After the excitement surrounding the surprising discovery of the Deaths Door wash drawing in 2023, the Blake market was relatively quiet in 2024 until late June, when Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy J came to the auction block at Sotheby’s in New York. Also known as the Tulk/Rothschild/Blunt copy, it was the first of only three lots in an auction titled “Three Poets,” with the other lots comprising manuscripts and published works by A. E. Housman and Robert Frost. At the start of the auction, there were three parties interested in Songs copy J, with bidding beginning at the low estimate of $1,200,000 before surpassing $3,000,000. The bidders continued to compete until the winning bid of $3,600,000 ($4,320,000 inclusive of buyer’s premium) came from Stephan Loewentheil, founder and president of the 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop in New York. This was a record sum for an illuminated book sold at auction. Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy D fetched $1,200,000 ($1,320,000 inclusive of buyer’s premium) in 1989 (see Blake 24.1) and Songs of Innocence copy A fetched $550,000 in 1990 (Blake 24.4), while The Book of Urizen copy E was sold for a then record $2,300,000 ($2,532,500 inclusive of buyer’s premium) in 1999 (Blake 33.4). Songs copy J also surpassed the $3,500,000 ($3,928,000 inclusive of buyer’s premium) realized by The Good and Evil Angels Struggling for Possession of a Child, from the Betsey Cushing Whitney estate, on 5 May 2004 at Sotheby’s, New York (Blake 38.4). At the time, this color-printed drawing established the record for any Blake work sold at auction. As of 26 June 2024, Songs copy J holds that distinction.
Loewentheil was present at the auction and, in a post-sale interview, described Songs J as “a manifestation of both artistic and poetical genius at a level that few in the history of literature and art have achieved,” adding, “It was too much for me to resist—and almost too much to pay for.”Joe Dziemianowicz, “‘Extraordinary’ Poetry Book by William Blake Sold by Sotheby’s for Record $4.3M,” Penta (28 June 2024): <https://www.barrons.com/articles/extraordinary-poetry-book-by-william-blake-sold-by-sothebys-for-record-4-3m-9698427c>. As discussed below, copy J comprises fifty-four plates, with all but one plate trimmed within millimeters of the images and mounted on larger sheets that create the illusion of platemarks. The only plate that has not been trimmed and mounted in this way is pl. 28 (see illus. 2), the frontispiece to Experience, which is matted separately, originates from another copy, and was added “by 1927” (BB 417). Another possible reason for such a staggering purchase price may be the copy’s provenance and the accompanying manuscript commentary on Blake’s poems and relief-etched designs by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
The first owner of copy J was Charles Augustus Tulk, a Swedenborgian and close friend of the Flaxmans (BR[2] 335). Tulk may have purchased the book directly from Blake;See Joseph Viscomi, “The Myth of Commissioned Illuminated Books: George Romney, Isaac D’Israeli, and ‘ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY designs … of Blake’s,’” Blake 23.2 (fall 1989): 67n2, 70n26. he also owned a copy of Poetical Sketches with the inscription “To Charles Tulk Esqre / from William Blake” (see William Blake Archive), as well as No Natural Religion copy M and All Religions Are One pl. 1 (BB 82n4; BR[2] 383n). At the beginning of 1818, Tulk lent Songs copy J to Coleridge. In a postscript to his letter to H. F. Cary of 6 February, Coleridge describes reading “a strange publication—viz. Poems with very wild and interesting pictures,” before stating that their creator “is a man of Genius—and I apprehend, a Swedenborgian—certainly, a mystic emphatically.” Addressing the irony in his identification of Blake as a “mystic,” he concludes: “You perhaps smile at my calling another Poet, a Mystic; but verily I am in the very mire of common-place commonsense compared with Mr Blake, apo– or rather ana-calyptic Poet, and Painter” (BR[2] 336). When Coleridge returned the work to Tulk in mid-February, he included an analysis of “Blake’s poesies, metrical and graphic.” His criticism ranks the poems according to the amount of pleasure that he experienced in reading them, from “The Divine Image,” “The Little Black Boy,” and “Night” “in the highest degree” to “The Chimney Sweeper” and others “in the lowest.” He notes that he “would have had [“A Little Girl Lost”] omitted—not for the want of innocence in the poem, but for the too probable want of it in many readers” (BR[2] 337). Coleridge also suggests revising the final lines of “Infant Joy” to “When wilt thou smile, or—O smile, o smile! I’ll sing the while,” with the rationale that “a Babe two days old does not, cannot smile—and innocence and the very truth of Nature must go together. Infancy is too holy a thing to be ornamented.”
In 1838 Tulk lent his copy of Songs to J. J. Garth Wilkinson to produce an edition of the poems that was published by William Pickering in 1839. Presumably along with Coleridge’s manuscript, it was bought by the bookseller James Bain in 1870, “from a member of Tulk’s family then resident in Australia.”Geoffrey Keynes and Edwin Wolf 2nd, William Blake’s Illuminated Books: A Census (New York: Grolier Club, 1953) 59. It was subsequently acquired by Albert George Dew-Smith, co-founder of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, “rebought by Bain about 1900,” and then sold to Nathaniel Mayer de Rothschild, first Baron Rothschild. After his death, copy J passed to his wife, Emma Louise von Rothschild, who in 1933 gave the work to her grandson, Victor Rothschild, third Baron Rothschild.Victor also owned Poetical Sketches copy L (see BB 350-51). In 1949, Victor apparently entrusted it, together with Coleridge’s manuscript, to the art historian Anthony Blunt, who was later revealed to be the so-called “fourth man” in the Cambridge spy ring. As David Worrall notes, Blunt kept copy J “in an office safe at the Courtauld Institute” and often consulted it in his private apartment on the top floor of the Courtauld building in Portman Square.David Worrall, “The ‘Secret’ Life of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Copy J: Anthony Blunt, the Rothschilds and MI5 in the Cold War,” Visual Culture in Britain (published online 18 Mar. 2025): 1-15 (especially 1 and 6). Worrall also shows how Blunt was a temporary custodian of Songs J and, after his spying activities had been revealed to the Rothschilds in the mid-1960s, was convinced by Victor and his second wife, Teresa, to give it to their daughter Emma Rothschild in 1969.Worrall 9-10. Presumably Emma Rothschild was responsible for putting copy J and Coleridge’s commentary up for auction in 2024.
In April there was activity with Blake’s drawings, when the visionary head of Solomon that was previously in the collection of Edwin Wolf 2nd came to auction. There is another version of this drawing in the Courtauld Institute of Art and a counterproof in the Huntington Library. The existence of two left-facing originals and a single counterproof is curious and suggests that Blake may have sketched two versions, one of which was used for the counterproof, or that John Linnell may have been responsible for one of the originals. This year’s review also contains an entry for a recent discovery: a preparatory drawing (illus. 4), auctioned in 2022, for Blake’s frontispiece to Thomas Commins’s An Elegy, Set to Music (1786). The frontispiece adorns a pamphlet comprising five pages of sheet music composed by Commins, the organist of Penzance, Cornwall, with lyrics from Anne Home Hunter’s “Elegy.”For bibliographical information on this pamphlet, see Roger R. Easson and Robert N. Essick, William Blake, Book Illustrator, vol. 1 (Normal, IL: American Blake Foundation, 1972) 8. This drawing was listed in the auction house’s online catalogue as “in the manner of William Blake,” although the subject was not identified until December 2024. It depicts the figures of a mother and child and appears to be an intermediate stage between an earlier, smaller, very loose sketch (illus. 3) and the published engraving (illus. 5). This new drawing probably dates to c. 1786 and may relate to Butlin #98. A comparison between the early sketch, the intermediate drawing, and the frontispiece shows Blake developing the positions of the arms, hands, and heads of the figures. A comparison of the chain lines and watermarks suggests that the earlier sketch and the intermediate drawing once belonged to the same sheet or same batch of paper. Unfortunately, the auction house could not provide information regarding the provenance of the drawing beyond reporting that it came “from a deceased estate.”Glen Charman, saleroom manager, Eastbourne Auctions, e-mails of 10 and 12 Feb. 2025.
