the right. Photo courtesy of John Windle.
Slight touches of gray wash appear on the standing figure’s lower torso just above his right leg and extending to his right hip, on his upper left leg, and on his right inner thigh. Very small patches of wash are on his right upper arm, left arm just above his left armpit, left elbow, and left wrist, below his left breast, left of his right eye, and on and to the right of his throat. Perhaps the tinting on his lower torso and legs was intended to complement the white-line work in the same or adjacent areas added to the pl. in this 2nd st. Similar shading has been added to the winged child on the right side of his chest (from the viewer’s standpoint) and on his genital area. There are also small patches of gray wash left and right of the standing figure’s left knee, right of his left lower foot, on and around his right foot, and on the back of the frontmost sheep on the left. These additions, like the conversion of the 1st into the 2nd st., were presumably executed by Tatham. Part of the platemaker’s mark prints in blind upper left, above and to the left of the standing figure’s raised right hand.
Drawings and Paintings
A Girl Full-Face with Bare Breasts. Pencil sketch from the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, leaf approximately 15.5 x 20.5 cm., c. 1819. Butlin #692.82. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #223, illus. ($19,500). Previously sold CL, 15 June 1971, #148 (£147 to Alfred Essex, London); previously offered by the London dealer Jonny Yarker, Nov. 2018 private offer ($10,000).
A Seated Monarch with an Agonized Expression. Pencil sketch from the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, leaf approximately 15.5 x 20.5 cm., c. 1819, inscribed in pencil by Blake “Crimson” on the man’s shirt or cloak and “Green” on his breeches. Butlin #692.64. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #222, illus. ($19,500). Previously sold CL, 15 June 1971, #158, illus. black and white (£252 to Alfred Essex, London); previously offered by the London art dealer Jonny Yarker, Nov. 2018 private offer ($10,000).
Visionary Head of Queen Boadicea (recto), sketch of geometric and architectural forms (verso). Pencil, leaf of wove paper 20.5 x 15.5 cm. (previously recorded as 19.9 x 15.5 cm.). Probably removed from the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook of c. 1819 at an early date. Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2021. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #221, recto illus. (“Sold” in 2021 to a British private collector). For earlier sales, comments, and illus. of recto and verso, see the 2021 sales review, Blake 55.4 (spring 2022): illus. 4 and 5.
Whilst Surfeited upon Thy Damask Cheek, an illus. to Robert Blair’s The Grave. Watercolor, 19.6 x 13.3 cm., datable to 1805. Not in Butlin because not discovered until 2001. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #184, illus. (“Sold” in Oct. 2020 by Marburg Ltd. to Essick, Windle acting as his agent). Previously offered SNY, 2 May 2006, #5, illus. (not sold; highest bid $520,000 on an estimate of $700,000-$1,000,000), and SNY, 25 Jan. 2017, #108, illus. (not sold; highest bid $160,000 on an estimate of $180,000-240,000). For illus. and comments, see the 2006 sales review, Blake 40.4 (spring 2007): 122 and illus. 3.
Manuscripts
Alexander Tilloch (Scottish inventor and engraver, 1759–1825). Manuscript testimonial, dated “5th April 1797”, indicating that Tilloch’s invention of a way of engraving banknotes created bills that could not be forged by any of the 12 engravers who signed the document, including “Willm Blake” (the poet and artist), the engraver “Willm Staden Blake” (1748–1814), and “James Basire” (Blake’s engraving master, 1730–1802, or his son and successor of the same name). Windle, Aug. private offer (price on inquiry; sold Sept. to the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto). For a description of the manuscript, complete transcription, early printed versions of the testimonial, and discussion of the historical context of Tilloch’s invention, see Mark Crosby, “Blake and the Banknote Crises of 1797, 1800, and 1818,” University of Toronto Quarterly 80.4 (fall 2011): 815-36. A printed version of the testimonial at McMaster University Library, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is quoted in part in BR(2) 78. Engravings by W. S. Blake have sometimes been misattributed to Blake the poet and artist.
Receipt signed by Blake, 5 July 1805, to Thomas Butts for £5.7s. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #171, illus. ($150,000); same price, April online cat. for the NYBF, #1, illus. For earlier sales and comments, see the 2019 sales review, Blake 53.4 (spring 2020). According to BR(2) 764, this receipt repeats another of the same date and amount specifying that the payment was for 4 of Blake’s large color-printed drawings, The Good and Evil Angels, The House of Death, God Judging Adam, and Lamech and His Two Wives.
First Editions of Blake’s Writings First Published in Letterpress in Blake’s Lifetime
Poetical Sketches, 1783, BB and BBS copy E. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #11, full morocco, quarter morocco box (“Sold” in 2019 to the Charles Deering McCormick Library, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois). For earlier sales, see the 2007 sales review, Blake 41.4 (spring 2008): 147, the 2017 sales review, Blake 51.4 (spring 2018), and the 2018 sales review, Blake 52.4 (spring 2019). For a black-and-white illus. of the title page, including John Flaxman’s presentation inscription, see Blake 40.4 (spring 2007): back cover.
Separate Plates and Plates in Series
“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims.” Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #217, 5th st., Colnaghi impression on laid India, framed ($35,000); another impression, #218, 5th st., Colnaghi impression on laid India, illus. ($25,000). SRB, Feb. private offer to Windle, 3rd st., with repaired tears into the image, framed, illus. ($40,000); same impression, Sept. online cat., illus. (£40,000).
Dante engravings. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #248, complete set, an early printing on laid paper, the set sold from the Doheny Memorial Library, 21 Feb. 1989, #1713, foxed ($60,500 to the dealer Donald Heald), now cleaned, illus. ($350,000); #249-52, pls. 2, 4-6 only offered individually, impressions on laid India, illus. ($8500 for pl. 2, $12,500 for pl. 4, $8750 for pl. 5, $6500 for pl. 6); #253, pl. 1 only, 1954 printing “on hand-made paper,” illus. ($7500).
“The Fall of Rosamond,” after Stothard, 2nd st., 1783. Leaf of wove paper trimmed on the platemark to 39.5 x 33.3 cm. CW, 15 July, #223, illus. (£3250 to Windle acting for Essick; estimate £100-200). This impression not recorded in SP. According to Anon., “Monthly Retrospect of the Fine Arts,” Monthly Magazine 11.3 (April 1801): 246, Thomas Macklin, the publisher of “The Fall of Rosamond,” paid Blake £80 to engrave this work. Briefly noted in BR(2) 758.
“George Cumberland’s Card.” Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #258, “printed in black ink on thick card,” trimmed close to the image on the left and right margins, illus. ($20,000).
“The Idle Laundress,” after Morland, 1788. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #38, 2nd st. of “The Idle Laundress” with the 3rd st. of “Industrious Cottager,” both printed in brown, titles and imprints cut off and pasted to the backing mats, illus. (“Sold”). For earlier sales, see the 2018 sales review, Blake 52.4 (spring 2019). EW, 23 June, #2057, 3rd st., illus. (£625 to Windle for stock).
“Industrious Cottager,” after Morland. See “The Idle Laundress,” above.
