1 | Such as the 15 announcements traced for Flaxman’s Hesiod engraved by Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Such as those at the Royal Academy . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Such as that [1781] for Kimpton's History of the Holy Bible . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Essick normalized them to U.S. spelling conventions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | No. 90, Cheapside, and at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall-Mall. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6 | “At Mr.Richard ʄ on’s Print Warehouse, Clements-Inn, Fore-gate, near Temple-Bar”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7 | No copy of Blake’s prospectus has been publicly recorded since it was printed in Alexander Gilchrist, Life of William Blake, “Pictor Ignotus” (1863), II, 263. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8 | Visions of the Daughters of Albion has 8 large designs; Blake was not counting all 11 leaves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
9 | The Book of Thel has 6 large designs but 8 leaves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Marriage of Heaven and Hell has 27 prints 13 substantial designs on 27 leaves, but copy B has an extra plate of “Our End is Come”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
11 | No copy of Innocence Experience or has 25 plates, and most copies of the combined Songs have 54 plates. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Nothing more is known of “The History of England”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
13 | For Children: The Gates of Paradise (1793), with 18 prints. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
14 | That is, printed in red or blue or green but not hand-coloured after printing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
15 | In his letters of 9 June 1818 and 12 April 1827, Blake listed his works, mostly coloured
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16 | No. 90, Cheapside, London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
17 | There were announcements of the publication of Young’s Night Thoughts Monthly Magazine in , II (Nov 1796), 807, Edinburgh Magazine , N.S., VIII (Dec 1796), 447 -450, and Monthly Epitome and Catalogue of New Publications , I (Jan 1797), 79. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Bookseller at Horace’s Head, in Fleet-Street, London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
19 | ”At His House, No. 31, the Corner of Villiers-Street, in the Strand” . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
20 | At Mr. Squibb's Great Rooms, Saville Row. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
21 | No . 39, Fleet Street. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
22 | "(Successor to Mr. [ James Designs to a Series of Ballads ] Edwards) No. 26, Pall Mall". Evans was an original publisher (with Blake) of William Hayley's in 4 parts (1802). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
23 | Most of the second prospectus, with TWELVE VERY SPIRITED ENGRAVINGS, is printed from standing type of the first prospectus, with FIFTEEN PRINTS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
24 | Appended to Anon. [“An English Gentleman”], Sketch of the Present State of France (London: Richard Phillips, 1805). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
25 | Cromek’s advertisement is essentially identical in each journal. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
26 | "At his Spacious Room, No. 101, St. Martin's Lane". Thomas Dodd wrote a brief biography of Blake ( BR (2), 75 & footnote, 551). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
27 | James Parker (1750-1805), engraver, was Blake's fellow apprentice with Basire and later (1784) his partner ina short-lived print-shop. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
28 | These are almost certainly Blake's circular engravings after Stothard of "Robin Hood & Clorinda" and "The Fall of Rosamond" Published ... Dec r 17. 1784 by Parker & Blake, N o 27 Broad S t Golden Square" -- see Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 139-144 and Fig 62-63. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
29 | "At their Great Room, No. 38, King-Stre e t, Covent-Garden". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
30 | The very rare Bellamy's Picturesque Magazine , Vol. I (1793) , had a print by Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
31 | There were announcements of the publication of Blair’s Grave Universal Magazine in (July 1806); The Artist Monthly Literary (1 Aug 1807), p. 6; Advertiser Monthly Literary Recreations (10 Sept 1807); (Sept 1807); Literary Annual Register Monthly Literary Recreations (Oct 1807); (Oct 1807); Cowdray’s Gazette and Public Advertiser Literary (Manchester, 7 Nov 1807); Panorama Star and West-Riding Advertiser (Nov 1807); (Wakefield, 27 May 1808); Monthly Magazine Leeds (1 June 1808); Mercury Gazette (4 June 1808); and Public Advertiser Gazette (Bristol, 9 June 1808); (Bristol, 30 June 1808); Athenaeum Magazine Monthly Literary Advertiser (June 1808); (9 July 1808); Edinburgh Review (Jan 1809). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