Last year also saw the re-emergence and private sale of Blake’s letter to Linnell of 2 July 1826, one of a series that he composed during the summer of 1826 in which he reports on the various ailments that prevent him from visiting Linnell in Hampstead. It was originally sold in the Linnell auction at Christie’s on 15 March 1918 (#210) and became part of the Estelle Doheny Collection from the Edward Laurence Doheny Memorial Library at St. John’s Seminary, Camarillo, California. On 21 February 1989, it was sold on behalf of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to a private collector in California. The letter is transcribed in both editions of Gilchrist and by Erdman. There are some minor differences between these transcriptions and the actual letter; of particular note is the mistranscription of “Mrs Hards” as “Mrs Hurds” in Gilchrist’s and Erdman’s versions. A new transcription is offered below (see illus. 6).
Of the engravings that appeared on the market in 2024, perhaps the most significant was a proof before signatures and title of “Robin Hood & Clorinda” after Meheux (1783). Hitherto there had been only one recorded state (see Essick, SP XXIV). The market for commercial books with Blake’s engravings was buoyant, with copies of The Grave, The Botanic Garden, and Gay’s Fables regularly appearing at auction or in bookseller listings. A fine copy of José Joaquín de Mora’s exceedingly rare Meditaciones poéticas (1826) came to auction in Bogota, Colombia, at the beginning of the year. As detailed in the “Advertencia,” Mora’s verses were inspired by Blake’s designs for Blair’s Grave, engraved by Schiavonetti.See BB 596. The “Advertencia” refers to the author of the designs as “Guillermo Black” (José Joaquín de Mora, Meditaciones poéticas [Londres: lo publica R. Ackermann, 1826] ii). The Anglo-German publisher and bookseller Rudolph Ackermann purchased Schiavonetti’s plates after Blake’s designs, publishing the 1813 edition of The Grave (BB 526) before reusing the plates in Meditaciones poéticas.
Following previous sales reviews, there is a Blakeana section recording Blake-related materials such as Muir facsimiles and copies of Gilchrist and of Ellis and Yeats. One notable item sold in 2024 was a copy of John Quincy, Pharmacopœia Officinalis & Extemporanea; or, a Complete English Dispensatory (1733) that may have belonged to Blake. As with last year’s sales review, the section covering Blake’s circle includes works by James Basire that may be dated to the period of Blake’s apprenticeship, including Richard Gough’s Sepulchral Monuments, in Great Britain (1786–96).
The year of all sales, catalogues, and correspondence in the following lists is 2024, unless otherwise indicated. With a few exceptions, such as Blake’s engraving after William Hogarth and rare items such as prepublication proofs, 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. Coverage of regional auctions is necessarily 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; where possible, 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 David Bindman, Glen Charman, Robert N. Essick, Stephan Loewentheil, Michael Phillips, Nicholas Shrimpton, Joseph Viscomi, and John Windle. Sarah Jones’s editorial expertise has, as always, been invaluable.
Abbreviations
| BB |
G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Books (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 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 Press, 1995) |
| BHL |
Bonhams, London |
| BR(2) |
G. E. Bentley, Jr., Blake Records, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004) |
| Butlin |
Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981) |
| cat(s). |
catalogue(s) |
| CB |
Robert N. Essick, William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991) |
| Cheffins |
Cheffins, Cambridge, UK |
| CL |
Christie’s, London |
| CW |
Chiswick Auctions, London |
| DW |
Dominic Winter Auctioneers, South Cerney, Gloucestershire |
| E |
David V. Erdman, ed., The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, newly rev. ed. (New York: Anchor-Random House, 1988) |
| EB |
eBay online auctions |
| FH |
Freeman’s-Hindman, Philadelphia |
| FM |
Forum Auctions, London |
| Gilchrist |
Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, 2 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1863 [1st ed.]; 1880 [2nd ed.]) |
| illus. |
illustration(s), illustrated |
| Lister |
Raymond Lister, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of Samuel Palmer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) |
| LLY |
Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker Ltd., London |
| PBA |
PBA Galleries, Berkeley |
| pl(s). |
plate(s) |
| Roseberys |
Roseberys, London |
| SL |
Sotheby’s, London |
| SP |
Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983) |
| Swann |
Swann Galleries, New York |
| Windle |
John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller, San Francisco |
| # |
auction lot or catalogue item number |
Illuminated Books
1.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy J, 1795, general title page. Reproduced with the kind permission of Stephan Loewentheil, 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, New York.
Blake, or perhaps Catherine, used gray wash on the lettering, interlinear flourishes, and the figures of Adam and Eve. The wash was probably applied with a finely pointed brush (also known as a pencil in Blake’s time), particularly on the faces. Unlike other copies that were printed around same time—such as B and C, which depict Eve with her head bowed and face hidden—copy J shows Eve’s full face. The use of gray wash and the orientation of her face is consistent with copy L, also printed c. 1795. The delineation of Eve’s nose in copy J, however, is extremely delicate, with two thin parallel lines joining the nostrils and inner eyebrows.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy J, 1795. Sotheby’s, New York, 26 June, #1 ($4,320,000). Fifty-four plates printed in black and brown inks, with watercolor washes and pen and ink handwork on fifty-four leaves of unwatermarked wove paper. Fifty-three plates have been trimmed to within 0.5-0.2 cm. of the relief etching; they measure approximately 11 x 7 cm. The trimmed wove paper is inlaid on larger sheets of unwatermarked, late nineteenth-century wove paper, measuring 19.7 x 11.7 cm. As Bentley notes, there is “careful indent[ing] at the join of the inner and outer leaves … to look like platemarks” (BB 416). Keynes and Wolf indicate that these “artificial plate-marks” were made “by putting each print, damped, in press with blank plate” (59). Bentley describes the remaining plate, pl. 28—the frontispiece to Experience—as “loosely inserted by 1927” (BB 417). This plate measures 16.2 x 12.4 cm. and is now matted separately. The fifty-three trimmed plates are bound in honey-brown morocco, possibly by Riviere (see BB 416-17), with marbled endpapers and linings. The cover is decorated with a border of gilt fillets; a gilt-ruled spine comprises six compartments, with the second containing the title with gilt-edge letters. The volume is housed in a blue cloth slipcase.