Job engravings. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #232, complete set, published “Proof” impressions on laid India, with the letterpress label, individually matted, illus. ($125,000); #233, complete set, published “Proof” impressions on laid India, bound in morocco, illus. ($89,500); #234, pl. numbered 8 only, published “Proof” impression on so-called “French” paper, illus. ($2950); #235, pl. numbered 9 only, published “Proof” impression on laid India, illus. ($3250); #236-39, pls. numbered 4, 7, 8, and 12 only, impressions on Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, offered individually, illus. ($1950 each); #240, complete set, 1874 printing on laid India, loose in a morocco box “slightly worn,” illus. ($47,500). PHB, June online cat., complete set, published “Proof” impressions on “French paper,” later 19th-century half morocco, illus. (£57,500). Interencheres auction, Lyon, France, 16 Sept., #261, complete set, impressions on Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, leaves 37.5 x 26.7 cm., bookplate of Henri Focillon (art historian and poet, 1881–1943), early boards with calf spine, binding illus. (€19,000); same copy, SRB, Dec. cat., #8, illus. (£60,000).
“The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour,” 2nd st., SP impression 2L. Windle, April private offer (acquired by Essick). See illus. 3 and compare to illus. 4.
Provenance: As in SP to 1998; offered by the London dealer Andrew Edmunds in March 1998 (price on inquiry); offered SL, 11 Dec. 1998, #111, illus. in black and white (not sold; estimate £30,000-40,000); acquired by Windle, Feb. 1999; offered by Windle, Nov. 1999 online cat. 31, #16 (price on inquiry), April 2001 cat. 32, #19, illus. (price on inquiry), and Sept. 2003 cat. 36, #11, illus. (price on inquiry); sold July 2006 by Windle, in partnership with Maggs Bros., to a British private collector; acquired by Windle, in partnership with SRB, April 2022; acquired by Essick as above.
3. “The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour.” White-line metal cut, datable to c. 1822 (see
enlargement). Second st.,
SP impression 2L. Image and platemark 8.0 x 16.1 cm. on leaf of wove paper 9.3 x 17.6 cm. Essick collection.
According to SP p. 106, the leaf has a “[JW]hatm[an] | 1821” watermark running “vertically on the right, cut by the edge of the sheet.” This information was supplied by Michael Phillips, a previous owner of this impression. Although I can see part of the letter “m” of this watermark, I am unable to confirm Phillips’s reading.
This impression shows dramatic contrasts between black and white areas because of heavy inking of the relief surface of the metal pl. A comparison with a lightly inked example (illus. 4) demonstrates how management of the inking ball can determine the visual impact of a printed design. Heavy inking almost inevitably brings with it a tendency to clog—and thus mask—fine white-line work in a pl. such as “The Man Sweeping.” For example, the rectangular bar of solid black ink extending diagonally from the top center edge of the print in illus. 3 obscures the wavy, vertical white lines present in illus. 4. Similarly, most of the horizontal white lines defining the floor right of the large bat-winged figure’s broom in illus. 4 are not visible in illus. 3. Collectors would probably prefer this richly inked impression to one that is lightly inked, but a full consideration of what Blake executed on the metal pl. requires attention to the latter.
4. “The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour.” White-line metal cut, datable to c. 1822 (see
enlargement). Second st.,
SP impression 2E. Image and platemark 8.0 x 16.1 cm. on leaf of wove paper 12.2 x 19.0 cm. Inscribed below the image in pencil “W. Blake” in an unknown hand. Blake’s pencil sketch
Samson Pulling Down the Pillars of the Temple on verso (not illus. here). This illus. cropped inside the edges of the leaf. Essick collection.
For some comparisons of this lightly inked impression with one that is darkly inked, see illus. 3 and its caption.
“Mrs Q,” after Villiers. Grosvenor Prints, Sept. online cat., with the companion print, “Windsor Castle,” engraved by Maile after “I. B.” (J. Barrow?), “both plates trimmed just within platemark, some creasing on ‘Mrs Q,’” only “Windsor Castle” illus. (£1650 the pair). Possibly the convincing lithographic facsimiles.
Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake
Allen, Roman History, 1798. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #147, Blake’s 4 pls. only, imprints present, illus. ($1250).
Ariosto, Orlando furioso. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #16, 1783 ed., 5 vols., contemporary calf worn and repaired, illus. ($975); #18, 1799 ed., 5 vols., contemporary calf worn, illus. ($500). Zubal Books, Feb. online cat., 1799 ed., 5 vols., 19th-century half calf worn, illus. (not priced; “no longer available”). Addison & Sarova auction, Social Circle, Georgia, 16 July, #24, 1783 ed., 5 vols., “occasional foxing,” contemporary calf repaired, illus. ($500). Rodger Friedman, Sept. online cat., 1783 ed., 5 vols., scattered foxing, contemporary calf, illus. ($725).
Bible, The Protestant’s Family Bible, [1780–81]. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #6, 19th-century calf worn, new endpapers, illus. (“Sold”); #7-10, Blake’s pls. 1-3, 5 only, illus. ($675 each).
Bible, The Royal Universal Family Bible, 1780–81. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #4, 2 vols. in 1, early calf very worn, illus. ($7950).
Blair, The Grave. Whitmore Rare Books, Jan. online cat., 1808 quarto, imprint trimmed off Blake’s pl. 1, early 20th-century calf, slipcase, illus. ($3950). CW, 27 Jan., #120, 1808 quarto, “light soiling,” later half calf worn, illus. (£600). Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #185, 1808 folio, 19th-century half morocco worn, illus. ($8950); #186, 1808 quarto, uncut in original boards, cloth box worn, illus. ($9750); #187-99, complete group of pls. only (including the frontispiece portrait of Blake) from the 1808 quarto offered individually, all illus. (ranging between $275 and $675 each); #200, 1813 folio, modern boards with morocco backstrip, illus. ($9750); #201-11, Blake’s pls. 1-5, 7, 8-12 only from the 1813 quarto offered individually, all illus. (ranging between $395 and $875 each); #212, [1870] “4to” (actually a folio), publisher’s cloth ($1975). Cotswold Auction Company auction, Cheltenham, 8 Feb., #343, [1870] folio, publisher’s cloth, bookplate of Osbert Sitwell, with Songs of Innocence and Experience with Other Poems, pub. Pickering, 1866, publisher’s cloth worn, illus. (£187.50). Potter & Potter auction, Chicago, 26 Feb., #248, 1813 quarto, modern quarter goatskin, illus. ($1250). EB, April, 1808 quarto, “stain to 4 plates at fore-edges,” modern half calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $1800); same copy and price, D & D Galleries, April online cat., illus. Bloomsbury auction, London, 27 April, #30, “1813” ed., pls. foxed, “original black cloth” (and thus probably the [1870] issue), illus. (not sold; estimate £200-300). FM, 5 July, #213, [1870] ed., some pls. badly foxed, publisher’s cloth very worn, illus. (£162.50); 14 July, #172, 1808 quarto, scattered foxing, “modern morocco-backed cloth,” illus. (£1250). DW, 20 July, #316, 1813 quarto, marginal stains on some pls., later buckram worn, illus. (£204). SWD, 23 Aug., #192, 1808 quarto, later quarter calf, with a copy of Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 1863, 2 vols., publisher’s cloth worn, illus. (£687.50).