32 | John Cuthell (d. 1818). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
33 | Appended to Miss Owenson, Patriotic Sketches of Ireland , Vol. II (London: Richard Phillips, 1807) <New York Public Library> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
34 | The printed title page reads: “Founded on Anecdotes Relating to Animals” . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
35 | "On the Premises, Heretofore known as The Poets' Gallery, No. 39, the South Side of Fleet Street". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
36 | "Morning Amusement" and "Evening Amusement" were engraved by Blake after Watteau and published by T. Macklin on 10 and 21 Aug 1782. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
37 | George Morland's "The Idle Laundress" and "The Industrious Cottager" were engraved by Blake and published by Macklin on 12 May 1798 and 1 Jan 1803. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
38 | “48, Pall Mall”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
39 | The house of Blake’s brother James. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
40 | The prices were to be privately negotiated, not printed in the catalogue. No such price is known. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
41 | “Apotheoses of N ELSON and P ITT ” are also offered “for Sale by Private Contract” in Blake’s “Exhibition of Paintings in Fresco” (1809). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
42 | “T HE C ANTERBURY P ILGRIMS from Chaucer —a cabinet Picture in Fresco—Thirty Figures on Horse-back, in a brilliant Morning Scene” is offered “for Sale by Private Contract” in Blake’s “Exhibition of Paintings in Fresco” (1809). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
43 | “The Ancient Britons” is also offered “for Sale by Private Contract” in Blake’s “Exhibition of Paintings in Fresco” (1809). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
44 | Hayley's The Life of George Romney Esq. London Catalogues (1809) is erroneously described as in two volumes in all the I have seen. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
45 | "at his Great Room (Poet's Gallery), No. 39, Fleet Street". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
46 | Blake engraved 4 plates for Lavater's Essays on Physiognomy Essays published in editions of 1789-98, of 1810, and of "1792" (with watermarks as late as 1817). The false imprints may have been due to the discovery by the purchaser of the copperplates that the "copyright" he had purchased applied only to the prints, not the text. See G.E. Bentley, Jr, "The Physiognomy of Lavater's : False Imprints, '1789' and '1792'", Blake , XXIX (1995), 16-23. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
47 | British Library: 11902 bbb 23, Vol. I, f. 246 r . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
48 | "at the Large Room in the Exchange, Manchester". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
49 | With 3 prints by Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
50 | This is plainly the portrait of Blake painted by Thomas Phillips and engraved by Schiavonetti as the frontispiece for Blair's Grave (1808). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
51 | "Tornado" was engraved by Blake after Fuseli for [Erasmus Darwin], The Botanic Garden (1795). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
52 | Only the edition of 1813 had biographical accounts of Blair, Schiavonetti, and Cromek, though its engraved title page was dated 1808. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
53 | Ackermann’s list of publications was added to William Warden , Letters Written on Board His Majesty’s Ship the Northumberland, and at Saint Helena; in which The Conduct and Conversations of Napoleon Buonaparte, and His Suite, during the Voyage, and the First Months of his Residence in That Island, Are Faithfully Described and Related. A Historical Account ... of theHouseof Saxony Third Edition (London: Published for the Author by R. Ackerman n , 1816) <Michigan> Ackermann’s list was also added at the end of Frederick Shoberl, ... (London: R. Ackermann,1816) <Michigan> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
54 | On the Premises, No. 90, Cheapside, London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
55 | " No St Martin's Lane . 102, ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
56 | A copy is appended to Frederick Accum, A Practical Treatise on Gas-Light , Fourth Edition (London: R. Ackermann, 1818). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
57 | At His House, No. 96, Pall-Mall. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