The order of the plates—using Bentley’s numbering—and descriptions of the textual emendations made by Blake in this copy are:
1) Combined title page (illus. 1)
2) Innocence, frontispiece
3) Innocence, title page
4) “Introduction”
5) “The Shepherd”
22) “Spring”
23) “Spring,” second plate
19) “Holy Thursday”
15) “Laughing Song”
24) “Nurse’s Song”
18) “The Divine Image”
8) “The Lamb”
9) “The Little Black Boy”
10) “The Little Black Boy,” second plate
25) “Infant Joy”
6) “The Ecchoing Green”
7) “The Ecchoing Green,” second plate: the first word of the third line—“Such such were the joys.”—is printed indistinctly
16) “A Cradle Song”
17) “A Cradle Song,” second plate: in the last two lines, the terminal s’s in the second “smiles” and in “beguiles” have been overpainted in brown; the word “are” has been overpainted in brown, with “like” interlined as a substitute above
53) “The School Boy”
20) “Night”: overpainting obscures the catchword, “When”, at the foot of the plate
21) “Night,” second plate
27) “On Anothers Sorrow”
26) “A Dream”
13) “The Little Boy Lost”
14) “The Little Boy Found”
11) “The Blossom”
12) “The Chimney Sweeper”
54) “The Voice of the Ancient Bard”
29) Experience, title page
30) “Introduction”
31) “Earth’s Answer”
48) “Infant Sorrow”
32) “The Clod & the Pebble”
44) “The Garden of Love”
40) “The Fly”
42) “The Tyger”
50) “A Little Boy Lost”
33) “Holy Thursday”
43) “My Pretty Rose Tree” / “Ah! Sun-Flower” / “The Lilly”
41) “The Angel”
38) “Nurses Song”
34) “The Little Girl Lost”
35) “The Little Girl Lost,” second plate / “The Little Girl Found”
36) “The Little Girl Found,” second plate
47) “The Human Abstract”
37) “The Chimney Sweeper”
52) “To Tirzah”
49) “A Poison Tree”
51) “A Little Girl Lost”
46) “London”
39) “The Sick Rose”
45) “The Little Vagabond”
28) Experience, frontispiece: the plate is numbered 29 (illus. 2)
The coloring in copy J is consistent with some other copies that Blake produced during the mid-1790s, including pen and ink outlining on many of the plates (Songs copy A and copy N [Experience only], for example).See <https://www.blakearchive.org/copy/songsie.a> and <https://www.blakearchive.org/copy/songsie.n>. Gray wash has also been used on some plates (see illus. 1).
Accompanying the volume is an autograph manuscript signed “S.T.C.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), comprising an address leaf and two pages on a single leaf of unwatermarked wove paper, 22.2 x 18.2 cm. The address leaf bears the following in Coleridge’s hand: “C. A. Tulk, Esqre / (or Mrs Tulk) St John’s Lodge / Regent’s Park”. In early 1818 Tulk lent his copy of Songs to Coleridge, who drafted a commentary on the poems and illustrations (see BR[2] 336-38). As Bentley notes, Coleridge’s commentary follows “the order [the poems] are found” in copy J (BR[2] 337n), with no mention of the Experience frontispiece (pl. 28).Bentley infers the existence of the Experience frontispiece from Coleridge’s labeling of the plates between “Holy Thursday” and “Nurses Song” as “P. 13” (BR[2] 337n). The two leaves between these poems include “My Pretty Rose Tree” / “Ah! Sun-Flower” / “The Lilly” on one leaf and “The Angel” on the other. These two leaves, according to Bentley, would be pages 12 and 13 if the frontispiece was present when Coleridge examined copy J. Coleridge does not refer to “My Pretty Rose Tree” / “Ah! Sun-Flower” / “The Lilly” and “The Angel” by name in his commentary. In 1838 Tulk allowed Wilkinson to use copy J for the 1839 Pickering edition of Songs, which makes no mention of the frontispiece to Experience. As both Keynes and Wolf and Bentley note, the current pl. 28 is not original to copy J.
2.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience copy J, 1795, frontispiece to
Experience. Reproduced with the kind permission of Stephan Loewentheil, 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop, New York.
This plate is matted separately and is not original to copy J. Bentley speculates that the original “may be the one belonging” to Robert N. Essick (BBS 125n). While there is some consistency in ink color and hand coloring between the frontispiece to Experience in Essick’s collection and the plates in copy J, the former has the number “2” written in pen and ink on the upper right of the plate in what appears to be Blake’s hand. There are no such pen and ink plate designations in copy J, apart from the “29” in the top right corner of the frontispiece to Experience. It is possible that any plate numbers were removed when the plates were trimmed and inlaid.
Drawings and Paintings
Solomon, c. 1819–20. Pencil on paper, 25.4 x 20.3 cm. FH, 17 Apr., #16 ($30,000). Inscribed on the bottom right “J Linnell from Mr Blake” and in the center “SOLOMON”. This drawing was previously in the collection of Edwin Wolf 2nd (Butlin #701). There are two other versions of this visionary head: the drawing in the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute of Art (Butlin #700) has the same left-facing orientation, and there is a counterproof in the Huntington Library with lines that have been “heavily pencilled over” and some alterations to the neck (Butlin #702). The pencil lines in #701 are darker than in #700, with details of the hair more firmly delineated. As Butlin notes, the lettering in #700 is “probably by Linnell,” although this does not necessarily mean that Linnell was also responsible for the visionary head. Rossetti has a single entry for a drawing of Solomon in his lists (Gilchrist [1863] 2: 244, list 2, no. 43; [1880] 2: 260, list 2, no. 35).
Study of Two Figures for the Frontispiece to Thomas Commins’s “An Elegy, Set to Music,” c. 1786. Pencil on laid paper, 27 x 20.5 cm. Eastbourne Auctions, 7 Sept. 2022, #771 (£90). According to the auction house, the drawing came “from a deceased estate”See note 8. in Eastbourne, East Sussex, UK. On the verso are the remains of trimmed brown mounting tape on or near the top corners. Inscribed on the right-hand-side tape in blue ink is the number “87” and on the lower portion of the verso in pencil is “William Blake attr,”. There is a James Whatman watermark comprising a double-banded shield (also known as bend in shield) adorned with fleur-de-lis above and partial “GR” initials below.We find the same watermark on several of Blake’s apprenticeship drawings in the Gough Collection, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, such as The Children of Edward III (1777) (see Gough Maps 225, f. 160, and Butlin #37). For examples of this watermark, see Edward Heawood, Watermarks, Mainly of the 17th and 18th Centuries (Hilversum, Netherlands: Paper Publications Society, 1986) pl. 16, nos. 103, 105; pl. 17, nos. 107-08, 111; pl. 18, nos. 113-14. The chain lines are 3 cm. apart. This drawing (illus. 4) appears to be preparatory to Blake’s engraved frontispiece to Commins, which is inscribed “W. Blake delt. & sculpt.”; it may be related to Butlin #98, Sketch for Thomas Commins’s “An Elegy.” Both Bentley (BB 540) and Butlin follow Geoffrey Keynes’s description of a drawing for the frontispiece being “in the hands of Messrs. Robson” in 1913.Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of William Blake (1921; New York: Kraus Reprint Co., 1969) 198. See also Easson and Essick 8. That drawing was thought untraced until the early 1990s, when a series of pencil sketches and pen and ink wash drawings relating to Commins (and other subjects) appeared on the market.Martin Butlin, “Two Newly Identified Sketches for Thomas Commins’s An Elegy and Further Rediscovered Drawings of the 1780s,” Blake 26.1 (summer 1992): 21-26, and “Two Newly Identified Sketches for Thomas Commins’s An Elegy: A Postscript,” Blake 27.2 (fall 1993): 42-44. In his account of these drawings, Butlin identifies a sheet that includes a “summarily executed” oval composition (illus. 3) corresponding “closely to” Blake’s frontispiece (illus. 5) as a candidate for the work in the possession of Messrs. Robson in 1913.Butlin, “A Postscript” 43-44. The newly discovered drawing is a larger, more detailed rendering of two of the three figures from the oval sketch. The watermark and chain lines are the same in both, suggesting that these two drawings were sketched on the same batch of paper around the same time, or may have been part of the same sheet when originally sketched.
3. (top)
Sketches for Thomas Commins’s “An Elegy,” c. 1786, verso. Pencil on laid paper, 30.7 x 46 cm. Reproduced with the kind permission of Robert N. Essick.