Blair, The Grave, prepublication proof of Blake’s pl. 7, “The Descent of Man into the Vale of Death.” With drypoint signatures, as in the 1st published st., but before all other letters. Leaf of wove paper 27.5 x 16.7 cm. Lacking many hatching strokes in the design, particularly evident on the path, on the rocks (for example behind the woman holding a child, upper right), on the head of the figure immediately adjacent to the center right edge of the design, on the left knee and lower left leg of the man holding his hands in prayer (lower center), on the right upper leg of the woman holding a baby to her breast (lower right), and on the child farthest right in the group of children at the bottom of the design. A so-called “touched” proof, with diagonal pencil strokes over the rocks in several areas, particularly evident lower right and left. This pencil work very probably executed by Luigi Schiavonetti as a way of indicating further work to be done on the copperplate. Generously given Oct. by Detlef W. Dörrbecker to Essick on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Blower, Maria: A Novel, 1785. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #24, pl. only, illus. (“Sold”).
Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations … of Shakspeare, c. 1803. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #157, publisher’s morocco worn and repaired, binding illus. ($9500).
Bryant, New System … of Ancient Mythology. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #1, 1st ed., 1774–76, 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (“Sold”); #2, 2nd ed., 1775–76, 3 vols., contemporary calf worn, illus. ($1250).
Bürger, Leonora, 1796. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #119, bound with 7 other eds. of the poem, including the 1796 ed. with illus. by Diana Beauclerk, “old calf, very worn, covers detached, preserved in a new box,” illus. ($29,750). Mallams auction, Oxford, 24 Feb., #481, later morocco, with Kálidása, The Megha Dúta, trans. H. H. Wilson, 1843, in a separate vol., illus. (£676 to Windle for stock); same copy (without Kálidása), Windle, April online cat. for the NYBF, #5, illus. ($19,750). FM, 26 May, #219, lacking the half title, “10mm tear to lower margin” of pl. 1, contemporary calf, illus. (£2176).
Catullus, Poems, 1795. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #108, 2 vols. in 1, early boards with modern calf backstrip, illus. (“Sold”).
Cumberland, Attempt to Describe Hafod, 1796. Madoc Books, May online cat., several brown stains on the pl., original boards worn, illus. (£995; acquired by Windle on behalf of an American private collector). Windle, June private offer, pl. “slightly browned as usual,” recent morocco ($4950).
Darwin, Botanic Garden. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #77, 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, “occasional foxing,” contemporary calf rebacked (“Sold”); #78, Blake’s pl. 1 only, “margins foxed,” illus. ($875). FM, 10 March, #165, 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, “some foxing,” inscribed in ink on the title page, “Harriet Duchess of St Albans Septr 6 1829 This book was given to the Duchess when Mrs. Coutts by Mr Fuseli,” contemporary calf very worn, upper cover detached, illus. (£687.50 to Windle for stock); same copy, Windle, June online cat., Recent Acquisitions, #3, “covers rehinged,” illus. ($2950). EB, July, 2nd ed. of Part 1, 1791, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf very worn, illus. (£328); Nov., 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, lacking frontispiece (not by Blake) to Part 2, modern calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £650). Forest Books, Sept. online cat., 1st ed. of Part 1, 3rd ed. of Part 2, both 1791, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary morocco, illus. (£1200). FM, 6 Oct., #128, 3rd ed. of Part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of Part 2, 1794, 2 vols. in 1, pls. in vol. 1 foxed, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, Blake’s pl. 6 illus. (£314.40 to Windle for stock).
Darwin, Poetical Works, 1806. EB, Feb., 3 vols., “lacking covers,” illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $325).
Enfield, The Speaker. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #3, 1781 ed., later calf worn, illus. (“Sold”). EB, March, 1797 ed., contemporary calf very worn, “both boards almost completely detached,” illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £34.99); same copy, March, illus. (£34.99). JCB, Oct. online cat., The Romantics, no entry no., 1785 ed., contemporary morocco, available at the same price since 2012, binding illus. ($750).
Flaxman, Hesiod designs, 1817. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #220, bound with Flaxman’s Aeschylus designs, 1831, early half morocco worn, binding illus. ($500). PHB, April online cat., half calf, illus. (£750); another copy, original boards with cover label, inscribed by Flaxman to his friend William Gunn, illus., the copy sold at SWD, 11 Sept. 2018, #59, with Flaxman’s Iliad and Odyssey designs, 1793, and the Dante designs, 1807, in 4 vols., for £516.50 (£2000). Mallams auction, Oxford, 23 Sept., #700, bound with Flaxman’s Iliad designs, 1805, Odyssey designs, 1805, and Aeschylus designs, 1831, later calf, illus. (£125).
Flaxman, Iliad designs, 1805. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #178, “some foxing throughout,” contemporary half morocco worn, illus. (“Sold”). EB, April, bound with Flaxman’s Odyssey designs, 1805, later half calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of €400); another copy, Oct.-Nov., scattered foxing, large water stain on cover and Blake’s pl. 1, original boards with title label, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £119.99); same copy, Nov. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £119.99). See also the Hesiod designs, above.
Gay, Fables, 1793. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #91, 2 vols. in 1, contemporary calf worn and rebacked, illus. ($1500). DW, 2 March, #229, 2 vols., “light spotting,” contemporary calf worn, illus. (£480). JCB, Oct. online cat., The Romantics, no entry no., 2 vols., contemporary morocco, available at the same price since 2012, illus. ($1750).
Gough, Sepulchral Monuments, 1786. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #25, contemporary calf worn (“Sold”); #26, proof of Blake’s pl. 10, “Portrait of Queen Philippa from Her Monument,” illus. (“Sold” 2020 to the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto). For the proof, see the 2020 sales review, Blake 54.4 (spring 2021): illus. 4.
Hartley, Observations on Man, 1791. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #79, pl. only, “a little soiled,” illus. ($750).
Hayley, Ballads, 1805. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #172, 1st sts. of pls. 1-3, contemporary calf rebacked, illus. ($6500); #173, pl. 3 only, 1st st., stain in lower margin, illus. ($975); #174, pl. 4 only, only st., illus. ($975); another copy of the book, #175, 2nd sts. of pls. 1-3, bound with Salomon Gessner, The Death of Abel, 1803, contemporary calf rebacked, binding illus. ($4250). SBS, March cat., #10, 2nd sts. of pls. 1-3, presentation inscription from George Cumberland to his daughter Eliza Martha Cumberland, modern calf, illus. ($4517). Leland Little auction, Hillsborough, North Carolina, 5 May, #271, 2nd sts. of pls. 1-3, 19th-century calf worn, illus. ($1187.50). JCB, Oct. online cat., The Romantics, no entry no., sts. of pls. not recorded, contemporary half calf, binding illus. ($4500).
Hayley, Designs to a Series of Ballads, 1802. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #156, pl. 1 only, illus. ($49,500). DW, 21 July, #330, “The Eagle” only, the 2nd ballad issued, “original tissue guard to each plate, light paper toning, untrimmed, stitched as issued in pale blue paper wrappers, with printed title on upper cover,” illus. (£23,370 to Windle acting for a private American collector; estimate £1500-2000).
