Abbreviations

Illuminated Books

Songs of Innocence and of Experience. A posthumous copy printed by Frederick Tatham c. 1831–​32. Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #11 (price on request). Recorded by Essick in the 2022 sales review, Blake 56.4 (spring 2023).

Drawings and Paintings

Deaths Door (recto), pen and ink and wash; Trumpeters (verso), pencil. Laid paper with visible chain lines, 23.5 x 16.9 cm. Tipped, between the frontispiece and title page, into a copy of Robert Blair’s The Grave (1808) that was given to the University of British Columbia Library. On the verso there are inscriptions in pencil and ink: “by Blake” is at the top right; “The young man entering Deaths Door from Blair’s Grave” is located above the sketch of the trumpeters; and a price, “10/6”, is recorded below the sketch. See illus. 1 and 2.

There is also a pencil sketch on wove paper of Christ carrying keys, with the pencil annotation “In the Grave”; it is tipped into the copy opposite pl. 2, Schiavonetti’s engraving “Christ Descending into the Grave” after Blake’s watercolor. This pencil sketch is a copy of Schiavonetti’s engraving by a hand other than Blake’s.

This copy of The Grave contains the bookplates of Alexander Copland and Henry A. Bright. William Michael Rossetti’s “Annotated Catalogue of Blake’s Pictures and Drawings” includes a work in “Indian ink” titled A Young Man Entering Death’s Door that he lists as being owned by “Mr. Harvey” (Gilchrist [1863] 2: 241). In his own copy, Rossetti annotated his catalogue to replace “Mr. Harvey” with H. A. Bright of Liverpool. He also added Bright as the owner of another Blake sketch (Butlin #621). When Rossetti updated his catalogue for the second edition of Gilchrist (1880), he omitted the ownership details of both drawings (2: 256-57). Butlin speculates that A Young Man Entering Death’s Door (#630) may have been the untraced drawing referred to as “Death’s Door. Drawing for the Frontispiece to Blair’s Grave, indian ink, fine” that was sold from William Bell Scott’s collection in 1885. With the appearance of this pen and ink and wash drawing, and its early provenance indicated by the Bright bookplate and Rossetti’s 1863 annotation denoting Bright’s ownership, the untraced work sold from Scott’s collection in 1885 cannot be A Young Man Entering Death’s Door. Rather, the drawing tipped into the front of Bright’s copy of The Grave seems to be the hitherto untraced Butlin #630.

1. William Blake, Deaths Door. Pen and ink and wash. Laid paper with visible chain lines, 23.5 x 16.9 cm. University of British Columbia, Rare Books and Special Collections. Reproduced with permission.

At some point the sheet was, and remains, attached with adhesive to the inner gutter of the title page of a copy of The Grave. Based on the provenance of the copy, the drawing on the recto is probably A Young Man Entering Death’s Door (Butlin #630), recorded by Butlin as untraced “since c. 1870 or 1885.”

Stylistically, the wash drawing appears to be earlier than the Grave designs and may be related to the pen and ink and wash drawings that Blake executed during the 1780s. The figure entering the Gothic-style doorway wears a broad-brimmed hat and holds a walking stick in his right hand. The door is ajar; one foot has crossed the threshold. Beyond the door, to the left of the left leg of the man, there seems to be furniture, perhaps a bed with pillows, a table, or a chair. In his Notebook, Blake sketched a similar figure sporting a broad-brimmed hat and holding a walking stick in his right hand who enters a rectangular doorway and confronts a skeletal reaper, presumably Death (Notebook 19). In another emblem drawing, he depicts a striding figure with walking stick and broad-brimmed hat (Notebook 17) that was etched for For Children and For the Sexes. The emblems in the Notebook are generally dated c. 1790, with some etched and printed in For Children three years later. The wash drawing also offers evidence of pentimenti, or artistic second thoughts, with a few lines sketched over the man’s garment to indicate movement to the right, which is similar to the white-line etched version of “Deaths Door,” while the fuller treatment of the garment follows the movement of the figure’s body to the left. There are also brush (and/​or pencil) strokes forming a circle over the top half of the walking stick that, if this is an earlier work, anticipates the frontispiece to Jerusalem, which shares the same compositional arrangement of figure and doorway. Two diagonal lines descend from the circle to the right-ankle area of the man entering the doorway. Together with the circle, these could be part of a body of a figure loosely sketched out and then abandoned.

Blake’s creative practice involved reusing and developing ideas. Variations of the Deaths Door motif can be seen in the headpiece of “London”; America a Prophecy pl. 14; a watercolor design for Night IV of Night Thoughts (where Blake offers a literal depiction of Young’s lines “And soon as Man, expert from Time, has found / The Key of Life, it opes the Gates of Death”); one of the illustrations to The Grave that was engraved by Schiavonetti, and Blake’s white-line etched version of this illustration; and Christian Knocks at the Wicket Gate from the illustrations to John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. The watercolors for Night Thoughts and The Pilgrim’s Progress also share the same motif of a Gothic door with the Jerusalem frontispiece and the hitherto untraced wash drawing. This rediscovered drawing is not an exact copy of any of the extant Deaths Door designs by Blake. It does contain variations on motifs—​such as the Gothic-style door, the broad-hatted figure, and the walking stick—​and could be an earlier version, or perhaps the earliest extant version, of the Deaths Door design that Blake returned to and modified at various times.