(bottom) Enlarged detail of the verso. This composition was drawn within an oval frame over an earlier design of a figure that is inverted in this image. The looseness of the pencil lines, the partially delineated figures, and the landscape suggest that Blake worked quickly as he developed his ideas for the frontispiece. Within the frame, he depicts the outlines of the father, mother, and child that we see in the published engraving (illus. 5). To the left, the father is stepping from a boat with arms extended to greet his wife and child on the shoreline. At this stage of development, Blake was still working on the positioning of the father’s arms, with three different placements, and, unlike in the engraving, the father’s left leg extends beyond the prow of the boat. The figures on the right occupy a similarly proximate compositional arrangement to the engraving, with the child’s right arm raised and right foot extending forward. The mother is slightly less defined than the child, with head, torso, and legs loosely drawn. The darker pencil on her extended left foot, like that of the child’s foot and head, suggests that Blake had a clear idea of where each figure would be situated within the composition and had yet to work out details such as clothing, hair, and, in the case of the mother, arm positions.
4.
Study of Two Figures for the Frontispiece to Thomas Commins’s “An Elegy, Set to Music,” c. 1786. Pencil on laid paper, 27 x 20.5 cm. Reproduced with the permission of the owner.
With this drawing, Blake has developed the positioning, arm gestures, and clothing of the mother and child. To the left is the lightly sketched outline of the father’s head and arms, which extend above the child’s head. Below the mother and child, Blake has sketched the outline of the shore. He has used firm pencil lines to delineate the forms of the mother and child, with looser and lighter lines depicting clothing and hair. Like the compositional arrangement in the engraving, the child is situated beside, yet slightly behind, the mother. We see evidence of pentimenti in the positions of the mother’s limbs, particularly evident with the two different positions of the left hand and extended left foot. The position of the toes on the mother’s foot, including the prominent gap between the big toe and the index toe, is similar to the engraving. While the more detailed figures of the mother and child are closer to the engraving, there are some differences here in the mother’s hair and dress, which billows out behind her, and the child’s bent right leg, revealing that Blake made revisions in either another drawing, now untraced, or during the engraving process. This newly discovered drawing was probably executed after the oval sketch (illus. 3).
5. Thomas Commins,
An Elegy, Set to Music, 1786, frontispiece, colored. The color in this print was probably added later. Reproduced with the kind permission of Robert N. Essick. For an uncolored impression, see <
https://www.themorgan.org/collection/William-Blakes-World/4>.
Commins was the “organist of Penzance, Cornwall,” according to the pamphlet; Anne Home Hunter, the author of the “Elegy,” is not mentioned in the pamphlet.Hunter was a member of the Bluestockings, hosted and attended salons, and counted Hester Thrale, Elizabeth Carter, and Elizabeth Montagu as friends. At these salons, she developed a reputation for composing lyrics set to music. In the early 1790s, Haydn composed settings of several of her poems, most famously with his Six Original Canzonettas (1794). For Hunter’s “Elegy,” see Poems, by Mrs. John Hunter (London: Printed for T. Payne, Mews Gate, by T. Bensley, 1802) 91. See also Jane M. Oppenheimer, “Anne Home Hunter and Her Friends,” Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 1.3 (July 1946): 434-45, the ODNB entry, and Caroline Grigson, The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter: Haydn’s Tuneful Voice (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009). The inscription below the leafy oval frame (“W. Blake delt. & sculpt.”) indicates that Blake was responsible for the original design and the engraving. The design illustrates the third stanza of the “Elegy,” inscribed beneath the oval:
Hunter’s verse is separated by a serpentine flourish that anticipates similar interlinear devices in Blake’s illuminated books.Blake regularly deployed these spiral motifs vertically and horizontally, often as vegetative tendrils that border or separate his relief-etched text. For vertical examples, see “My Pretty Rose Tree” and “Ah! Sun-Flower,” Visions of the Daughters of Albion pl. 8, and Jerusalem pls. 27, 52, 71, 77, and 90. For horizontal examples, see The Marriage of Heaven and Hell pl. 22, Milton pls. 6, 9, and 27, and The Ghost of Abel pl. 1. Given his extensive use of this motif in his later work, it is possible that he was responsible for the decorative flourish on the Commins frontispiece, along with the lettering of the signature, Hunter’s verse, and the imprint.
The design follows the compositional arrangement we see in both preparatory drawings (illus. 3 and 4). For the engraving, Blake altered the position of the man’s foot, which is placed on the prow, and added the left leg of the child. He created the oval with two leaves and filled out the scene with details of the boat, including the arm, fluke, and line of the anchor, and the addition of clouds, trees, sky, horizon, and water.
Manuscripts
Autograph letter, Blake to Linnell, postmarked 2 July 1826. James S. Jaffe Rare Books, Apr. cat., #3 ($225,000). Sold to Robert N. Essick via Windle (for a reduced price). One page, small quarto, 16.5 x 20.3 cm., edges uncut, verso addressed by Blake in black ink and with original postal markings. Transcribed in Gilchrist ([1863] 1: 350-51; [1880] 1: 393-94) and Erdman (E 778). This letter was previously auctioned in 1989; see the 1989 sales review, Blake 24.1 (summer 1990). See illus. 6.
6. Letter from Blake to Linnell, 2 July 1826. Reproduced with the kind permission of
Robert N. Essick.
There are some minor differences in the Gilchrist and Erdman transcriptions of the letter, including punctuation, line breaks, and spelling. A revised transcription that preserves Blake’s lineation is as follows:
This is one of a number of letters that refer to Linnell’s attempts to relocate the Blakes to Hampstead or 6 Cirencester Place, Fitzroy Square. Blake’s deteriorating health meant that he was not always able to visit Linnell in Hampstead, let alone “venture” far from Fountain Court, so Linnell proposed that the Blakes instead lodge at Cirencester Place. “Mrs Hards” appears to be the “M.rs Hard” mentioned by Linnell in the Ivimy manuscripts; she was his neighbor in Hampstead, whom he lodged with in June 1822 (BR[2] 754n). In Stranger from Paradise, Bentley follows Gilchrist’s and Erdman’s mistranscription of “Mrs Hurds” for “Mrs Hards”, identifying her as Linnell’s housekeeper at the Cirencester Place residence.G. E. Bentley, Jr., The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 433, 515. After Blake’s death, Catherine briefly moved to Cirencester Place until spring 1828 (BR[2] 754). The “Plate” that Blake mentions was likely one of the Dante engravings after his watercolors.
Receipt signed by Blake, 5 July 1805, to Thomas Butts for £5.7s. Purchased by the University of Victoria Library from Windle. Previously listed in Windle’s Apr. 2023 cat. for the New York Book Fair ($150,000); see the 2023 sales review, Blake 57.4 (spring 2024). For earlier sales and comments, see the 2019 sales review, Blake 53.4 (spring 2020), and 2022 sales review, Blake 56.4 (spring 2023).
Separate Plates and Plates in Series
“Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims,” c. 1820–23. FM, 28 Mar., #322, 4th state (of 5), apparently a few small nicks to extremities, printer’s creases visible in the lower-right quadrant, framed (£6000). Windle to private collector, 5th (final) state ($15,000). For states, see SP XVI.
“The Idle Laundress,” after George Morland, 1788. Anderson and Garland, 25 Apr., #12, together with “Industrious Cottager,” both framed and colored (£480). See SP XXX-XXXI.
“Industrious Cottager,” after George Morland, 1788. See “The Idle Laundress,” above.
“Mrs Q,” after François Huet Villiers, 1820. Grosvenor Prints, two impressions from the collection of C. A. Lennox-Boyd, acquired by Windle Nov. and sold to a private collector (price not disclosed). These impressions are 1A and 2F as listed in SP XLII. Impression 1A has signatures and imprint but lacks the title. See corrections in the appendix, below.