Hayley, Essay on Sculpture, 1800. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #152-54, the 3 pls. only offered individually, “a little browned around the edges,” illus. (pl. 1 $375, pl. 2 $495, pl. 3 $595). EB, Oct., pls. foxed, contemporary calf repaired, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $375).
Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803–04. Aldridges of Bath online auction, 25 Jan., #253, ed. not specified, 3 vols., contemporary half calf worn, illus. (£48, a price suggesting that there are condition problems with this copy not mentioned in the brief cat. entry). Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #161, 1st ed., 3 vols. with the supplement of 1806 bound in vol. 3, pl. 4 in the 2nd st., contemporary calf worn, illus. ($1250); #162, 2nd ed., 3 vols., pl. 4 in the 4th (final) st., contemporary half calf worn, illus. ($1250). EB, April, 1st ed., 3 vols., with the supplement of 1806 in a 4th vol., uncut in original boards, printed spine labels, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £357.50); another copy, Aug., 1st ed., 3 vols., scattered foxing on pls., contemporary calf rebacked with modern calf, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £1485); same copy, Rooke Books, Aug. online cat., illus. (£1350).
Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #214, “large paper copy,” later half calf, illus. ($3250); #215, apparently the small-paper issue, half calf worn, illus. ($575); #216, Blake’s pl. only, illus. ($450).
Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #158, large-paper copy, later morocco, illus. ($2750); #159, large-paper copy, contemporary calf, illus. ($2750); #160, small-paper copy, scattered foxing to the pls., “signed at the front by W. M. Rossetti in ink and dated 1868,” early calf worn, illus. ($975). Besleys Books, July online cat., scattered foxing, contemporary morocco worn, illus. (£260). Addison & Sarova auction, Social Circle, Georgia, 22 Oct., #268, large-paper copy, original boards, illus. ($500).
See also C. A. Tulk (1786–1849) under Interesting Blakeana.
Hoare, Inquiry, 1806. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #179, original boards worn, illus. ($2750); #180, Blake’s pl. only, “a little soiled,” illus. ($875).
Hogarth, The Beggar’s Opera by Hogarth and Blake, 1965. EB, Jan., Blake’s pl. only, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $125); July, publisher’s cloth box damaged, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $118.97 or “best offer”). Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #110, publisher’s cloth box, illus. ($975).
Hogarth, Works. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #109, Blake’s pl. only, 3rd st., illus. ($3500). EB, April-May, 1790 ed., the copy offered on EB in Oct. 2021 (no bids on a required minimum bid of $8500), with the 2nd st. of Blake’s pl., modern half calf, illus. ($4500); Aug., Blake’s pl. only, probably 4th st., illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €58.99). David Lay auction, Penzance, 22 July, #572, Blake’s pl. only, 3rd st., margins badly foxed, illus. (no bids on an estimate of £80-120). Westport auction, Norwalk, Connecticut, 15 Nov., #394, possibly 4th st., framed, illus. ($112.50). It is difficult to determine the sts. of impressions of this pl. based on low-resolution online images.
Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793, quarto issue. Tennants auction, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, 18 May, #2189, contemporary calf, illus. (£1037). Australian Book auction, Armadale, 23 Nov., #16, 19th-century half calf, illus. ($3556 Australian).
Josephus, Genuine and Complete Works, c. 1785–87. DW, 17 Aug., #47, BB issue A, contemporary calf worn, illus. (£60). EB, Nov., BB issue A, contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $702 or “best offer”).
Lavater, Aphorisms. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #47, 1789 ed., 1st st. of Blake’s pl., contemporary calf worn, illus. ($595); #48, 1794 ed., 2nd st. of Blake’s pl., contemporary calf worn, illus. ($295). Alex Alec-Smith, Nov. online cat., 1794 ed., st. of the pl. not recorded, contemporary calf, binding illus. (£85).
Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1810. EB, Sept., 3 vols. in 5, original(?) boards very worn, leaves loose, scattered foxing, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $550).
Malkin, Father’s Memoirs of His Child, 1806. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #181, George Goyder’s copy with his bookplate, original boards worn with “later spine,” illus. ($3000); #182, contemporary morocco worn, illus. ($1875); #183, Blake’s pl. only, “trimmed to the image, recently cleaned,” illus. ($200). JCB, Oct. online cat., The Romantics, no entry no., original boards rebacked with cloth, available at the same price since 2012, binding illus. ($1500).
Novelist’s Magazine, vols. 10-11 (Sir Charles Grandison), 1783. EB, Oct., 2 vols., contemporary calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £350); another copy, Nov., 2 vols., 19th-century half calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $412 or “best offer”).
Olivier, Fencing Familiarized, 1780. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #5, uncut in original boards worn, modern clamshell box, illus. (“Sold”). Stride & Son auction, Chichester, 7 April, #192, “scattered foxing,” half calf with “boards detached,” illus. (£177). BHL, 22 June, #85, modern pigskin worn, illus. (£609.60).
Remember Me! Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #247, [1825] for “1826,” Blake’s pl. lightly foxed and with a water stain in the right margin, “publisher’s original printed yellow paper boards, no backstrip,” illus. ($29,500); another copy, April online cat. for the NYBF, #2, [1824] for “1825,” publisher’s “original full brown calf” a little worn, illus. ($30,000). SL, 12-19 July online auction, #118, [1824] for “1825,” Blake’s pl. browned, half calf worn, illus. (no bids on an estimate of £1000-1500). The issue for 1826 is considerably rarer than the issue for 1825.
Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #19, 3 vols., contemporary calf rebacked, illus. (“Sold”).
Salzmann, Elements of Morality, 1792. EB, Feb., 3 vols., lacking 2 unidentified pls., some pls. partly hand colored, contemporary half calf very worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £390); same copy, July, illus. (£402).
Scott, Poetical Works, 1782. More Booksellers, June online cat., 19th-century calf worn, illus. ($315.45, but “no longer available”). Raptis Rare Books, Aug. online cat., 19th-century calf, illus. ($375).
Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802. Hindman auction, West Palm Beach, Florida, 8 Dec., 9 vols., “extensive foxing,” later calf, bindings illus. (not sold; estimate $600-800).
Shakespeare, Plays, 1805. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #176, 10 vol. issue, contemporary Russia, illus. ($5750); #177, Blake’s pl. 1 only, “some toning and spotting,” illus. ($500). Lucius Books, Feb. online cat., 9 vol. issue, contemporary Russia, illus. (£1500). EB, March, 9 vol. issue, apparently lacking Blake’s pl. 2, later calf very worn, some backstrips missing, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of £399.99); same copy, March, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £399.99 or “best offer”); another copy, Nov., 9 vols., contemporary calf worn, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £252).
Shakespeare, Plays, 1805, prepublication proof of Blake’s pl. 2. Alessandro Borgato, online cat. for Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair, 15-18 Sept., #10, with signatures but before all other letters on a leaf of wove paper 21.1 x 12.3 cm. (€1800; acquired by Windle and generously given to Essick on the occasion of his 80th birthday).