The pencil sketch of trumpeters on the verso of the wash drawing could be a later work and, as such, may be related to Blake’s inverted trumpeter on the title page of The Four Zoas, the gray and brown wash drawing An Angel Awakening the Dead with a Trumpet (1805), and, more clearly, the three angelic trumpeters in The Day of Judgment (1805), albeit differently arranged. In the newly discovered pencil sketch, there appear to be two trumpeters back to back, with a possible third facing the viewer. If this is a later work than the wash drawing on its verso, it suggests that Blake’s creative practice involved returning to earlier works and sketching pensieri, or first thoughts, as he was developing ideas for the Grave designs. Alternatively, the wash drawing and pencil sketch could date from the same period (c. 1805) as Blake was working on the Grave designs and Jerusalem.

2. William Blake, Trumpeters (verso of illus. 1). Pencil. Laid paper with visible chain lines, 23.5 x 16.9 cm. University of British Columbia, Rare Books and Special Collections. Reproduced with permission.

This sketch does not appear to have been recorded before and is therefore a new attribution to Blake. It may be a later work than the wash drawing on the recto and could relate to similar designs of trumpeters that Blake made c. 1805. If the sketch is a later work, its presence on the verso of the wash drawing corresponds with Blake’s practice of reusing paper to sketch out designs.

Double-Sided Sheet of Nude Studies, c. 1810. Pencil on paper, 23.2 x 18.7 cm. LLY, July Night Thoughts cat., pp. 39-41 (£118,000). On the recto are depictions of men somersaulting, performing headstands, and reclining, with studies of limbs. The verso depicts a kneeling man clutching his head, a torso seen from above, a head in profile, and limbs. These seem to be preparatory studies by the same hand and are not directly related to extant designs by Blake. While the musculature of the acrobatic figures appears similar to Blake’s rendering of nudes and the contracted pose of the figure clutching his head is Blakean in conception, there remain questions about a definitive attribution. Perhaps the strongest evidence for attribution derives from the provenance. According to the cat. entry, this sheet is listed in William Michael Rossetti’s “Annotated Catalogue of Blake’s Pictures and Drawings” (Gilchrist [1863] list 2, no. 148; [1880] list 2, no. 177). It was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1876 (lent by W. M. Rossetti). From Rossetti, it passed to his daughter Helen Maria Madox (Rossetti), then to the Maas Gallery, where it was exhibited in 1963 as a work by Fuseli before being acquired by the collector Walter A. Brandt for £450. It is listed as a work by Blake in the LLY cat.

The Empress Maud in Bed, c. 1819. Pencil on paper, leaf 15.7 x 20.2 cm. P. 25 from the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, Butlin #692.25. WW, 5 Sept., #185 (£3800). There are two other Maud drawings in the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook (see Butlin #692.23 and 27).

A Girl in Profile, Perhaps Corinna, c. 1819. Pencil on paper, leaf approximately 15.5 x 20.5 cm. P. 80 from the smaller Blake-Varley Sketchbook, Butlin #692.80. SRRB, 20 June ($40,000). This drawing was previously advertised in the Maas Gallery Jan. 2018 online cat. as Head of a Woman; see the 2018 sales review, Blake 52.4 (spring 2019).

Manuscripts

Receipt signed by Blake, 5 July 1805, to Thomas Butts for £5.7s. Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #9, illus. ($150,000)—​same price as Windle Apr. 2022 cat. for the NYBF, #1, illus. For earlier sales and comments, see the 2019 sales review, Blake 53.4 (spring 2020), and 2022 sales review, Blake 56.4 (spring 2023). As Essick notes, following 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.” See illus. 3.

3. Receipt signed by Blake, 5 July 1805, to Thomas Butts for £5.7s. John Windle. Reproduced with permission.

This receipt records Butts’s payment for the following large color prints: The Good and Evil Angels, The House of Death, God Judging Adam, and Lamech and His Two Wives. The characteristics of all four suggest that they were created in 1795, which indicates that Blake retained them in his possession for a decade before Butts purchased them. All are now in the collection of Tate Britain.

Separate Plates and Plates in Series

“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims.” DNY, 25 Apr., #0006, final state, Colnaghi impression on laid India ($4250).

“The Fall of Rosamond,” after Thomas Stothard. BMA, 1 Nov., #239, 1st state (c. 1783), before engraved title and quotation from Thomas Hull’s play (£130). The impression is printed in reddish ink on laid paper that has been trimmed on the platemark to 39.5 x 33.5 cm. See illus. 4.

4. “The Fall of Rosamond,” after Thomas Stothard. 1st state (c. 1783), before engraved title and quotation from Thomas Hull’s play. Collection of Robert N. Essick. Reproduced with permission.

This is the only recorded example of the engraving in any known state printed in this color. Other examples of the 1st state are in black ink (see SP #XXV). It is unusual for the 1st state to include an imprint but no title. The publisher of the print, Thomas Macklin, paid Blake £80 to engrave the pl., according to the anonymous author of “Monthly Retrospect of the Fine Arts,” Monthly Magazine 11.3 (Apr. 1801): 246 (noted in BR[2] 758).

“George Cumberland’s Card.” Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #10, “printed in black ink on thick card,” trimmed close to the image on the left and right margins, illus. ($20,000). Recorded in the 2022 sales review, Blake 56.4 (spring 2023).

Job engravings. Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #13, complete set, impressions on Whatman paper after removal of the “Proof” inscription, leaves 37.5 x 26.7 cm., bound in mid-nineteenth-century Russian calf-backed glazed green and black flexible marble boards, illus. ($74,950). Contains the bookplate of Henri Focillon, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon from 1913 to 1924. Recorded by Essick as being sold at Interencheres auction, Lyon, France, 16 Sept. 2022, for €19,000 and then listed in SRRB Dec. 2022 cat., #8, for £60,000 (see Blake 56.4 [spring 2023]).

Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake

Ariosto, Orlando furioso, 1791. DW, 14 June, #234, contemporary calf (same lot as Hayley, Life of Cowper, and Lavater, Aphorisms; see entries below) (£360).

Blair, The Grave. EB, Jan., 1808, dark-brown calf, ribbed gilt spine and gilt-lettered green-morocco spine label, including 4-pp. prospectus for “The Procession of Chaucer’s Pilgrims to Canterbury” by Thomas Stothard, stains to 4 pls., illus. ($1800). Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #14, 1808, original drab gray boards as issued, illus. ($9750). PPA, 1 June, #0329, 1808 large-paper copy, contemporary boards rebacked with original red-morocco gilt lettering (passed). DW, 14 June, #238, 1808 quarto (£320). Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #5, 1813 contemporary three-quarter black morocco over marbled paper-covered boards (passed). Galerie Bassenge, Berlin, 11 Oct., #2005, 1813, illus. (passed). Cheffins, 12 Oct., #166, 1813 (£360). FM, 30 Nov., #239, 1808 (passed) and #240, 1813 (passed).

Bürger, Leonora, 1796. Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #19, full red straight-grain morocco with gilt-lettering backstrip, illus. ($19,750). There is a faded manuscript inscription on the title page, “Sophia Baillie”. Elizabeth Sophia Baillie was the subject of a portrait by William Beechey, now in the Frick Collection, New York. The portrait was executed in 1795 and was attributed to John Hoppner until recently.

Cumberland, An Attempt to Describe Hafod, 1796. FM, 13 Dec., #84, calf, illus. (£850).

Darwin. EB, Jan., Poetical Works, 1806, 3 vols., illus. ($1750). FM, 30 Mar., #431, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 1st ed. of part 1, 3rd ed. of part 2, both 1791, illus. (£400). EB, 27 Apr., The Botanic Garden, part 1 only, 1st ed., 1791, quarto, leather spine and corners, marbled boards and endpapers, top edge gilt, restoration to front joint and hinge, leather corners of front board replaced, several pls. with damp staining at lower margin, occasional light foxing, illus. ($800 or best offer). Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #20, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 3rd ed. of part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of part 2, 1794, marbled boards, recorded by Essick as sold at FM, 6 Oct. 2022, #128 (see Blake 56.4 [spring 2023]), illus. ($2950). EB, 22 May, The Botanic Garden, part 1 only, 3rd ed., 1795, illus. ($1200). EB, 17 July, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 3rd ed. of part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of part 2, 1794, full tree calf, rebacked with original spine laid down, black morocco spine label, stamped in gilt, boards rubbed and scratched, illus. (£700). Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #52, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 3rd ed. of part 1, 1795, 4th ed. of part 2, 1794, contemporary full tree calf, with the Paul Revere-designed armorial bookplate of John-Lyon Gardiner (1770–​1816), illus. ($900).

Flaxman, Iliad (and Odyssey), 1805. FM, 23 Feb., #264, 2 vols., original boards, covers detached, illus. (£55). KMAR, 28 Apr., illus. (£40). BMA, 31 May, #160, original boards, illus. (£85). Adam Partridge Auctioneers, 6 Sept., #715 (price not given).

Fuseli, Lectures on Painting, 1801. EB, 27 Apr., illus. ($2800).

Gay, Fables, 1793. EB, Jan., 2 vols., contemporary calf worn, boards detached, illus. (£500). EB, Jan., vol. 2 only, illus. (£325). Lawrences, 16 Mar., #270, 2 vols., illus. (passed). Schilb Antiquarian Rare Books, 24 Sept., #14, 2 vols. in 1, illus. ($140). Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #53, 2 vols., illus. ($600). PBA, 5 Oct., #144, illus. (sold; price not disclosed). CW, 29 Nov., #314 (sold; price not disclosed). FM, 30 Nov., #238, 2 vols. in 1 (£320).

Hayley, Ballads, 1805. Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #54, original buff paper-covered boards, illus. ($1400).

Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803–​04. JN, 24 Jan., probably vols. 1 and 2 only, #269, recent quarter calf, illus. (£65). DW, 14 June, #234, 1st ed., 3 vols., contemporary uniform sprinkled full calf (same lot as Ariosto and Lavater, Aphorisms; see entries above and below) (£360). Rooke Books online cat., 16 June, 3 vols., illus. (£1350).

Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. Cheffins, 12 Oct., #207, contemporary calf (£180).

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 12th ed., 1803. MKA, 19 Jan., #1049, original boards, small-paper copy with defective title and upper cover almost disbound (same lot as 13th ed.; see below), illus. (£120). EB, Jan., contemporary Oxford binding, small-paper copy without the half-title, illus. (£500). FM, 13 Apr., #76, small-paper copy, water staining to some pls., contemporary calf, gilt (same lot as Ritson; see below), illus. (£320). FM, 21 Sept., #104, contemporary half calf, illus. (passed).

Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 13th ed., 1807. MKA, 19 Jan., #1049, rare copy of this edition with Blake’s worn engravings after Maria Flaxman’s designs (same lot as 12th ed.; see above), contemporary quarter calf, small-paper copy with soiled leaves, torn margin, and disbound cover, illus. (£120).

Hogarth, Works, Blake’s pl. only. CAG, 2 Aug., #886 (price not listed by auctioneer), probably 6th or 7th state. Sanders of Oxford online cat., 20 Sept. (£900).

Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793. Australian Book Auctions, 15 Mar., #50, modern calf, illus. (passed); the same copy was offered on 7 June, #26 (passed). PBA, 10 Aug., #343 and 344, two copies, illus. (#343, $500; #344, $800).

Lavater, Aphorisms, 1789. DW, 14 June, #234, modern full calf gilt (same lot as Ariosto and Hayley, Life of Cowper ; see entries above), illus. (£360).

Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1810. BHNY, 23 June, #112 (online only), 3 vols., illus. ($1920).

Malkin, A Father’s Memoirs, 1806. FM, 25 May, #63, illus. (£850).

Maynard, Josephus, n.d., c. 1785–​94. Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #55, contemporary full brown calf, rebacked, illus. ($225). The Book Merchant Jenkins, Brisbane, 7 Dec., #93, occasional foxing, first preliminary leaf (on different paper of uncertain date) with the letterpress ownership imprint of William and Margaret Mansel and the later armorial bookplate of [Sir] Ernest Salter Wills (1869–​1958), verso of frontispiece with gift inscription of Thomas Westbrook for the Rev. Arden Davis, dated 1890, illus. (AUD 420).

Olivier, Fencing Familiarized, 1780. Peter Arnold, 9 July, #387, illus. (AUD 550). Aste Bolaffi, Italy, 13 July, #550, illus. (€475).

Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. FM, 13 Apr., #76 (same lot as 12th ed. of Hayley, Triumphs; see above), illus. (£320).

Shakespeare, Plays, 1805. EB, 24 Sept., 10 vols., bound in contemporary calf and gilt, illus. (£675). Hotlotz, Singapore, 26 Oct., #129, illus. (SGD 400).

Stedman, Narrative, colored copy. Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #150, large-paper 1st ed. with hand coloring (almost certainly not by Blake), 2 vols., illus. ($8190).

Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies. EB, Feb., 1813 ed., 2 vols., rebound in quarter leather over cloth boards, illus. ($2875); relisted in Sept. ($3000). FM, 28 Sept., #181, 1806 ed., 2 vols., ex-library copy with a few ink and embossed stamps, modern half calf over marbled boards, illus. (£1200).

Stuart and Revett, Antiquities, 1762–​1816. LT, 21 Sept., #49, first 3 vols., vol. 1 without the list of subscribers, 230 (of 231) pls. and maps (lacking pl. 29 in section 1 of vol. 2), contemporary half calf, Blake’s pls. present in vol. 3, illus. (£1500). Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #151, 4 vols., including vol. 3 with Blake’s pls., contemporary brown calf, decoratively stamped in blind and in gilt, illus. ($3500). Dreweatts, 6 Oct., #756, 3 vols., including vol. 3 with Blake’s engravings, vol. 2 lacking 1 pl., some foxing and soiling, vol. 3 badly water stained, mixed contemporary bindings, worn, covers detached, vol. 3 lacking upper cover, illus. (£1300). SL, 12 Nov., #206, 4 vols., including vol. 3 with Blake’s pls., illus. (£12,500).

Virgil, Pastorals, 1821. Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #21, retrospective early nineteenth-century calf with red labels by Courtland Benson, illus. ($47,500).

Wollstonecraft, Original Stories, 1791. FM, 25 May, #62, pls. very lightly offset, a few scattered light spots, contemporary paneled calf, illus. (£3000).

Young, Night Thoughts, 1797. An uncolored copy bound in leather and marbled boards was given to the University of British Columbia Library at the beginning of the year (Merivale .Y686 1797). EB, Jan., uncolored copy, contemporary rowan backed marbled paper covered boards, missing pp. 13/​14 and 33/​34, title page of Night II apparently a rare 1st state, illus. (£4250). Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #22, large quarto, half brown morocco, with “Explanation” leaf bound at the back, illus. ($15,000). Freeman’s, 27 Sept., #56, uncolored copy, modern crimson niger, black morocco spine labels, stamped in blind and in gilt, illus. ($5000).

Interesting Blakeana

John Quincy, Pharmacopœia Officinalis & Extemporanea; or, a Complete English Dispensatory, London, 1733. Windle, Apr. cat. for the NYBF, #24, inscribed in brown ink on the title page “William Blake | his Book” ($49,500). Recorded by Essick as being in Windle, Feb. 2022 cat. 70, #403; see Blake 56.4 (spring 2023). For discussion and illus., see the 2000 sales review, Blake 34.4 (spring 2001), illus. 2 and its caption.

Prospectus of a New and Elegant Edition of Blair’s Grave, printed by T. Bensley, Nov. 1805. Pamphlet, letterpress, quarto, 3 pp., 23.9 x 13.5 cm. CO, 1-15 Dec., #2, with manuscript inscriptions identifying “L. Schiavonetti” as the engraver of Blake’s designs, integral address panel to “Mr Tomkinson, Dean Street, Soho”, remains of seal, on wove paper watermarked “J. Whatman 1804” (folded for delivery as a letter) (£23,940). Provenance: “Mr Tomkinson, Dean Street, Soho” (probably Thomas Tomkison, c. 1764–​1853, piano maker and art collector who operated from Dean Street between 1799 and 1851); possibly forwarded by him to John Towneley; sold as part of the Towneley Papers, Sotheby’s, 22-23 July 1985, #550 (£5500, to a dealer?). See the 1985 sales review, Blake 20.1 (summer 1986).

Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, London: W. Pickering and W. Newberry, 1839. DW, 14 June, #245, original chalk-glazed yellow endpapers, ownership signature of S. Judd, Jr. dated 1843, original blind-stamped cloth, lettered in gilt to center of upper cover “Blake’s Poems” (£320).