58 | The introduction is dated "July 1, 1820". Blake probably lived at 31 Great Queen Street with his master James Basire in 1771-78. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
59 | Perhaps Songs of Innocence and of Experience ( | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
60 | The works here are dated 1789-95. No copy of America Book of Thel, Europe, First Book of Urizen, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Song of Los, Songs of Innocence , or Songs of Experience corresponds plausibly with the Blakes in the 1820 sale. John Linnell wrote on 3 April 1830: "before I knew his [Blake's financial] distress he had sold all his collection of old prints to Merss. Colnaghi & Co" (printsellers) before 1821 ( BR (2) 527). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
61 | The top right hand corner is torn off. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
62 | A copy is added at the end of Edinburgh Review, XXXVI (Oct 1821-Feb 1822) <Stanford> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
63 | A dded at the end of Dr F.A. Krummacher, Parables, Letters Between Amelia in London and Her Mother in the Country tr. From the German by Frederic Shoberl (London: R. Ackermann, 1824) and of William Combe, (London: R. Ackermann, 1824) <Princeton> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
64 | "148, Strand, (near Somerset-House.)" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
65 | And lots 322-326. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
66 | "at his house, No. 3, Wellington Street, Strand". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
67 | "No. 38, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
68 | Rebekah Bliss (d. 819) left the use of her library to Ann Whitaker (d. 1825). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
69 | "At the Exchange Rooms, Manchester". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
70 | A separately issued statement from " Manchester th May , 5 , 1826" concerning the "Sale of Mr Edwards's Stock, Exchange Rooms" says: M R E DWARDS having been disappointed in his endeavours to effect a Sale by auction of his Stock of Books, which disappointment he attributes to the unforeseen and unpropitious state of the times, respectfully announces that he has given directions to M ESSRS W INSTANLEY & Co. to discontinue the public Sale; with others and that the remaining part of the Books described in the Sale Catalogue, of a high value and consequence, will be on a PRIVATE SALE in the Large Rooms in the Exchange Buildings .... M R E DWARDS ... as he is about to retire from Business, he is prepared to make considerable sacrifices to effect the purpose of disposing of his Stock. A Catalogue is left in the hands of M ESSRS W INTSTANLEY & Co, at the Rooms lowest price , in which is marked the that will be taken for each Book. The copy of Anthony Lister is inscribed: "This circular was drawn up by W. Ford Booksr. of Manchester who also made the Catalogue." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
71 | £ 50, not in the Bodley and Harvard copies, is recorded by T.W. Hanson, "Edwards of Halifax. Book Sellers, Collectors and Book-Binders", Halifax Guardian Night Thoughts , Dec 1912 and Jan 1913. As the works after the first day were withdrawn, perhaps £50 on the drawings represents "the lowest price that will be taken" for it | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
72 | A Bodley copy of the 15-16 May 1826 sale of the Engravings, Drawings, Pictures " of Thomas Edwards is inscribed "Jn o Lowe Esq. | with T. Edwards's | respects." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
73 | "at the Exchange Rooms, Manchester". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
74 | This may be a copy of Blake's large engraving called Head of a Damned Soul in Dante's Inferno The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (c. 1789), one copy of which [E] is inscribed "Satan" (R.N. Essick, [1983], 170-172); Essick does not record the 1827 Fuseli catalogue here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
75 | It says Ackermann has just moved from 101 Strand to 96 Beaufort Buildings [1827], and this copy (with the stamp of Bibliotheque de la Ville Lyon) is bound with Edinburgh Review , No. xci (June 1827) . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
76 | "at his house, No. 93 Pall Mall". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
77 | "at their Great Room, 191, Piccadilly". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
78 | The Wheatley code, “Norris KBO/e”, indicates that the bids did not achieve the reserve of £ 157.10.0, according to Marc Vaulbert de Chantilly. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
79 | John Flaxman, A Letter to the Committee for Raising the Naval Pillar, or Monument (1799), with three plates engraved by Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