Stedman, Narrative, colored copies. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #111, 1796 ed., vol. 1 only, contemporary calf, illus. ($12,500); #113, 1806 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf repaired, illus. ($19,500); #115, 1813 ed., Blake’s pls. 1, 3-5, 7, 12, 13, and 15 only, illus. ($2500). East Bristol online auction, 21-24 May, #4, 1806 ed., 2 vols., contemporary Russia worn, illus. (£6545). SWD, 23 Aug., #261, 1806 ed., 2 vols. in 1, modern half calf, illus. (£8125). Van de Wiele auction, 1 Oct., #1031, 1806 ed., 2 vols. in 1, colored pls. probably remainders from the 1796 printing, vellum binding, illus. (€10,400).
Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #112, 1796 ed., 2 vols., contemporary calf rebacked, bindings illus. ($7500); #114, 1813 ed., 2 vols. in 1, early boards rebacked in calf, illus. ($6750); #116, Blake’s pls. 8, 9, and 11 only, illus. ($500). Potter & Potter auction, Chicago, 20 Oct., #0217, 1796 ed., 2 vols., “uncut” but with “some browning or spotting to plates” and marginal “dampstain” on a few pls. in vol. 1, contemporary half morocco, illus. ($3250). EB, Nov., 1806 ed., 2 vols., “some light toning and marginal staining,” modern half calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £3950). Quinn’s auction, Falls Church, Virginia, 29 Nov., #269, 1796 ed., 2 vols., some pls. heavily foxed, contemporary calf, illus. ($1524).
Varley, Zodiacal Physiognomy, 1828. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #259, 1st sts. of Blake’s pls. 2-3, presentation inscription from Varley to Martin Archer Shee (1769–1850), “original boards, covers re-attached, plates cleaned,” folding box, illus. (“Sold” in Feb. 2016 to Essick); #260, Blake’s pl. 1 only, “cleaned,” illus. ($1500).
Virgil, Pastorals, 1821. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #227, 2 vols., with a presentation inscription by the editor, Robert John Thornton, to his daughter, publisher’s sheep a bit worn, modern box, illus. ($67,500); #228, 2 vols., modern calf, illus. ($47,500); #229, Blake’s 17 wood engravings only, mounted in an album, bookplate of Samuel Boddington (1766–1843), very probably printed by Edward Calvert and sold to Boddington by John Linnell, illus. (“Sold” in 2021 by PHB to Essick, Windle acting as his agent); #520, Blake’s 2nd wood engraving only, inserted in Essick and Windle, A Troubled Paradise, 1999, no. 2 of 13 copies with original prints, paper wrappers, cloth box ($3500). DW, 9 March, #181, vol. 1 only (containing Blake’s 17 wood engravings), contemporary calf worn, illus. (£6480); same copy, SRB, Sept. online cat., illus. (£14,000); same copy and price, SRB, Dec. cat., #7, illus. Windle, April online cat. for the NYBF, #6, the copy with a presentation inscription to Thornton’s daughter (see 1st entry above), illus. ($67,500).
For further information about the Calvert impressions from Boddington’s collection and illus., see the 2021 sales review, Blake 55.4 (spring 2022): entry for Virgil wood engravings and illus. 7.
Virgil, The Wood Engravings of William Blake for Thornton’s Virgil, 1977. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #230, publisher’s box, illus. ($12,500); same copy and price, April online cat. for the NYBF, #7, illus. SBS, March cat., #12, publisher’s box, illus. ($7529).
Whitaker, The Seraph, c. 1818–28. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #139, Blake’s pl. only, 1st st., oddly described as being published in the “third edition,” but the st. of the pl. indicates 1st ed. (BB #512A), illus. ($225).
Wit’s Magazine, 1784–85. CW, 27 Jan., #41, 2 vols. in 1, with the 2nd version of Blake’s frontispiece in the Jan. 1784 issue (BB pl. 2, CB pl. 1B), some worm damage to text but not pls., contemporary boards rebacked, illus. (£625). Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #20, 2 vols., with the 2nd version of Blake’s frontispiece in the Jan. 1784 issue, contemporary calf worn, illus. ($3750); #21, 2 vols. in 1, with the 2nd version of Blake’s frontispiece in the Jan. 1784 issue, contemporary boards with modern calf backstrip, illus. ($3750).
Wollstonecraft, Original Stories. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #74, 1791 ed., 2nd sts. of all pls., modern calf, illus. ($8750); #75, Blake’s 6 pls. only, imprints trimmed off, 2nd sts. of pls. 1 and 2, 1st sts. of pls. 3-6, illus. ($3000); #76, 1796 ed., 3rd (final) sts. of all pls., contemporary calf worn, illus. (“Sold”). FM, 10 Feb., #138, 1791 ed., 2nd st. of pl. 1, sts. of other pls. not recorded but probably 2nd, modern calf, illus. (£2992). SBS, March cat., #9, 1791 ed., 2nd st. of pl. 1, sts. of other pls. not recorded but probably 2nd, full calf, “front cover repaired,” slipcase, illus. ($5646).
Young, Night Thoughts, 1797, colored copy. SL, 12-19 July online auction, #117, hand coloring added to 17 pls. (BB pls. 1-6, 8, 9, 12-20), pl. 11 in the 2nd st. of 2, lacking pp. 73-74 (and thus pl. 34) and the “Explanation” leaf, leaves 42.7 x 33.8 cm., short tears and repairs in some leaves, margins browned on most leaves, “19th century half black russia” worn, illus. (£25,200 to Windle in partnership with SRB). Shortly after acquisition, SRB disbound the vol., had the colored pls. professionally cleaned, and began offering them for sale individually. In Aug. I acquired pls. 3 and 12 from Windle before cleaning (see illus. 5). Not recorded in the census of colored copies in BB or BBS; recorded in Grant 1: 69, copy I-15.
5. Edward Young,
Night Thoughts, 1797. Detail of pl. 12, area shown approximately 10.5 x 16.0 cm. Colored copy I-15 in Grant 1: 69. Essick collection.
This detail of the skeleton in the bottom right corner of the pl. shows the fine hand tinting typical of this copy. The bones are enhanced, in both color and volume, with touches of gray, black, and blue tints, the last perhaps hinting at lichens or moss. We might ask, “Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3). The trumpet (only its bell shown here) held by a descending angel of the resurrection offers an answer.
According to Grant,
These statements lie behind the contention in the SL auction cat. that the coloring in this copy is “widely thought to be the work of Blake himself.” Based on digital images of all colored pls., I agree that the coloring on some pls. in copy I-15 is “superior” to that displayed in other type I copies, but the palette is the same, many colors are similarly placed on the same motifs, and the style in which the washes are applied is within the range of other type I copies. If indeed this copy was colored by Blake, then all type I copies could be attributed to him. For type I copies with all pls. hand colored, see the William Blake Archive, <http://www.blakearchive.org/copy/bb515.2?descId=bb515.2.comb.01> (Huntington Library, BB copy I), and <https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_field=all_fields&q=blake+young+night+thoughts> (Yale Center, BB copies N and Q). For a tentative attribution of the coloring in type I copies to Blake and his wife, Catherine, see the 2019 sales review, Blake 53.4 (spring 2020): illus. 2-4 and their captions.