Rossetti, William Michael, autograph letter to Swinburne, 29 Apr. 1867, containing a reference to Kirkup’s story about Mrs. Blake and Princess Sophia. EB, 19 Sept. (£450). Recorded in BR(2) 463fn.

Century Guild Hobby Horse, 1884, 1886–​94. LT, 21 June, #181, 3 vols. (1886–​87), with the first containing Muir’s facsimile of Little Tom the Sailor and the second containing the first printing in conventional typography of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell and Muir’s facsimile of On Homers Poetry [and] On Virgil, from the library of the Glasgow Art Club, illus. (£400).

Blake, Songs of Innocence, Wells, Gardner, 1899. Miniature edition. EB, Jan. (£8).

Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience and Jerusalem, printed by Michael Phillips. Online cat., illus., at <http://​www.​williamblakeprints.​co.​uk/​songs-​of-​innocence-​and-​of-​experience> and <http://​www.​williamblakeprints.​co.​uk/​jerusalem> (accessed 20 July) (price on request).  For Songs, Phillips created a selection of 45 pls. that were printed on a replica of Blake’s wooden star-wheel rolling press (see illus. 5) that he researched and had built for the Ashmolean Museum Blake exhibition (2014–​15). The Songs are limited to 20 sets. For Jerusalem, limited to 10 sets, he created and printed a selection of 28 pls. of “arguably Blake’s masterwork in the techniques he developed in relief etching” (see illus. 6 and 7). “By re-creating Blake’s original relief-etched copper plates, lost in the nineteenth century, it is possible to print impressions from the Illuminated Books exactly as Blake did, and that compare with the excessively rare originals.” In other words, the sets printed by Phillips are not facsimiles of an existing original copy. Just like Blake’s originals, no two impressions are, or can be, exactly the same. Every impression is unique. The replica star-wheel rolling press was relocated to Rice University in Feb. and opened to the public in Mar.: <https://​news.​rice.​edu/​news/​2023/​rice-​acquires-​rare-​replica-​william-​blake-​printing-​press>.

5. Wooden star-wheel rolling press. Michael Phillips had it built for the William Blake: Apprentice and Master exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (2014–​15). The exhibition catalogue did not reproduce an image of the press. It remained in Oxford after the exhibition and was located in the library of Christ Church College. In February 2023, the press was relocated to Rice University and opened to the public in March.

6. Michael Phillips, a proof state of the frontispiece to William Blake’s Jerusalem. Printed in burnt sienna, image 22.3 x 16.2 cm. on paper 38.7 x 28.3 cm. Reproduced with permission.

Printed on paper handmade by Gangolf Ulbricht, Werkstatt für Papier, to match the off-white wove papers that Blake used, each leaf with the watermark “WB”.

7. Michael Phillips, frontispiece to William Blake’s Jerusalem. Printed in charcoal black, image 22.3 x 16.2 cm. on paper 38.7 x 28.3 cm. Reproduced with permission.

Printed on paper handmade by Gangolf Ulbricht, Werkstatt für Papier.

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.

BASIRE, JAMES
Engravings between 1770 and 1780

“Le Champ de Drap d’Or,” 1774. Line engraving, 63.1 x 115.2 cm. WW, 5 Sept., #50 (£300).

“The Encampment of the English Forces near Portsmouth,” 1778. Line engraving, 48.4 x 177 cm. WW, 5 Sept., #49 (£1500). Another impression, RF Auctions, 17 Dec., #168, one section detached and water stained ($50).

“Pylades and Orestes,” after Benjamin West, 1771. Line engraving, 45.4 x 56.2 cm. Jasper52, 28 Mar., #55 ($300).

CALVERT, EDWARD
Paintings and original graphics

Vision of Youth, n.d. Oil on paper, 16 x 24 cm. JN, 12 June, #349 (£800).

“The Bride,” 1828. Engraving, 3rd state, sepia ink on cream paper, from the Memoir, 1893, leaf 11.4 x 16.5 cm. BHL, 20 Sept., #7 (£750).

“The Sheep of His Pasture,” n.d. Wood engraving, 1st state with some gray wash hand work, 5 x 8.5 cm. MO, #134, 17-18 May (£4400). The gray wash was used to add a small figure, possibly the shepherd watching the flock, leaning or sitting on a fold or stone wall. A note on the verso of the frame indicates that this impression came from Samuel Palmer, which suggests that the gray wash may have been Palmer’s addition.

FLAXMAN, JOHN
Drawings and manuscripts

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

A Frieze Designed for Edward Knight, 1791. Pen and ink and wash on two pieces of conjoined paper, 23.5 x 76.7 cm., inscribed in Flaxman’s hand on the verso, “the horses for the chariot of the sun, the front of an Sarcophagus lately purchased by the Pope / figures about 22 inches high of a grand character of sculpture best in correct, the heads of Apollo, Diana, Autumn, & Summer as well as some of the most projecting limbs being broken are restored by me in the drawing”. LLY, Jan. Recent Acquisitions 2023, pp. 38-41 (price on request). This is one of ten drawings after bas-reliefs that Flaxman created for his patron Edward Knight during his time in Rome. According to the LLY cat., “This is the most significant Roman drawing by Flaxman to appear on the market in a generation” (41).

Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli, 1783. Pen and ink and wash on paper, 34 x 47 cm. LLY, July Night Thoughts cat., pp. 28-31 (price on request): “Previously unknown and unpublished, the sheet belongs to a group of large, finished drawings made before Flaxman travelled to Italy.”