80 | Added to Asiatic Costumes, A Series of Forty-Four Coloured Engravings, from Designs Taken from Life (London:R. Ackermann, 1828) . <Bodley> | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
81 | It is bound with Foreign Review , No. 1 (January 1828). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
82 | "Book and Print Seller, Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields"; the copy in Victoria University in the University of Toronto has a pasted-in slip which says: "A.E. Evans and Sons, 403, Strand, late of 1, Great Queen Street". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
83 | Evans's Catalogue seems to have been issued in 16-page Parts, from Part I (title page) to Part 25 on p. 385. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
84 | Frontispiece (Donaldson-Blake) to The Elements of Medicine of John Brown, M.D . (1795) . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
85 | " T HOMAS H AYLEY , the Disciple of John Flaxman. from a Medallion by Flaxman [ ]", engraved by Blake for William Hayley, An Essay on Sculpture (1800). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
86 | "Wilson Lowry", Linnell-Blake (1825). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
87 | Frontispiece (Blake-Cromek) to B.H. Malkin, A Father's Memoirs of His Child (1806). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
88 | The owner of the works in the 1830 catalogue was Robert Balmanno, according to the copy in the British Museum Print Room . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
89 | The passport on which Wainewright escaped to France was in the name of Williams . All these details are from Marc Vaulbert de Chantilly, "Property of a Distinguished Poisoner: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and the Griffiths family library", pp. 111-142 of Under the Hammer: Book Auctions Since the Seventeenth Century, ed. Robin Myers, Michael Harris, & Giles Mandelbrote (2001). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
90 | Mr Stanley's sale is "AT HIS GALLERY. In Maddox Street, Hanover Square", but it is "To be Viewed ... at Mr. STANLEY'S Ro oms, 21, Old BondStreet". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
91 | Until Day 5 there are very few publication dates, and I therefore ignore "Aphorisms on Man" (Lot 203). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
92 | "N. o 38, Bedford Street, Covent Garden, London". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
93 | Blake offered his MS dedication to Blair's Grave BR in April 1807 to Cromek, who declined it with contumely ( (2) , 241-245). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
94 | The latest date on a work offered for sale is 1833 (no. 1390); no. 268 is mis p rinted "1850" for 1825. An addendum to Gentleman's Magazine , CIII, Part 1, no. 2 (n.s. 26) (Feb 1833), 10, announces: "This day is published" Edward Evans's catalogue with works from an "eminent divine" and a "distinguished Artist". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
95 | Note that lot 86+, being in manuscript, was only relevant to and seen by the auctioneer; the buyers would have heard the books described by the auctioneer and perhaps seen them when they were held up. They might also have seen them at the viewing on 7-8 May. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
96 | Walter J. Tiffin acquired "Joseph's Brethren Bowing Before Him", "Joseph Ordering Simeon to Be Bound", and "Joseph Making Himself Known to His Brethren" <Butlin #155-157>and sold them at Sotheby's, 29 Feb-9 March 1860. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
97 | The owner listed on the printed title page is Joseph Earle, but the manuscript list of owners gives "Wright M rs ” . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
98 | B eside l ot 833 is "W-ght", i.e., Wainewright , in Wheatley's master copyof the catalogue: British Library: S.C. Wheatley.26 (4). See Marc Vaulbert de Chantilly, "Property of a Distinguished Poisoner: Thomas Griffiths Wainewright and the Griffiths family library," pp. 111-142 of Under the Hammer: Book Auctions Since the Seventeenth Century, ed. Robin Myers, Michael Harris, & Giles Mandelbrote (New Castle [Delaware]: Oak Knoll Press; London: The British Library, 2001). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
99 | The drawing of a flower woman on the back of For Children : The Gates of Paradise (C) pl. 4 is Butlin #201A 1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
100 | R.H. Evans was "at his house, No. 93, Pall Mall". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
101 | In His Great Room, 11, Hanover Street. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
102 | This "Volume of Drawings by Blake" for Blair's Grave The Grave presumably consisted of the 19 finished drawings which Cromek chose in 1805 from the forty designs Blake had made for . No other drawing or book by Blake has been traced to the collection of Sivright. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