Provenance of copy I-15: As in Grant 1: 69 to 1953; by descent to the vendor at SL from the English private collector who purchased the vol. from the London book dealer E. Seligman in 1953.
In early Nov. Windle provided me with the following prices and purchasers for individual pls. (6 pls. printed recto/verso):
| Pls. | Price |
| 1 | $50,000, sold to a private collector |
| 2 | $35,000 |
| 3 | Sold to Essick |
| 4/5 | $55,000, sold to a private French collector |
| 6 | $23,000, sold to a private collector |
| 8 | $37,500 |
| 9 | $35,000, sold to the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto |
| 12 | Sold to Essick |
| 13/14 | $75,000 |
| 15/16 | $55,000, sold to a private French collector |
| 17 | $45,000, sold to the E. J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, Toronto |
| 18 | $35,000 |
| 19 | $35,000 |
| 20 | $15,000 |
In a Dec. update, Windle reported that the E. J. Pratt Library had acquired pl. 8.
Young, Night Thoughts, 1797, uncolored copies. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #120, with the “Explanation” leaf, “very occasional toning and offsetting,” later half morocco slightly worn, illus. ($15,000); #121-38, a selection of Night Thoughts pls. offered individually, all illus. ($1250 each). W. C. Baker Rare Books, May online cat., lacking the “Explanation” leaf, “scattered foxing,” contemporary calf with modern morocco spine labels, illus. ($9000). Pierre Bergé & Associés auction, Paris, 20 June, #133, with the “Explanation” leaf and the bookplate of Paul Éluard (French poet, 1895–1952), “brown Russian leather,” illus. (€5852; estimate €800-1200); same copy, SRB, Dec. cat., #6, illus. (£12,500). CL, 21 Oct., #81, with the “Explanation” leaf, some minor defects, contemporary calf, illus. (£2750).
Interesting Blakeana
John Quincy, Pharmacopœia Officinalis & Extemporanea; or, a Complete English Dispensatory, London, 1733. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #403, inscribed in brown ink on the title page “William Blake | his Book” ($49,500). Possibly a copy owned by Blake. For discussion and illus., see Blake 34.4 (spring 2001): 109, illus. 2 and its caption.
Jakob Böhme, Works, the so-called “Law edition,” 1764–81. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #402, 4 vols., modern half calf ($22,500). EB, June, 4 vols., 19th-century half calf, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $23,125 or “best offer”). The ed. of Böhme known to Blake and perhaps owned by him—see his comment to Henry Crabb Robinson on the beauty of the “figures” (i.e., illus.) in “Law’s transl.n” (BR[2] 423).
Charles Augustus Tulk (1786–1849), friend and patron of Blake and John Flaxman. Cheffins auction, Cambridge, England, 13 Oct., #336, a collection of materials assembled by Tulk and other members of his family, including published engravings of J. Flaxman’s designs and Serena Viewing Herself in the Glass, 1 of 2 versions of a watercolor by Maria Flaxman illustrating W. Hayley’s Triumphs of Temper, many items illus. (£1369.50 to Justin Schiller of Battledore Ltd. for stock). Apparently the same Tulk family archive offered privately to Victoria University Library, Toronto, in Nov. 2018; see the 2018 sales review, Blake 52.4 (spring 2019). The design by M. Flaxman is not among Blake’s engravings for the 1803 ed. of Hayley’s poem. For further information on the unengraved illus., see CB p. 84 and Mark Crosby, “‘a Ladys Book’: Blake’s Engravings for Hayley’s The Triumphs of Temper,” Blake in Our Time: Essays in Honour of G. E. Bentley Jr., ed. Karen Mulhallen (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2010) 105-30.
George Crabbe, Tales. London: J. Hatchard, 1812. EB, March, signed in ink “WBlake” on the front free endpaper, contemporary quarter calf worn, illus. (no bids on a required minimum bid of $2000; “ended” 1 day after initial listing). Not the signature of the poet and artist.
Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, pub. W. Pickering, ed. Wilkinson, 1839. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #51, issue lacking “The Little Vagabond,” publisher’s cloth worn, illus. ($17,500).
Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience with Other Poems, pub. B. Pickering, ed. Shepherd, 1866. Windle, April online cat. for the NYBF, #3, printing before the suppression of the fifth stanza of “Mary” (p. 90) and lines 113-14 of “Auguries of Innocence” (p. 100), full morocco, illus. ($1750).
Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Camden Hotten facsimile, [1868]. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #67, “original quarter green morocco …, good with occasional pages foxed or spotted as usual,” illus. ($1750). PHB, March online cat., the copy “owned by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Ford Madox Brown (1821–1893),” scattered foxing, rebound in full calf, illus. (£2750).
Blake, Works by William Blake … Reproduced in Facsimile from the Original Editions. [London: possibly Andrew Chatto], 1876. BB #368, BBS p. 169 (dating the publication to 1878, based on Chatto’s records). Manhattan Rare Book Company, March online cat., with later hand coloring, “later calf with cloth centre panel,” illus. ($25,000). The hand coloring of Songs of Innocence and of Experience is based on copy Z; the coloring of The Book of Thel may be based on copy J. Previously sold BHL, 26 June 2019, #147, “hand-coloured throughout,” illus. (£2550).
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, autograph letter signed to Frederic James Shields, 2 pp., datable to 21 May 1880. Duke’s auction, Dorchester, 17 June, #92, with a reprint of Shields, “Blake’s Work Room and Death Room and Rossetti’s Sonnet,” 1st published in Manchester Quarterly 29 (1910), both formerly in the collections of Kerrison Preston (1884–1974) and his son David Christopher Preston (1918–2014), illus. (£9259 to Windle acting for Essick; estimate £1000-2000). See illus. 6.
6. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, autograph letter signed to Frederic James Shields, 2 pp. on 2 leaves, datable to 21 May 1880 (see
enlargement). Laid paper, each leaf 18.0 x 11.5 cm. The letter includes a “revised copy” of Rossetti’s sonnet “William Blake,” a response to Shields’s “sketch of Blake’s work-room and death-room.” Essick collection; photo courtesy of Duke’s Fine Art Auctioneers.
Transcription:
[page 1, the recto of the 1st leaf]
Friday [21 May 1880]
My dear Shields
Thanks for your
loving words on the
sonnet, and thanks
most of all for the chance
of writing it. I subjoin a
revised copy.
I write this line because
I expect Mrs Gilchrist &
her son abt 5 tomorrow
(Saturday) & thought I shd
tell you so. But I dare
say you wont think this
forbids work. Hopi[n]g to
see you Your ever affect:
D G R
[page 2, the verso of the 2nd leaf]
William Blake
(To Frederick Shields, on his sketch of Blake’s work-room
and death-room, 3 Fountain Court, Strand.)
This is the place. Even here the dauntless soul,
The unflinching hand, wrought on; till in that nook,
As on that very bed, his life partook
New birth, and passed. ‘Yon river’s distant shoal,
Whereto the close-built coiling lanes unroll,
Faced his work-window, whence his eyes would stare,
Thought-wandering, unto nought that met them there,
But to the unfettered irreversible goal.
This cupboard, Holy of Holies, held the cloud
Of his soul writ & limned; this other one,
His true wife’s charge, full oft to their abode
Yielded for daily bread the martyr’s stone,
Ere yet their food might be that Bread alone,
The words now home-speech of the mouth of God.