“Robin Hood & Clorinda,” after J. Meheux, 1783. Campbell Fine Art, proof before signatures and title (and probably all lettering) printed in black ink on a leaf of laid paper trimmed to a circle with a diameter of 24.5 cm., acquired by Robert N. Essick in Oct. See SP XXIV, this impression not recorded. See illus. 7 and corrections in the appendix, below.
7. “Robin Hood & Clorinda,” engraved by Blake after J. Meheux, 1783. Reproduced with the kind permission of Robert N. Essick. Printed in black ink on laid paper that has been trimmed in a circle. Part of the platemark appears on the right and left sides of the image. For information on Meheux, see Vincent Carretta, “
Blake’s Meheux?,”
Blake 31.3 (winter 1997–98): 84.
Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake
Ariosto, Orlando furioso. William George Online Auctions, 17 Jan., #17, 1783 ed., 5 vols., including vol. 3 with Blake’s frontispiece, illus. (price not disclosed). Galerie du Louvre, Canada, 9 Mar., #20, Blake’s frontispiece only, glued on cardboard (passed). PBA, 25 July, #191, 1799 ed., 5 vols., 3rd state of Blake’s plate, illus. (passed).
Blair, The Grave. FM, 11 Jan., #142, 1808 quarto, containing modern bookplate of W. & P. J. Kupfer, illus. (£600). FM, 28 Mar., #318 (same lot as Hayley, Life of Cowper ; see below), “1813” [1870] ed., illus. (£500); #321, 1808 quarto, illus. (£900); #326, “1813” [1870] ed., original blind-stamped black cloth, illus. (£320). EB, 2 May, 1808 ed., bound in dark-brown calf, ribbed gilt-decorated spine, panels tooled in blind, gilt-lettered green morocco spine label, illus. ($1800). FM, 23 May, #145, [1870] portfolio of plates only, illus. (£320). FH, 7 June, #129, 1808 quarto, illus. ($476). EB, 20 Aug., [1870] portfolio of plates only ($299). Cheffins, 10 Oct., #299, “1813” [1870] ed. (£140). EB, 16 Oct., 1808 ed., illus. (£599.99). CW, 27 Nov., #78, 1808 quarto, brown staining on five plates, illus. (£120). FM, 28 Nov., #266, “1813” [1870] ed., marginal staining, illus. (£170). EB, 17 Dec., 1808 ed., original boards ($2999). Windle to private collector, 1808 folio, untrimmed copy ($9750). Windle to private collector, 1813 folio, containing signature of Horace Scudder, dated May 1864 ($9750).
Boydell’s Graphic Illustrations … of Shakspeare, c. 1803. DW, 6 Mar., #147, 90 plates, no mention of Blake’s plate, illus. (£1400).
Catullus, Poems, 1795. EB, 20 May, 2 vols., scuffed leather boards, illus. (offered for $600).
Cumberland, An Attempt to Describe Hafod, 1796. Windle to private collector ($4500).
Darwin. DW, 7 Mar., #554, The Botanic Garden, 2 vols., 1st ed. of part 1, 1791, 2nd ed. of part 2, 1790, with Darwin, Zoonomia, 2 vols., 1796, illus. (£260); #558, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 1st ed. of part 1, 1791, 4th ed. of part 2, 1794, with Darwin, Phytologia, 1800 (passed). PBA, 4 Apr., #117, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 1st ed. of part 1, 1791, 3rd ed. of part 2, 1791, illus. (passed); same copy, 25 July, #224 (passed). EB, 9 Apr., Poetical Works, 1806, vol. 1 only, lacking covers, illus. ($295). EB, Apr., Poetical Works, 1806, 3 vols., with some of the non-Blake plates colored, each vol. containing the armorial bookplate of Michael Pepper, illus. (£1750). Mallams, 22 May, #511, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 1795 general title page, presumably 3rd ed. of part 1, 1795, ed. of part 2 not specified, boards loose, illus. (£480). PBA, 25 July, #225, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 3rd ed. of part 1, 1795, 3rd ed. of part 2, 1791, illus. ($375). DW, 11 Sept., #89, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 1st ed. of part 1, 1791, 1st ed. of part 2, 1789, illus. (£260). EB, 16 Oct., The Botanic Garden, 4th ed., 1799, vol. 1 only, illus. ($168.50). EB, 20 Oct., The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., ed. of part 1 not specified, 1st ed. of part 2, 1789, illus. (£850). Bubb Kuyper, 20 Nov., #2089, The Botanic Garden, 4th ed., 1799, illus. (€130). PBA, 21 Nov., #27, The Botanic Garden, 2 parts in 1 vol., 1st ed. of part 1, 1791, 3rd ed. of part 2, 1791, illus. ($281.25).
Flaxman, Hesiod designs, 1817. PBA, 25 July, #227, quarter calf, paper label, illus. ($187.50). New England Book Auctions, 22 Oct., #146, illus. ($40).
Flaxman, Iliad, 1805. EB, 3 June, extensive foxing, containing Blake’s plates, illus. (offered for $225).
Gay, Fables, 1793. Quinn’s Auction Galleries, 26 Mar., #27, 2 vols. in 1, illus. ($100); #28, 2 vols. in 1, illus. ($150). PBA, 4 Apr., #69, 2 vols., illus. ($250). Rug Life Auctions, 23 Apr., #64, 2 vols. in 1, half calf with marbled boards, illus. (passed); same copy, relisted May-Dec. (passed). BHL, 7 June, #72, 2 vols., contemporary red straight-grained morocco gilt, illus. (£1024). FM, 13 June, #118, 2 vols., illus. (£400). Bonhams, New York, 15-25 June, #139, 2 vols., illus. ($768). DW, 24 July, #346, 2 vols., illus. (passed); another copy, 11 Sept., #34 (£200). Potter & Potter, 26 Oct., #325, illus. ($390). PBA, 21 Nov., #275, 2 vols., Bayntun binding, illus. ($687.50).
Hayley, Ballads, 1805. FM, 28 Mar., #319, bound with Gessner, The Death of Abel, trans. Mary Collyer, illus. (£400).
Hayley, Life of Cowper, 1803–04. FM, 28 Mar., #318 (same lot as Blair, The Grave ; see above), 4 vols. in 3, including the 1806 supplement, with the 2nd state (of 4) of the Weatherhouse plate, illus. (£500). Auctioneum, 8 May, #102, 3 vols., including the 2nd state of the Weatherhouse plate (2: 415) misbound vertically, illus. (£240). PBA, 25 July, #265 (passed). For the four states of the Weatherhouse plate, see CB 88-89.
Hayley, Life of Romney, 1809. Mellors & Kirk, 6 Feb., #14, containing the armorial bookplate of John Bolton (1756–1837), merchant and slave trader and owner, illus. (£45).
Hayley, Triumphs of Temper, 1803. EB, 29 Apr., illus. (£500).
Hogarth, Works. Windle to private collector, Blake’s plate only, 3rd state (of 7) ($500).
Hunter, Historical Journal, 1793. EB, 6 Feb., calf binding with marbled boards, scuffed and worn, illus. ($1600). Australian Book Auctions, 21 Aug., #16, contemporary binding with cracked hinges, illus. (AUD 3200). Michael Treloar Antiquarian Booksellers, 9 Dec., #81, full morocco binding, extensively decorated in gilt, illus. (AUD 850).
Josephus, Works. EB, 8 Nov., apparently missing the title page (passed). According to the vendor, the copy was printed by C. Cooke, so it is probably the D or E issue. See BB 586-87.
Lavater, Aphorisms, 1794. EB, 6 Feb., loose boards and detached frontispiece, illus. (£99.99).
Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy, 1789–98. DW, 19 June, #307, 3 vols., front board of vol. 3 nearly cracked and nearly detached, illus. (£300).