103 | The quotation is from Thomas Middleton's The Witch King Lear , V, ii (often appropriately interpolated into 18th Century performances of , IV, 1). For a fuller account of the sale, see "Thomas Sivright and the Lost Designs for Blair's Grave Blake ", , XIX [1984-85], 103-106. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
104 | A dded at the end of [J. de A.], El Mentor ... (Londres: Los SS. Ackermann y Comp. a [1836]) <New York Public Library> . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
105 | The running head is "June", and the latest date on a work offered for sale is 1836 (no. 323). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
106 | Bürger, Leonora (1796) has a frontispiece designed by Blake and engraved by Perry " from Young ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
107 | This picture is otherwise unknown; perhaps it is by a Blake other than the poet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
108 | "No. 178, Piccadilly, London, Opposite Burlington-House, Removed from Bedford Street, Covent Garden". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
109 | Perhaps " h.b. half bound " is for " ", with leather spines over other boards. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
110 | "John Bryant , The Camden's Head, 9 King William Street, West Strand, London". I have seen this catalogue only in the version in the Athenæum . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
111 | "At his house, 3, Wellington Street, Strand" (London). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
112 | The Library of the Deceased Clergyman begins on Day 1, l ot 418; that of the Deceased Gentleman commences on Day 3, l ot 601. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
113 | John Frederick Setchell (d. 1846), bookseller ( Gentleman's Magazine , June 1846, 663). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
114 | Issued with Gentleman's Magazine (Dec 1839) <Michigan>. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
115 | Issued with Gentleman's Magazine (Dec 1839) <Michigan> . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
116 | The latest date on a work offered for sale is 1839 (no. 107). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
117 | The work is described among books, not watercolours, and is therefore probably Blake's Milton Comus rather than his watercolours for, say or Paradise Lost Milton . It is described among books of octavo or infra size, which is a little surprising for (B), which is 16.8 x 23.3 cm, while Songs Milton (X) in the same sale is described as a quarto and is only slightly larger (20.2 x 26.4 cm). No other work by Blake fits the description in the Weale catalogue as well as (B). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
118 | "N. o 12, King William Street, Strand". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
119 | "at His House, 24 Pall Mall". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
120 | "York Street, Covent Garden". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
121 | This copy of Poetical Sketches could equally well be K, M, or V-Y. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
122 | "17, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
123 | It could also be Visions of the Daughters of Albion ( B -D, I-N). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
124 | Songs (V) was also in the 1841 Henry G. Bohn catalogue. However, its edges are marbled (not gilt) and its binding is russia (not morocco). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
125 | The latest date on a work offered for sale is 1843 (no. 777, 2196). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
126 | The latest date on a work offered for sale is 1844 (no. 848). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
127 | By Sept 1828 Catherine Blake had moved in with the Tathams. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
128 | An engraving of "Samson and the Lion" was acquired from an A.E. Evans catalogue as an etching by Blake by the British Museum (accession number 1847,0318.122), signed "WS / 1827", though in fact it is an engraving by George Richmond's friend Welby Sherman, according to Campbell Dodgson [Keeper of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum], "The Engravings of George Richmond, R.A., and Welby Sherman", Print Collector's Quarterly Blake , XVII, 4 (Oct 1930), 361 (as I am told by my friend Robert Essick and cited by him in , XLIV, 2 (Spring 2011), 129). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
129 | This is probably “The Whore of Babylon” <Butlin #523> signed “W Blake inv & del 1809” and sold by Evans to the British Museum Print Room in 1847. This 1844 catalogue is not listed in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
130 | The fact that it is listed among quarto books and has (engraved) "PLATES" suggests that it is a book (and not, say, watercolours for Comus Milton ); "1834" is presumably a misprint for "1804" on the title page of . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