Lady in Contemplation, n.d. Pen and gray wash on paper, 22 x 16.5 cm. Semley Auctioneers, 16 Sept., #113 (price not published).

Original Design for the Interior of Buckingham Palace, 1824. Pencil with brush and ink on Whatman wove paper, 21.5 x 34 cm., inscribed with scale in ink and titled “Love and Harmony” with date “1824”. FM, 23 Mar., #334 (£340).

Rienzi, c. 1825. Pencil, ink, and wash, 22.8 x 13.8 cm., inscribed below the drawing: “ ’Tis rumoured yet his spell had pow’r / To summon to that ruin’d tower / Spirits, that to his eye of flame / Rome’s arm’d avengers—nightly came: / Metellus—either Scipio—there— / And either Brutus wav’d in air / His blade—’mid these, Rienzi stood, / And grasp’d each dagger dark with blood.” LLY, July Night Thoughts cat., pp. 46-47 (price on request). The drawing illustrates eight lines of William Sotheby’s Gothic poem “On the Ruined Palace of Rienzi,” 1825.

Thetis Entreating Jupiter to Honor Achilles, c. 1805. Pencil on pale-cream wove paper, sheet 20 x 25 cm., contemporary (or near-contemporary) pencil inscription to upper margin verso: “Iliad pl. 5 part of, ‘Thetis entreating Jupiter to honor Achilles’”. DW, 8 Mar., #95 (£1200). The original drawing for pl. 5 of The Iliad of Homer, 1805 (see above). According to the cat. entry, “The line engraving is one of three compositions engraved by William Blake from Flaxman’s design. Flaxman’s first series of original drawings for the Iliad was commissioned by Georgiana Hare-Maylor, a painter and scholar who was living in Rome at the same time as Flaxman, and were published in Rome in 1793, and in London in 1795. A second set of drawings on the same subject were made by Flaxman for Robert Fullaton-Udney.” Provenance: James Stewart Hodgson (1827–​99); the Hodgson Bequest, sold CL, June 1893; Lady Brabourne (1896–​1979); Sir Ronald Ian Campbell (1890–​1983); Robin Campbell, director, Arts Council of Great Britain (1912–​85); Lawrence Gowing (1918–​91) by 1964.

Two Seated Figures Reading, n.d. Wash drawing mounted on card, 24.8 x 34.4 cm. Semley Auctioneers, 8 July, #84 (price not published).

Autograph receipt, 13 Mar. 1784. 1 p., slim oblong octavo, “Received of Sir John Sebright five Guineas the remainder of Miss. Sebright’s statue a bust of Mercury &c in full”. International Autograph Auctions, 14 Sept., #494 (€170).

Autograph letter, 22 Jan. 1818. 2 pp. Swann Auction Galleries, 26 Oct., #114 (passed). A description of Flaxman’s proposed monument for Lord Nelson.

Autograph manuscript, n.d. Pen on paper, unsigned, 2 pp., quarto. International Autograph Auctions, 10 May, #271 (€180). The manuscript offers a summary of a lecture on sculpture—​“the Treasures of Ancient Art & Literature possessed by the Moderns notwithstanding the destruction of time & war”—​and states, in part, that it “shewed those remains were in general sufficient for our information concerning the state of knowledge in different periods of Antiquity … the Argonautic expedition, the Theban & Trojan wars produced no great alteration in the manners or polity of the Greeks—​but the contest with Xerxes which struck the first fatal blow to the Persian power & made way for the 3d. great Monarchy of the world (the Grecian) stimulated the spirit of Greece to the greatest efforts—​then in the constellation of illustrious characters, Socrates, Plato … Euripides & Sophocles, Phidias appeared & superint[end]ed the buildings of Pericles, Temple of Minerva, described, her statue of ivory & gold 30 feet high … the Venus, Cupid … by Praxiteles were particularly noticed …. The schools of sculpture were Athenian, Sicyonion, & Rhodian. The Lecture was illustrated by a number of drawings & casts.”

FUSELI, HENRY
Drawings and paintings

Design for Erasmus Darwin’s “The Temple of Nature” : In Dreams (recto), with a study of embracing lovers (verso), n.d. Pencil, pen and gray ink, gray, blue, and pink wash, heightened with white pencil, 37.8 x 26.7 cm. CL, 4 July, #105 (£44,100).

A Kneeling Figure with a Spirit Leaving His Body, n.d. Pencil, pen and ink, gray and yellow washes over black chalk, 9.7 x 18.2 cm. SNY, 25 Jan., #248 (passed). Inscribed lower left “Q.E. Sept 3 11.” There is a Latin inscription on the recto and “a subsidiary figure study in chalk” on the verso. This drawing came up for auction at CL on 5 July 2016, #74 (£6250), as recorded in the 2016 sales review, Blake 50.4 (spring 2017).

An Old Prophet Preaching, n.d. Pencil, gray and pale-green wash, 16 x 13 cm. CNY, 25 Jan., #62, with seven other drawings by J. R. Schellenberg, S. Granicher, and others, from the collection of J. C. Lavater, illus. (estimate $8000-12,000; passed). These same drawings came up for auction on 9 July 1991, with a winning bid of £3300 on an estimate of £3000-5000. In his entry, Essick cautions that “the attribution to Fuseli is very doubtful. This is probably a work by one of the other artists represented in this group of 8 works related to Lavater’s physiognomic studies” (see Blake 25.4 [spring 1992]).