Malkin, A Father’s Memoirs, 1806. FM, 28 Mar., #320, illus. (£350).
Mora, Meditaciones poéticas, 1826. Bogota Auctions, 25 Jan., #176 (COP 15,000,000).
Remember Me!, 1826. FM, 28 Mar., #325, foxing and water staining, including Blake’s plate, lightly foxed, illus. (£1800).
Ritson, Select Collection of English Songs, 1783. Bassenge Auctions, 16 Apr., #575, 3 vols., illus. (passed).
Salzmann, Elements of Morality, 1805. EB, 1 Dec., vol. 1 only, illus. (£115 or nearest offer); same copy, 11 Dec. (£85 or nearest offer).
Shakespeare, Dramatic Works, 1802. FH, 7 June, #282, 9 vols., 91 plates, no mention of Blake’s plate, illus. ($2159). FM, 18 July, #60, 9 vols., 96 plates, no mention of Blake’s plate, illus. (£800).
Shakespeare, Plays, 1805. FH, 14 Nov., #184, 10 vols., including Blake’s plates, illus. ($1300).
Stedman, Narrative, uncolored copies. FM, 28 Mar., #323, 1813 ed., 2 vols. in 1, contemporary ink signature and extensive notes on the author to front free endpaper, bookplate of William Monson, illus. (£1000). Alde Auctions, 16 Apr., #184, 1806 ed., 2 vols., illus. (€900). EB (Aardvark Rare Books), 7 Aug., 1813 ed., 2 vols., illus. ($3000).
Virgil, Pastorals. FM, 28 Mar., #324, 1821 ed., rubbed and scuffed, rebacked, spines ruled in gilt with blue morocco labels, corners repaired, illus. (£5500). FH, 14 Nov., #259, 2nd ed., 1814, extra illustrated with Blake’s woodcuts, inscribed by Thornton on the front flyleaf “Presented by the Author to the Rev: Dr. Goodall as a Testimony of Respect, Esteem & Gratitude”, illus. ($6500). FH, 5 Dec., #28, 1821 ed., from the collection of Justin Schiller ($7500).
Whitaker, The Seraph, 1818–28. EB, 23 Apr., 2 vols. ($154.14). The title page for vol. 2 contains the inscription “Drawn by the late W. Blake Esqr. R.A.”
Wit’s Magazine. FM, 28 Mar., #316, seventeen issues in 2 vols., including Blake’s plates, illus. (£420).
Young, Night Thoughts, 1797. Bonhams Skinner, 22 Jan., #1, nineteenth-century black pebble-grain morocco, top edge gilt, rebacked (price not disclosed). FM, 28 Mar., #317, letterpress “Explanation” leaf tipped into blank leaf following title page, 1874 prospectus for a reproduction set of original watercolors bound at the end, bookplate of William T. Moore, illus. (£2800). PBA, 4 Apr., #67, rare 1st state of the second title page inserted into Illustrations to Young’s “Night Thoughts” (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Museum of Art, 1927), illus. ($350). This is not a prepublication proof since the state appears in a few copies of the 1797 Night Thoughts.
Interesting Blakeana
John Quincy, Pharmacopœia Officinalis & Extemporanea; or, a Complete English Dispensatory, London, 1733. Purchased by the University of Victoria Library from Windle (price not disclosed). Possibly a copy owned by Blake. See illus. 2 and its caption in the 2000 sales review, Blake 34.4 (spring 2001).
An album of materials compiled by Caroline Tulk, daughter of Charles Augustus Tulk (1786–1849), including six miniatures attributed to Samuel Prout and three drawings after Flaxman’s designs for Hesiod pl. 15 (“The Evil Race”) and The Odyssey pls. 7 (“Penelope’s Dream”) and 16 (“Ulysses at the Table of Circe”). CW, 14 May, #185 (together with an unrelated album) (passed). This is a different album from the one sold at Cheffins on 13 Oct. 2022; see the 2022 sales review, Blake 56.4 (spring 2023).
George Cumberland, Jr., [Views in Spain and Portugal], c. 1818. Toovey’s, 24 Apr., #3064 (£180). One of only thirty copies, printed on Whatman paper, comprising ten soft-ground etched plates by the son of Blake’s friend George Cumberland. The views were taken during the Peninsular War. Cumberland Jr. exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1816–18. In 1823 he reworked these images and added a further seven, which were published by William Nicol in an edition of 100.
Death of John Flaxman, 1826. Commemorative medal by A. J. Stothard after E. H. Baily. Noonans Mayfair, 9 May, #135 (£150).
Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience, London: W. Pickering and W. Newberry, 1839. Windle to private collector, original pebbled plum cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt (partly worn away), enclosed in a modern protective box ($17,000).
Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake (1st ed. 1863, 2nd ed. 1880). Quinn’s Auction Galleries, 26 Mar., #4, 1880 ed., 2 vols., illus. ($80). EB, 2 May, 1880 ed., 2 vols. ($587). FM, 5 July, #126, 1880 ed., 2 vols. (£340). DW, 11 Sept., #397, 1863 ed., 2 vols., illus. (£420). FM, 31 Oct., #234, 1863 ed., 2 vols., illus. (passed).
Works by William Blake, 1876. PBA, 8 Feb., #10, a rare colored copy, illus. ($5625).
William Muir, facsimile of Blake’s Little Tom the Sailor, 1886. FM, 28 Mar., #328, a few small spots and light soiling, some creases from folding and across the lower-right corner of the lower illustration, short tear and traces of mounting tape to verso of left edge (£260).
William Muir, facsimile of Blake’s Milton, 1886. Manhattan Rare Book Company, online cat., formerly the copy of the collector John Quinn (1870–1924) ($9000).
E. J. Ellis and W. B. Yeats, Works, 1893. PBA, 25 July, #223, 3 vols. ($875). Swann, 24 Oct., #195, 3 vols., with inscriptions by Ellis’s widow: “This is my husband & mine Copy & give it with kind / Memory of my dear Husband to you & F[?] / Dr. Völker” and “to our own selves from William Blake” ($3000). Another copy, Windle to private collector, 3 vols., original green cloth ($13,700). This copy is unique as four of the facsimile illuminated books (Urizen, Ahania, Europe, and Milton) are colored in ways that correspond to the originals colored by Blake and Catherine. A manuscript note in pencil at the front of vol. 3 states: “Edward Shaw—the coloured pages have been specially tinted for this volume. Complete and with the pages 3, 8*, 17, & 32 not in index which follows the ‘Death of Abel’ [sic].”Shaw owned several Blake works, including Songs of Innocence copy J (BB 407) and pl. 3 from For the Sexes (BB 204). His collection was auctioned at SL, 29-31 July 1925 (BB 668). The colorist (possibly a Muir family member or friend) appears to have been familiar with Blake’s original coloring and may have seen originals of the four books or at least the Muir facsimiles.
Leonard Baskin, Head of William Blake (after Life Mask), 1955. FH, 5 Dec., #22, from the collection of Justin Schiller ($3493).
Leonard Baskin, wood engravings of Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence,” Northampton, MA: Gehenna Press, 1959. Windle to private collector ($1195). Baskin is recognized as one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century; Ted Hughes was a close friend.
The Beggar’s Opera by Hogarth and Blake, 1965. John Nicholson’s, 4 June, #32 (passed). FM, 31 Oct., #230 (£140).
Maurice Sendak, Poems from William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence,” 1967. EB, 21 Aug. (£750). FH, 5 Dec., #223, with an inscription by Sendak: “For Mrs. Kane—All Superb best wishes! I’m feeling fine—& am spending my time happily & slowly illustrating another Little Bear book—feels like old times! Almost. Wishing you a Marvelous New Year! and Love to dear Martha—Maurice Sendak” ($1397). Another copy, Windle to private collector ($4250).