131 | That is, on the title page was added "At N 28 Corner of Broad Street Golden Square", as in copies C-D, F-H, J, L, O; this was the address of the exhibition, not of the artist. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
132 | Songs of Experience America (H), (H), Europe (D), "Large Book of Designs" (A), and Small Book of Designs" (A) came from R.H. Evans catalogue of 15-19 June 1846 , lots 65, 277 . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
133 | This is apparently the order in which the prints were " stitched ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
134 | This does not seem to correspond to any known copy in history, prints present, or order. Songs of Experience (H) was bought by Evans for £1.14.0 at Messr. Evans auction of William Upcott, 15-19 June 1846, lot 65. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
135 | The Large Book of Designs (A) , Small Book of Designs (A), Europe Europe (D), and "Glad Day" were bought by Evans for £1.14.0 at Messr. R.H. Evans auction of William Upcott, 15-19 June 1846, lot 272. Apparently (D) was sold separately to Palgrave. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
136 | A Small Book of Designs (A). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
137 | The latest date for the works offered for sale is 1846 (no. 1989). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
138 | The catalogue is an offprint of the essay in the Literary World (1848). It was reprinted in 1865, 1874, and 1897 (twice). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
139 | The latest date on the works offered for sale is 1848 (no. 1370). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
140 | Visions of the Daughters of Albion was apparently recorded in error in this post-1848 catalogue, for it was acquired by the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings on 18 March 1847. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
141 | A Small Book of Designs (A). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
142 | A Large Book of Designs (A). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
143 | The firm was known as A.E. Evans, Great Queen Street (after June 1836); as A.E. Evans and Son, Great Queen Street (after 1839-52); as "A.E. Evans and Sons" [plural], 403 Strand (1857); and as E. and A. Evans at 403, Strand (1858). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
144 | The books of Days 7-8, 10, 17-18 in the Pigott sale apparently did not sell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
145 | The " Amateur " may be confidently identified as Thomas Butts, Jr, for Blake's "Songs of Innocence &c" (No. 50 in the list below) is recorded in Blake's receipt of 9 Sept 1806 to his father (1757-1845) ( BR Designs to a Series of (2), 766), Blake sent Butts "4 N os of Hayley's [ ] Ballads" (No. 56 below) (account of 1806 [ BR Job (2) 764]), the senior Butts subscribed to (No. 60 below) ( BR (2), 800) and to Blair's Grave (No. 61 below), Blake wrote Butts on 6 July 1803 that "St Paul Preaching" (No. 161 below) is "on the Stocks" for him, the "Wise & Foolish Virgins" (No. 165 below) is recorded in the 1806 Account, and Butts is known to have owned copies (3L, R) of Blake's "Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims" print (No. 167 below). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
146 | Perhaps this is the edition of James John Garth Wilkinson (1839) or that of Charles Augustus Tulk (?1843). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
147 | “M” is probably R.M. Milnes, who bought lots 52, 55, 57, 59, 158-159, 167 in the same sale and whose son owned Europe (C). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
148 | Essick, Separate Plates , p. 64, give "Palgrave". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
149 | Miss Margaret Christians of Christie's wrote to me on 7 Aug 1980: "All the pictures, drawings and prints in the sale were sold by the executor of the late Henry Reveley, and came from the collection of the Rt Hon. W. Wyndham." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
150 | Blake is not known to have signed a plate for The Ladies' Magazine . Blake is also named without reference to a specific print or book in lots 761, 971, and 986. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
151 | The " Amateur " is clearly Thomas Butts Jr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
152 | This Sotheby sale of 26 June 1852 is not recorded in Butlin, though Rossetti (1880) quotes from it without date (Lots 164, 176). All the lots (171-173, 175, 178-179, 181) which went to Butts were offered again in 1853. All the l ots (170, 176-177, 180, 182) which sold for over £1 went to Fuller. All the l ots (157-160, 165, 167-174, 178-180) which went to Butts reappeared in his catalogue of 29 June 1853. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