Satan Summoning His Legions, n.d. Black chalk on paper, 29.8 x 18.4 cm. LLY, July Night Thoughts cat., pp. 36-38 (price on request). According to the cat. entry, this is a late drawing.

Woman Sitting by Candlelight, n.d. Black chalk, pen and gray ink, gray and pink watercolor wash, 16.8 x 9.1 cm. Koller Auctions, 22 Sept., #3440 (CHF 19,000).

LINNELL, JOHN
Drawings and paintings

Effie Deans and Madge Wildfire in the Churchyard, 1835. Oil on canvas, 39.4 x 48.9 cm., signed lower right. BHL, 4 July, #58 (passed); relisted BHE, 14 Sept., #221 (£850). The painting illustrates a scene from Walter Scott’s Heart of Midlothian (first published 1818).

Gateshead Windmill, 1843. Oil on canvas, 31.5 x 43.5 cm., signed and dated lower right. Ripley Auctions, 3 Aug., #55 ($1700).

Hampstead, c. 1825–​27. Pencil on paper, 25 x 30 cm., signed and dated “1825 — 7 ”. RW, 10 July, #339 (£280). Landscape sketch with figures.

Kensington Gravel Pits (recto), Study of a Cow (verso), 1811. Pencil and watercolor on oatmeal paper, 10.8 x 14.6 cm., signed, inscribed, and dated “1811 Paddington J.L.” CL, 4 July, #132 (£6930). The recto sketch relates to Linnell’s oil painting Kensington Gravel Pits (1811–​12), now at Tate Britain.

Landscape with Farmer and Cattle, n.d. Oil on canvas, 72.4 x 90.1 cm., initialed “JL”. Helmuth Stone, 24 Sept., #87 ($1400).

Miss Fanny Sheppard Playing a Guitar, 1825. Pencil on gray paper heightened with red and white chalk, 27.3 x 38.1 cm., signed. Parker, 8 June, #7 (£180). This sketch was in the centennial Linnell exhibition at Martyn Gregory in 1982. See illus. 8.

8. John Linnell, Miss Fanny Sheppard Playing a Guitar, 1825. Pencil on gray paper heightened with red and white chalk, 27.3 x 38.1 cm. Collection of Dr. Nicholas Shrimpton, Charlbury, Oxfordshire. Reproduced with permission.

In 1825 Linnell made three trips to Gloucestershire to paint portraits of the Sheppard and Kingscote families. Between the first and second, he and Blake took trial proof impressions of the Job pls. (BR[2] 410); between the second and third, they went to the Royal Academy exhibition together (BR[2] 411). Linnell gave this portrait to Fanny.

Portrait of a Gentleman Seated by a Table, 1837. Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 39 cm., signed and dated. JN, 22 Mar., #335 (£800).

Portrait of His Daughter, 1820. Pencil on paper, 14.5 x 9.5 cm., initialed, titled, and dated. RW, 24 Apr., #306 (£120). A sketch of Elizabeth Linnell as a young child.

Portrait of the Reverend Charles Gower Boyles, n.d. Oil on panel, 32.3 x 24.5 cm., signed “J Linnell. f ” upper left. Roseberys, London, 22 Nov., #138 (£1000).

Shepherds, c. 1830–​35. Oil on paper laid down on panel, 16.5 x 22.2 cm., inscribed on a label on the verso “Shepherds by John Linnel fecit / Lent by James Orrock / 8 links up right of fireplace”. LLY, Jan. Recent Acquisitions 2023, pp. 68-69 (price on request). This is probably the same painting listed in LLY, Mar. 2022 online cat., and dated as “c. 1820s” (Blake 56.4 [spring 2023]).

Studies of a Shepherd, 1820. Chalk on paper, 26.9 x 35 cm., and in the same lot, Portrait of the Reverend Thomas Thomas, chalk on paper, 18.4 x 13.7 cm. Galerie Bassenge, Berlin, 9 June, #6798 (price not given). Both drawings were previously sold SNY, 25 Jan. 2011, #71, from the collection of Charles Ryskamp ($12,500).

Two Pencil Sketches of Trees, 1813 and 1814. Pencil on blue paper, 15 x 17.5 cm., signed and dated 1814, and pencil on cream paper, 12 x 30 cm., signed and dated 1813. RW, 18 Sept., #332 (£100). The 1814 sketch depicts Bentley Brook in Derbyshire; the 1813 sketch is a view of Llanberis in Wales. This lot also included an unsigned sketch of a tree and an unsigned sheet of paper with rough sketches.

The Wold of Kent, 1853. Oil on canvas, 66 x 94 cm., signed and dated “J Linnell 1853”. CL, 13 July, #67 (£5040).

PALMER, SAMUEL
Drawings, paintings, manuscripts, and original graphics

Bright Cloud, Shepherd, and Windmill, c. 1831–​32. Black, gray, and brown wash, 8.8 x 11.1 cm. Swan Fine Art, 13 July, #493 (£27,000). There are inscriptions on a separate sheet of paper pasted to the backing mat, possibly by A. H. Palmer. This work, entitled A Heath with a Shepherd and His Flock, was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1926, no. 78 in the cat.

In Vintage Time, 1861. Watercolor over pencil, 19.6 x 42.9 cm., signed “S. Palmer 1861” lower left. Guy Peppiatt, British Drawings and Watercolours, #53 (£35,000).