Trianon Press, facsimile of Blake’s The Song of Los, 1975. Windle to private collector ($1750).
The Wood Engravings of William Blake for Thornton’s Virgil, 1821, 1977. Seventeen wood engravings on Japanese Hosho paper, reprinted by Iain Bain and David Chambers from the original woodblocks in the British Museum. FM, 21 Nov., #374, #127 of 150 sets (£2800).
William Blake’s Watercolour Inventions in Illustration of “The Grave” by Robert Blair, ed. with essays and commentary by Martin Butlin and an essay on the poem by Morton D. Paley, Lavenham, Suffolk: William Blake Trust, 2009. Windle to private collector ($5950).
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 plates, book illustrations.
BASIRE, JAMES
Engravings between 1770 and 1780
“Man in Christmas Sound, Tierra del Fuego,” after William Hodges, 1777. Cheffins, 18 Sept., #142 (£130). This print was published in James Cook, A Voyage towards the South Pole (London: Strahan and Cadell, 1777).
Richard Gough, Sepulchral Monuments, in Great Britain, 1786–96. Cheffins, 10 Oct., #123, 2 vols. in 5 (£220). As an apprentice, Blake made a series of preparatory drawings of the tombs and effigies in Westminster Abbey. According to Malkin, he engraved some of these drawings, which were published in Gough’s Sepulchral Monuments. For Blake’s apprenticeship engravings, see CB 115-20.
FLAXMAN, JOHN
Drawings and manuscripts
See also Flaxman under Letterpress Books with Engravings by and after Blake.
Athena Attempts to Prevent Hercules from Murdering Iphtius, c. 1790. Pen and ink and wash on laid paper, 35 x 44 cm., titled and dated on the verso in an unknown hand. Waddington’s, 12 Dec., #41 (CAD 11,250). This drawing was part of the collection of Christopher Powney, who was a dealer in, among other things, Flaxman drawings.
Classical Relief, n.d. Pen and gray ink on paper, 17.5 x 25.5 cm., signed lower right. Olympia Auctions, 2 Oct., #74, together with a pair of designs by Biagio Rebecca (£3200). The drawing contains three panels of designs; the central panel is a variant of the preliminary design for The Iliad (1805) pl. 1, engraved by Blake.
Design for a Monument: Possibly the Duke of Dorset, c. 1815. Pen and ink and wash, 18.5 x 15.7 cm. LLY, Paper Monuments: Designs for Sculpture in Britain, 1720–1820 exhibition, Apr.-June 2024. The drawing depicts “a marble monument, crowned with a triangular pediment, with acroteria at the corners and containing a roundel with a ducal coronet framed by laurel leaves. The central part … contains two mourning female figures clutching an urn.”
Design for the Monument of George Ellis, 1818. Pen and ink and wash, 14.5 x 11.3 cm. LLY, Paper Monuments: Designs for Sculpture in Britain, 1720–1820 exhibition, Apr.-June 2024. The Flaxman account book now at Columbia University reveals that the monument was ordered for Ellis—a poet, antiquary, and MP—on 18 Sept. 1818 and erected on 6 July 1820 at Sunninghill, Berkshire.
Hercules, 1797. Pen and ink on paper, 32 x 22 cm., signed and dated “J. Flaxman, 1797”. Reeman Dansie, 19 Jan., #9 (£250).
Life Studies for the Nelson Monument, St. Paul’s Cathedral (recto), Study of a Veiled Woman (verso), c. 1807. Pencil on paper, 17 x 20.7 cm. LLY, Paper Monuments: Designs for Sculpture in Britain, 1720–1820 exhibition, Apr.-June 2024. Flaxman was commissioned in 1807 to execute a monument to commemorate Nelson. This drawing “shows him experimenting with the pose of the younge[r] of the two midshipmen” who appear on the finished monument.
Lord Mansfield’s Monument, Westminster Abbey, c. 1801. Pencil and brown wash, 27.9 x 21.6 cm., signed and inscribed on the recto “Lord Mansfield’s Monument. Westminster Abbey. J. Flaxman RA.”, inscribed in pencil on the verso “Ld Mansfield’s monument / Westminster Abbey / Flaxman RA”. LLY, Paper Monuments: Designs for Sculpture in Britain, 1720–1820 exhibition, Apr.-June 2024.
Autograph receipt, 13 Mar. 1784. One p., with the date and inscription “Received of Sir John Sebright five Guineas the remainder of Miss. Sebright’s statue a bust of Mercury &c in full”. International Autograph Auctions, 24 Sept., #887 (€90). See also the 2023 sales review, Blake 57.4 (spring 2024).
FUSELI, HENRY
Drawings
A Captive Woman, c. 1781. Black chalks on buff-colored paper, 45.9 x 31.5 cm., stamped on verso “Baroness Norths Collection / of Drawings by H Fuseli Esq.” LLY, 4 Nov. (price on request).
LINNELL, JOHN
Early drawings, paintings, and graphics
A collection of drawings. SL, 4 July, #274 (£15,600). These drawings were the property of the late Mrs. Hugh Linnell (1938–2023) and comprise a Linnell self-portrait (1815); an 1819 portrait of James Linnell (1759–1836), the artist’s father; three drawings of workmen in Russell Square, Bloomsbury (1806); and a study of Collins’s Farm, Hampstead.
Six watercolor sketches of contemporary figures mounted in a single frame, variously inscribed, with one signed and dated 1841. Lawrences, Bletchingley, 30 Jan., #767 (£520).
Two drawings: A Woman Collecting Water below a Wooden Bridge, 1858. Pencil with white chalk on paper, 35 x 24.5 cm., signed lower left, inscribed lower right “Near Heavitree Devon 1858”. A Fisherman Casting in a Woodland Pond, n.d. Pencil on paper, no dimensions given. Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, 17 July, #605 (£90).
Two paintings: Eel Pie House, Twickenham, 1806. Oil on board, 16.5 x 25.5 cm., inscribed on the verso “Eel Pye House, Twickenham / 1806 / by John Linnell”. The Willow, 1806. Oil on board, 25.5 x 16.5 cm., inscribed on the verso “Study from Nature / by John Linnell / 1806”. SL, 4 July, #273 (£18,000).
Driving Cattle at Sunset, n.d. Oil on paper, 21.3 x 33.4 cm. SL, 4 July, #271 (£3120).
Full-Length Portrait of a Lady in a Black Dress with Her Small Dog in a Parlour, 1844. Oil on canvas, 92.7 x 71.1 cm., signed and dated lower left “J Linnell F. 1844”. Nadeau’s Auction Gallery, 27 Apr., #267 ($2750).
Hay Cart with Rainbow, n.d. Oil on panel, 46.5 x 31 cm., signed lower left “J Linnell”. BHL, 13 Mar., #12 (passed).
James Thomas Linnell, n.d. Watercolor and pen, 25 x 20 cm., signed “John Linnell fecit” and inscribed on the verso “James Thos. Linnell’s Given to him by his father John Linnell 1879”. Dawson Auctioneers, 25 Jan., #96 (£5500). Reminiscent of the famous miniature on ivory of some of the Linnell children, the “Little Ancients”: The Favourite, a Group, with Portraits of the Artist’s Children, as it was titled when Linnell showed it at the Royal Academy in 1825. James Thomas was Linnell’s second son; he became a successful landscape artist, exhibiting at the RA from 1850 to 1888.