153 | The " Eminent Collector " was E dward V ernon Utterson (1776?-1856), according to the Sotheby master copy. He is not known to have owned anything else by Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
154 | Perhaps this is the miniaturist and watercolourist James Holmes (1777-1860) to whom Linnell introduced Blake ( BR (2), 345, 402). He is not known to have owned anything else by Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
155 | Perhaps this is "The Man Sweeping the Interpreter's Parlour", a copy of which (2J) Milnes owned (Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue [1983], 105). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
156 | This has always been known as "The Butts Set" of Comus Comus <Butlin #528>, but this is the earliest known association between the designs and Butts. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
157 | The date is very uncertain. It must be before 1857 when A.E. Evans and Sons (plural) were at 403 Strand. I found no date for copies sold. The Bodley copy has a manuscript note at the top "pre-1853". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
158 | These are Blake's engravings of William Cowper " Drawn from the Life by Romney T Lawrence R A: ad vivum del" " in Vol. I and another by " in Vol. II. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
159 | That is 1783. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
160 | I have no other record of a collection like this. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
161 | The Bodley copy of the 1853 catalogue says "The whole [ is ] in wretched plight". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
162 | Probably "23" is a misprint for "13", the number of prints Schiavonetti made for Blair's Grave . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
163 | This must be the 1813 edition, for that of 1808 contained no " Memoir ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
164 | This is probably the same "Willis" who bought "Oberon and Titania" <Butlin #246>at the Sotheby sale of 11-14 Dec 1865 . Probably he is the bookseller. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
165 | According to a MS note in the Huntington copy, the lot included a "print" of the Canterbury Pilgrims (Essick, Separate Plates [1983], 67). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
166 | "the artist's descriptions" were not mentioned in the sale catalogue of July 5-8 1852 where Butts bought the Comus watercolours. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
167 | Butlin gives the buyer as "C. Martin", as in lot 140. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
168 | "At Their House, 3, Wellington St., Strand". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
169 | The only copy of Kerslake's catalogue I have seen (Bodley: 593 d 108 [15]) lacks the front cover and title page--the title above is the running-head usual in Kerslake catalogue--and the latest date in the catalogue itself is Oct 1853, but it offers both Marriage of Heaven and Hell The Book of Thel (I) and (C), which Kerslake bought in Dec 1853. These two works are among other notable items described on the back cover without lot number. In undated catalogues Kerslake issued lists of “ Books Wanted”, including “W. Blake’s Songs of Innocence, or other works by him” (Bodley: 2593 d 108 [17]) and “Any Works containing Blake’s Engravings” (Bodley: 2593 d 108 [19]) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
170 | The electrotypes of Blake’s Songs demonstrate that there was only one copperplate per page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
171 | “G Cumberland” wrote his name on the verso of pl. 28. Kerslake offered “the Library of the late G EORGE C UMBERLAND ” in Parts 10 and 13 (1849) of his catalogues. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
172 | All Blake’s letters to Cumberland went to the British Library in 1849 except for the long, interesting ones of 2 July 1800 and 12 April 1827, the second of which has notes by Cumberland about Blake and is probably the one referred to above. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
173 | At the Gallery, 54, Pall Mall. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
174 | "16, Castle Street, Leicester Square". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
175 | Butlin #321 is the same work now called a colour print of "The House of Death". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
176 | According to Butlin #526 , "&c" was "Christ Trampling Down Satan" , but I don't know how he reached this conclusion. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
177 | Butlin says that the 5 unnamed pictures comprehended by "&c" are Sketch for Jerusalem pl. 51 < #569 > , "Theotormon" < #574 > , "God Appearing to Adam and Eve" < #837 > , and " Two Sketches in Pencil " < #880 > , but he does not say how he knows this. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