The Lane Side, c. 1834–​35. Oil and tempera on canvas, 29.8 x 45.7 cm. SL, 6 July, #144 (estimate £100,000-150,000; passed). Previously offered by SL on 5 Dec. 2018 with an estimate of £300,000–500,000. Sold as a work by John Linnell, SL, 11 Mar. 1987, #82, titled Passing the Orchard (£4400), and SL, 30 Nov. 2000, #151, titled The Orchard (£8400), then sold as attributed to “Circle of John Linnell,” CL, 10 July 2012, #150, titled Figures on a Wooded Track (£2500). The confusing attribution history of this painting suggests that the attribution to Palmer is not yet settled.

Portrait of George Richmond, 1831. Graphite on wove paper, 21.8 x 17.3 cm., stamped with the blind stamp of Dobbs, London, and signed and dated “S. Palmer 1831” on the lower left of the sheet. BHL, 6 Dec., #44 (£28,000).

The Potato Shed, n.d. Pencil on laid paper, 11.2 x 18.2 cm., inscribed on the verso “Potatoe [sic] Shed, Tottenham Marches — S. Palmer.” SL, 27 Oct., #315 (£3180).

La Vocatella: A Chapel Built by a Hermit near Corpo de Cava, in the Neighbourhood of Salerno and Naples, 1844. Pencil and watercolor heightened with gum Arabic, with some scratching out, 38.7 x 50.5 cm., signed, inscribed, and dated “Samuel Palmer 1844 / 4 Grove St. Lisson Gro[ve]”. CL, 5 July, #133 (price not given). It appears to be related to a drawing from 1838 now in the Graves Gallery, Sheffield.

Letter to Henry Mogford, n.d. Lion Heart Autographs, New York, 10 May, #123 (passed). It reads: “If Mr. Gambard [sic: Gambart] comes to the gallery, will you have the goodness to give him the accompanying drawing and the note directed to him. I had nothing to send but the above drawing which belongs to Mr. Gambard & I should not like it to be exhibited unless Mr. Gambard wishes it”.

Four etchings, mounted and framed: “The Skylark,” 9.5 x 7.5 cm.; “The Morning of Life,” 13 x 20.5 cm.; “The Early Ploughman,” 13 x 19.5 cm.; and “The Lonely Tower,” 16.5 x 23.5 cm. EW, 23 Mar., #1235 (estimate £200-300; passed).

Four etchings: “The Herdsman’s Cottage,” 1850, 2nd and final state; “The Willow,” 1850, 2nd state (of 3), as published in the large-paper edition of A. H. Palmer’s The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer (1892); and two impressions of “The Early Ploughman,” 1861, possibly 5th and 8th states. BHL, 6 Dec., #13 (£600).

“The Morning of Life,” n.d. Etching on paper, 14.5 x 21.2 cm., titled and signed on the pl. CW, 12 Sept., #154 (£525).

“Opening the Fold,” 1880. Etching on laid paper, 8th state (of 10), 15.3 x 21.5 cm. Swann Auction Galleries, 11 May, #233 ($800). This was Palmer’s last finished etching, completed just a year before his death. He had planned a series of ten to accompany the publication of his translation of the Eclogues of Virgil as his last major career project (see below).

An English Version of the Eclogues of Virgil, London: Seeley & Company, 1883. PPA, 1 June, #465 (passed). Fourteen pls. by Palmer, including five original etchings, original full parchment vellum stamped and lettered in gilt. Another copy, bound in publisher’s green cloth, gilt spine lettering, MO, 28 June, #30 (£500).

RICHMOND, GEORGE
Drawings and paintings

A Copse Seen across a Meadow, n.d. Pen and ink and brown wash, 7.2 x 20.7 cm. Guy Peppiatt, British Drawings and Watercolours, #35 (£2800).

Hagar Lamenting and Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness, 1829. Pen and brown ink with graphite border lines, 33.5 x 21.3 cm. BHL, 6 Dec., #45 (£14,000). Two drawings on one sheet, each signed in graphite with the initials “GR” and each dated 1829 on the lower left. The sheet is also dated on the lower right: “Jany 30^th 1829”.

Landscape near Walton, 1864. Watercolor, 13.5 x 21.3 cm., signed with initials on the lower right. Guy Peppiatt, British Drawings and Watercolours, #37 (£3500).

Portrait of a Man, n.d. Pencil, gray ink, and wash on paper, 19.8 x 14.3 cm., signed “G. Richmond” lower left of the sheet. Roseberys, London, 22 Nov., #241 (£341).

Portrait of the Artist’s Son, 1846. Pencil and white chalk, 20 x 17.5 cm., inscribed and dated lower center “Willie . Oct.r 13. 1846”. Cheffins, 20 Sept., #104 (£600). A portrait of Sir William Blake Richmond (1842–​1921), aged four.

Portrait Study of a Gentleman, n.d. Pencil, crayon, and watercolor on paper, 20 x 18 cm. Cheffins, 20 Sept., #105 (£440).

Study of an Archbishop, n.d. Pen and ink and pencil on paper, 23 x 17 cm., initialed. RW, 24 Apr., #319 (£300). The drawing depicts a seated male figure reading from a book.

A Verdant Valley, n.d. Pencil, pen and brown ink, and watercolor, 29.8 x 21.8 cm. Guy Peppiatt, British Drawings and Watercolours, #36 (£2200). This sketch relates to a view at Shoreham drawn by Samuel Palmer (c. 1827) now in the Yale Center for British Art (B1977.14.4666). Richmond visited Palmer at Shoreham in 1827.

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).

#XXV: “The Fall of Rosamond,” 1st state. For the first known impression to be printed in reddish ink on laid paper, see under Separate Plates and Plates in Series, above.