Mrs. Robert Hudleston with Her Children, Robert and Annette, 1838. Watercolor and colored chalks on paper, 46.5 x 59 cm., signed and dated “J. Linnell fc 1838”. Bellmans, 28 Mar., #1257 (passed); 16 Oct., #1070 (passed). Previously sold CL, 12 Apr. 1994, #29 (£2185); see the 1994 sales review, Blake 28.4 (spring 1995): 135.
Portrait of Arthur Heywood, 1842. Charcoal and white chalk on paper, 57 x 44 cm., signed lower left “J. Linnell 1842”. Busby, 7 Nov., #752 (£45).
Portrait of William Russell, n.d. Pencil and colored chalks on brown paper, 52 x 41 cm. Elstob Auctions, 11 Sept., #599 (£140).
Studies of a Herdsman, 1820. Black and white chalk on blue-green wove paper, 27 x 34.9 cm., inscribed and dated in black ink, bottom right, “J. Linnell Cirenr place 1820”. LLY, Recent Acquisitions 2024 cat., pp. 44-45. The drawing consists of two studies of a herdsman leaning on a crook or stick.
Study of a Girl Reading, n.d. Pencil on paper, 19 x 14 cm., signed lower right “J. Linnell”. Sworders, 28 Aug., #352 (£100).
Study of Miss Bogle, 1820. Pencil, 22 x 17 cm., signed and dated “March 21 1820”. Dawson Auctioneers, 25 Jan., #91 (£400).
Twilight, n.d. Oil on board, 14 x 11 cm. SL, 4 July, #272 (£31,200). This painting was the property of the late Mrs. Hugh Linnell. It was exhibited (no. 50) at the Linnell centennial exhibition shown at the Fitzwilliam Museum and at the Yale Center for British Art, 1982–83. It may relate to Linnell’s journal entry for Mar. 1819: “small picture of twilight 5 x 4 (tiny sketch showing trees and crescent moon). Upright and low horizon”.SL cat. entry, following John Linnell: A Centennial Exhibition, selected and catalogued by Katharine Crouan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Fitzwilliam Museum, 1982) 19. If so, he executed this work less than a year after he first met Blake.
Untitled Landscape with a Group of Figures and a Dog, n.d. Oil on canvas, 61 x 91 cm., signed lower left “J Linnell”. Rago Arts and Auction Center, 10 May, #176 (passed); 14 Nov., #162 ($2400).
The Woodcutters, n.d. Oil on board, 32 x 36 cm., signed lower right. Dore & Rees, 21 Feb., #68 (£2100). Exhibited at the Samuel Palmer and John Linnell exhibition for the Reigate centenary, July-Aug. 1963.
[ Michael Angelo’s Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel ], 1833–35. Engravings. Doyle, New York, 1 May, #33, illus. ($640). The album was originally issued in parts. “The plates are based on a set of original drawings that had been in the collection first of Sir Peter Lely, then Sir Joshua Reynolds, and subsequently Samuel Rogers, who gave Linnell permission to produce these prints.”
PALMER, SAMUEL
Drawings, paintings, and graphics
Eventide, 1841. Pencil, watercolor, and body color with gum arabic on artist’s board, 20 x 43 cm., signed and dated lower right “S. PALMER 1841”. CL, 4 Dec., #231 (£22,680). See Lister #364.
A Landscape at Sunset; A Cloud Study; A Landscape, n.d. Pencil and watercolor on paper, 9.5 x 19 cm., somewhat discolored, watercolor has faded, pencil notes run along the bottom regarding details of the sketches, original label for Colnaghi & Co. Gorringe’s, 12 Mar., #208 (£5000). Formerly in the collection of A. H. Palmer.
La Vocatella near Corpo di Cava, Italy, datable to 1838. Pencil and watercolor with scratching on paper, 26.7 x 37.8 cm. BHL, 3 July, #56 (passed). Previously sold CL, 10 July 2012, #147, illus. (£13,750), and SL, 23 Sept. 2021, #148 (£11,340); see the 2012 sales review, Blake 46.4 (spring 2013). Another view of La Vocatella by Palmer (Lister #311) is in the collection of the Graves Gallery, Sheffield; for another (Lister #392), see the 2023 sales review, Blake 57.4 (spring 2024).
Four etchings from Eclogues of Virgil, 1883. Millea Bros., 15 Oct., #1182 ($550).
“The Bellman,” 1879. Roseberys, 9 July, #240, 4th state (of 7) (£236). Swann, 17 Oct., #125, 5th state, signed in pencil, lower left ($7500).
“Christmas (Folding the Last Sheep),” 1850. Swann, 17 Oct., #123, 3rd state (of 5) ($4600).
“The Early Ploughman,” c. 1861. CW, 17 Jan., #176, 5th state (of 9) (£440).
“The Herdsman’s Cottage (Sunset),” 1850. DW, 16 Oct., #224, 2nd (final) state, with printed initials “SP” lower left indicating that this state of the print was first published in the Portfolio (1872) (£360).
“The Sleeping Shepherd,” 1857. Roseberys, 4 Sept., #4, 4th (final) state, signed in pencil (passed); same impression, 21 Nov., #1 (£1968).
“The Weary Ploughman,” 1858. Swann, 17 Oct., #124, 5th state (of 8) ($1375).
Eclogues of Virgil (1st ed. 1883, 2nd ed. 1884). Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, 14 May, #64, 1884 ed., illus. (passed); another copy, 29 Oct., #85 (£350). Mellors & Kirk, 20 Sept., #261, 1883 ed., illus. (£500).
Etchings for the Art-Union of London by the Etching Club, 1872. BHL, 22-31 Jan., #122 (£704). Includes Palmer’s “The Morning of Life.”
RICHMOND, GEORGE
Drawings and paintings
Portrait of a Gentleman, 1853. Black, white, and colored chalks on paper, 59.8 x 46.5 cm., signed lower left “George Richmond delit 1853”. Roseberys, 9 July, #212 (£446). A similar drawing by Richmond of William Benson, dated to 1855, sold CL, 16 June 2015, #34 (£4500).
Portrait of a Gentleman in Blue, n.d. Blue, black, white, and red chalks on buff paper, 55.8 x 42 cm. Sloan Street Auctions, 23 Oct., #240 (£400).
Portrait of a Young Boy, 1846. Pencil and watercolor, 41 x 30 cm., signed and dated lower left “Geor. Richmond del.t 1846”. Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, 16 Apr., #852 (£700).
Portrait of a Young Lady, n.d. Pencil and colored chalks on paper, 27 x 18 cm., unsigned. David Duggleby, 21 June, #180 (£2600). It has been speculated that the subject of the portrait is Charlotte Bronte.
Portrait of Hugh Seymour Tremenheere, n.d. Black, white, and red chalks on canvas, 44 x 35.5 cm. Roseberys, 9 July, #211 (£656).
Portrait of Mr. Ormroid, n.d. Black, white, and colored chalks on paper, 58.5 x 44.2 cm., inscribed lower left “Mr. Ormroid / Study for Pictures / GR”. Roseberys, 20 Nov., #176 (£340). Previously offered CL, 23 Apr. 1974, #155.
Study after a Portrait by Parmigianino, n.d. Pencil on paper, 25 x 18 cm., initialed lower right. Bamfords, 10 Oct., #293 (£50).
Study of a Woman’s Hand, n.d. Pencil and crayon on paper, 15 x 24 cm. Clarke’s, 12 July, #222 (£140). The same work was included in a group of Richmond drawings sold CL, 18 July 2012; see the 2012 sales review, Blake 46.4 (spring 2013).
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).
XXIV: “Robin Hood & Clorinda.” For a proof before letters (a previously unrecorded impression), see illus. 7, above.
XLII: “Mrs Q,” impression 1A. This impression was originally listed as a proof before title and imprint (p. 191); it has signatures and imprint, lacking only the title.