D G Rossetti, 20th May 1880
The only substantive difference between the version of the poem in this letter and the one published by Rossetti in 1881 is the substitution of “dusky shoal” for “distant shoal” in the 4th line.Ballads and Sonnets (London: Ellis and White, 1881) 314. The standard edition of Rossetti’s letters includes an error in the final line of the poem: “in the mouth of God” rather than “of the mouth of God.”The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 9, ed. William E. Fredeman, completed by Roger C. Lewis, Jane Cowan, and Anthony H. Harrison (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010) 184. For the textual history of the sonnet, see The Complete Writings and Pictures of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ed. Jerome J. McGann, at <http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/6-1880.raw.html> (accessed 19 June). For a study of the relationship between Rossetti’s sonnet and the 5 traced versions of Shields’s picture, see Essick, “Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Frederic Shields, and the Spirit of William Blake,” Victorian Poetry 24.2 (summer 1986): 163-72.
Blake, Poems, ed. W. B. Yeats, 1893. Between the Covers, Jan. online cat., small-paper issue, publisher’s cloth worn, binding illus. ($400). Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #266, large-paper issue, publisher’s quarter parchment ($650).
Blake, Works, ed. E. J. Ellis and W. B. Yeats, 1893. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #265, 3 vols., small-paper issue in publisher’s “original green cloth with extensive gilt stampings” ($3750).
Blake, The Book of Thel, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, 1897. PHB, May online cat., with Blake, Poetical Sketches, 1899, both illus. Charles Ricketts, publisher’s boards, illus. (£2500).
Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Liverpool: Henry Young and Sons, 1923. Windle, April online cat. for the NYBF, #4, hand-colored issue of this facsimile, modern half morocco, illus. ($5500).
Laurence Binyon, autograph letter signed to “Dear Sir,” 16 April 1925, 2 pp. Lasting Words, Jan. online cat., both pp. illus. (£225). Discusses Blake’s Virgil wood engravings.
Jorge Luis Borges, autograph notebook about Blake, including quotations from his writings. Quarto, 4 pp., wrappers, datable to c. 1950. James Cummins, Jan. private offer ($40,000).
Leonard Baskin, Blake and the Youthful Ancients, wood engravings by Baskin, 1956. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #407, “stapled into wrappers” ($3750).
Blake, Auguries of Innocence, wood engravings by Baskin, 1959. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #406, publisher’s wrappers ($1195).
Blake, A Cradle Song. Iowa City: Roberta Press, 1959. EB, March-April, publisher’s wrappers, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of $200 or “best offer”; reduced to $160 or “best offer” and sold for $120 to Essick). Colophon, verso of 2nd (final) leaf: “Ninety copies of this pamphlet, handset in Arrighi Italic type, have been printed on Okawara and Venezia papers, with covers of Omi, by N.R.K., at the Typographic Laboratory in the School of Journalism, State University of Iowa.” BBS p. 151, listed as not seen.
Blake, Poems from William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence,” illus. Maurice Sendak, 1967. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #429, publisher’s wrappers ($4250). PHB, Feb. online cat., publisher’s wrappers, illus. (£1750). Bellmans auction, Billingshurst, West Sussex, 11 Oct., #212, publisher’s wrappers, illus. (not sold; estimate £400-600).
Allen Ginsberg, Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake, Tuned by Allen Ginsberg, vinyl record, 1969. Windle, Feb. cat. 70, #416, “folding paper sleeve with extra paper leaf, 4 interior pages of commentary and poetry. Signed ‘Allen Ginsberg N.Y.C. 12/11/87… Allen Ginsberg Dec 14-15 1969 New York City — returned again from Chicago as defense wittness (sic), conspiracy trial,’” sleeve slightly worn ($500).
Blake, Illustrations of the Book of Job. London: Blake Trust, 1987. Bow Windows Bookshop, Nov. online cat. 214, #193, 4 portfolio boxes, John Commander’s copy, 1 of 5 copies “containing extra material … specifically made up for those most closely concerned with bringing the publication to completion,” half morocco (£13,500).
Blake, The Tyger, with 16 linocuts by Tiziana Romanin printed in colors. Milan: Il Buon Tempo, 2017. Windle, Feb. online cat., “oblong small folio,” 1 of 30 copies, publisher’s boards and slipcase, illus. ($1500).
Blake, America and Europe. “A Limited Edition of 16 plates of William Blake’s America a Prophecy and Europe a Prophecy printed by Michael Phillips.” Online cat., illus., at <https://www.williamblakeprints.co.uk/america-a-prophecy-europe-a-prophecy>, accessed 16 March 2023 (price on request). The pls. printed in “shades of blue ink” (America) and “shades of charcoal green ink” (Europe) from “replica relief-etched copper plates” on “hand made” paper, “each sheet … watermarked with Blake’s initials.” Each set in a “drop-back box containing … a bound pamphlet.” “Limited to ten sets only,” but “any one or more of the plates that have been made to print the Limited Edition sets can be printed separately to order.”
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., book illus.
CALVERT, EDWARD
Early drawings, paintings, and original graphics
“The Sheep of His Pasture,” engraving, 2nd st. Catherine Burns Fine Art, June online cat., from the Memoir, 1893, illus. ($2900).
FLAXMAN, JOHN
Drawings and sculpture
See also Flaxman under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake, above.
Antony’s Oration over the Dead Caesar. Pencil, ink, and wash, 22.2 x 33.7 cm., inscribed “J. Flaxman” and “death of Jul: Caesar” lower right, “Anthonys Oration” lower left, datable to c. 1768. LLY, March online cat., illus. (sold to a “Private Collection, USA”). For more information on this important early work, see the 2018 sales review, Blake 52.4 (spring 2019).
FUSELI, HENRY
Drawings, paintings, and separate pls.
A Naked Warrior Repelling Soldiers. Pen and brown ink over pencil, 15.0 x 16.6 cm. SL, 6 July, #40, “a preliminary study for … Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma (Tate Britain, London),” illus. (£7560).
A Nude Male Figure, Seated on a Step. Pencil, 19.3 x 19.3 cm., numbered “108”. CL online auction, 10-24 March, #80, illus. (£12,600). Previously offered Martyn Gregory Gallery, May 2012 online cat., no item #, illus. (price on request).
Study of a Lady, Perhaps Lavinia de Irujo. Pencil, 20.9 x 17.0 cm., inscribed “S. H. July — 16”. SNY, 26 Jan., #41, illus. ($39,375). Previously sold CL, 14 April 1992, #7, illus. (£4620); previously offered by Andrew Clayton-Payne, Oct. 2019 cat., #28, illus. (price on application). The 1992 auction cat. notes that “S. H.” refers to Somerset House.
“The Dream,” stipple engraving by Robert William Sievier of a miniature by Moses Haughton based on a painting by Fuseli, 1820. EB, July, color-printed proof before signatures and imprint but with the title and quoted verses in English and French, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of €150). For illus. of a proof with more limited color printing, see the 2019 sales review, Blake 53.4 (spring 2020): illus. 8.
“Queen Katharine’s Dream,” stipple engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi, 1788. EB, Dec., hand colored, title and imprint trimmed off, illus. (offered at the “buy it now” price of £295).
“Sin Pursued by Death,” stipple engraving by Moses Haughton with aquatint by F. C. Lewis, 1804. BHL, 29 June, #395, with 3 engravings after Fuseli illustrating Macbeth, Hamlet, and The Tempest from A Collection of Prints … Illustrating … Shakspeare, pub. Boydell, 1803, all framed and illus. (£637.50).
LINNELL, JOHN
Early drawings, paintings, letters, and original graphics
A Child in a Smock and Bare Feet. Watercolor, 12.7 x 10.2 cm., signed and dated 1815. AH, Oct. online cat. 530, #31, illus. (£225).
Head Studies, attributed to Linnell. Pencil and white chalk, 17.0 x 11.0 cm. EW, 23 June, #2013, “the sitter is thought to be … Samuel Palmer,” framed, illus. (£750). I believe that the attribution is correct; probably an early work.
Picnic on Primrose Hill. Watercolor, 10.2 x 14.7 cm., initialed and dated “[18]14”. Semley auction, Shaftesbury, Dorset, 17 Sept., #109, with an unattributed pen-and-ink drawing “of a ruined castle” that might also be an early work by Linnell, illus. (£158.60).
Portrait of Thomas Chevalier, attributed to Linnell. Watercolor, 20.3 x 15.9 cm., signed and dated Dec. 1816, in an elaborate frame. Henry Aldridge & Son auction, Devizes, Wiltshire, 17 Sept., #171, illus. (£216). I believe that the attribution is correct. Linnell engraved this portrait in 1825. Blake probably knew Chevalier—see BR(2) 68, 398n.
Self-Portrait of the Artist. Pencil, 17.0 x 5.5 cm. Dreweatts auction, Newbury, Berkshire, 26 May, #91, illus. (£1000). The subject would appear to be in his 20s.
Shepherds. Oil, 16.5 x 22.2 cm. LLY, March online cat., dating the work to “c.1820s,” illus. (not priced).
Southampton from the River near Netley Abbey. Oil, 38.1 x 97.8 cm., signed and dated 1825. CL online auction, 1-15 Dec., #133, illus. (£20,160). One of Linnell’s most important early paintings. See also the watercolor Study for this work, below.
Studies of a Wheelbarrow. Black and white chalk on blue paper, 10.4 x 16.0 cm., inscribed “1805”. Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, June cat., #36, illus. (£750).
Study of a Shed. Black and white chalk on gray paper, 20.0 x 26.7 cm., signed, datable to c. 1805–10. Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, June cat., #37, illus. (£1200).
Study of a Sleeping Baby. Pencil, leaf 19.5 x 24.5 cm., signed. DW, 9 March, #160, dated to “circa 1820,” illus. (£144). Previously offered DW, 13 Oct. 2021, #145, illus. (not sold; estimate £150-200). Possibly Linnell’s first son, also John, born in 1821.
Study of Southampton from the River near Netley Abbey. Watercolor, 16.2 x 49.3 cm., signed and dated 1814. CL, online auction, 1-15 Dec., #135, illus. (£4032). See also the oil painting of Southampton, above.
Trees by a River (Possibly the Thames at Millbank). Black chalk heightened with white on blue paper, 15.0 x 23.0 cm., inscribed “John Linnell” on the verso in pencil. EW, 9 Dec., #4079, illus. (not sold; estimate £100-200); 5 Jan. 2023, #371, illus. (£26). Probably an early work.
View of a Country House. Watercolor, 10.0 x 17.0 cm. Keys Fine Art auction, Aylsham, Norfolk, 18 Feb., #369, illus. (not sold; estimate £10-20). Probably an early work.
Wales; “In the old road from Beddgelert to Ffestiniog.” Chalk drawing on brown paper, 20.3 x 14.0 cm. AH, March cat. 524, #27, illus. (£275). Probably drawn while on a tour of North Wales in 1813.
Autograph letter signed. Two pp., dated 6 Dec. 1869 to “Dear Sir”. Eureka Books, Feb. online cat., illus. ($75). Discusses Linnell’s engraving “The Journey to Emmaus,” published in 1839.
“Thomas Robert Malthus,” portrait of. Mezzotint, 1834. CW, 15 July, #224, illus. (not sold; estimate £150-250).
PALMER, SAMUEL
Drawings, paintings, and manuscripts. With the exception of A View of Redhill, the attributions to Palmer of drawings sold at EW on 23 June are questionable.
Back of the Post Office, Trevenna, Cornwall. Pencil, 7.0 x 15.0 cm., dated “Sep. 1875”. EW, 23 June, #2012, with a drawing “depicting Egloshayle Church,” also dated “1875” and attributed to Palmer, 4.2 x 16.2 cm., both illus. (£650).
Lynton. Charcoal drawing, 17.0 x 25.5 cm., inscribed with the title and dated “September 17th 1850”, verso study of a bridge, pencil. EW, 23 June, #2032, both illus. (£780).
A View of Redhill. Pencil, 10.0 x 20.0 cm., inscribed “Redhill” and dated “June 24th 1872”. EW, 23 June, #2033, illus. (£2470). Illus. in Carlos Peacock, Samuel Palmer: Shoreham and After (London: John Baker, 1968) 67.
A Watermill. Watercolor, 11.0 x 19.0 cm. EW, 23 June, #2024, with View of a Stream, pencil and chalk, 16.5 x 25.0 cm., both inscribed “Samuel Palmer” on verso, both illus. (£546).
Palmer, Notebook, 1865–66. EW, 23 June, #2035, “contains extensive diary notes with approximately 12 accompanying graphite drawings,” illus. (£3900; estimate £600-800).
Charles Dickens, autograph letter signed to Palmer, 22 April 1846, 1 p. FM, 10 Feb., #60, the body of the letter reads, “If you can spare me the little work containing the published letters I shall be much obliged to you, as I wish to refer to it,” illus. (£1632). This brief letter is probably associated with Palmer’s work illustrating Dickens’s Pictures from Italy, 1846.
RICHMOND, GEORGE
Early drawings, paintings, and original graphics
Figures Kneeling over a Child. Pen and ink, 21.0 x 17.8 cm. Parker Fine Art online auction, Farnham, Surrey, 8 Sept., #25, illus. (not sold; estimate £120-180); 15 Dec., #608, illus. (£100). Probably an early drawing.
Portrait Sketch of a Little Girl Standing by a Piano, attributed to Richmond. Pen and ink, 11.0 x 7.0 cm. EW, 23 June, #2034, framed, illus. (£525). I believe that the attribution is correct; possibly an early work.
A Sleeping Wayfarer. Watercolor, 13.2 x 11.4 cm., signed with monogram and dated 1830. DW, 19 Oct., #245, illus. (£11,400).
Appendix: New Information on Blake’s Engravings
Listed below are substantive additions or corrections to Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (1983).
P. 106, “The Man Sweeping the Interpreter’s Parlour,” impression 2L. For updated provenance information and illus., see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above, and illus. 3.
Pp. 134-35, “The Fall of Rosamond,” 2nd st. For a previously unrecorded impression, see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above.