178 | Butlin comments: "Different annotated copies of the Hogarth sale catalogue give the alternative prices and purchasers quoted above." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
179 | The initial letter of "Kahn" is defective and therefore dubitable. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
180 | The presence of the Memoir, first printed in 1813, indicates that this is the 1813 edition. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
181 | W.T. Lowndes, The Bibliographer's Manual (1857), I, 215-216; I have not traced this Sotheby catalogue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
182 | The portrait engraved by Schiavonetti is in Blair's Grave Night Thoughts (1808), not Young's (1797). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
183 | C. Smith fl. 1828-40, according to Charles Ramsden, London Bookbinders 1780-1840 (London: B.T. Batsford, 1987), 131, 133, Plate XXII. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
184 | Information about the untraced 1855 Sotheby catalogue comes from W.T. Lowndes, The Bibliographer's Manual (1857), I, 215-216. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
185 | Ahania Songs (Bb) pl. 2 a-b , 4 were in the volume of Blakeana including the “Order” of the ( BB mith 337-341) with a note signed “G.A. S[ ]”, suggesting that the “Order” was in the untraced Sotheby Catalogue of 1855. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
186 | It does not include Rogers's Songs of Innocence (C) which was sold by the family in 1875. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
187 | Lavater's Physiognomy , 3 volumes bound in five, Vol. I (1789), Vol. II (1792), Vol. III (1798). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
188 | The date of the Kerslake catalogue derives from the latest publication date in works offered for sale. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
189 | If this opaque phrase means that each colour of a design was printed from a different "block of metal", it is mistaken. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
190 | The latest date on the works offered for sale is 1858 (no. 2058, 2474, 2768). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
191 | An advertisement for Stockdale's edition of Aesop's Fables listed "Blake" among its 13 engravers, but no print in it is signed by him ( BB 566). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
192 | "15 Piccadilly". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
193 | The work was advertised thus, but no plate bears his name. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
194 | The work was advertised thus, but no plate bears his name. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
195 | Perhaps owner of these 376 drawings was Frederick Tatham. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
196 | No. 136 Strand, (W.C.). Mike Drew of Henry Sotheran Ltd told me on 6 May 2010 that the Sotheran “archives were blitzed during the war”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
197 | Europe ordinarily consists of 18 prints. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
198 | The Book of T hel The Book of The is dated 1789 on the title page. l usually has 8 prints; the one missing may be pl. 1, “Thel’s Motto”, as in copy E. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
199 | The poem was composed by William Hayley. Perhaps this copy belonged to Flaxman like the two lots above. It was probably sold quickly, for it does not appear in the Willis and Sotheran catalogue of 25 December 1862. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
200 | The vendor may have been William Smith (1808-76), for a note on the folder for the manuscript says: “Smith, the celebrated picture dealer in Newport St., obtained this letter from William Upcott [the son of O. Humphry] ... From Smith it passed into the hands of Mr. Anderdon ... at whose sale in [30-31 May] 1878 at Sotheby’s it was purchased.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
201 | No. 136 Strand, (W.C.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
202 | Lot 289A is entered in manuscript under Blake, but it is hard to associate with Blake, and Butlin ignores it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
203 | See the “Order” of the Songs . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
204 | The master Christie copy has manuscript notes of "d. Brown" and "s/./0.0.", perhaps indicating that Brown had bid ₤ 3.3.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
205 | The Christie master copy has "Brown" with symbols I cannot understand, and before the date is "s.. Palgrave.", perhaps giving bids of Brown and Palgrave. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
206 | The information here derives from an undated clipping of pp. 3-6 from "F. Harvey's Catalogue of Books" in the Anderdon Papers in the British Museum Print Room. The earliest possible date is 1863, for it refers to Rossetti's catalogue in Gilchrist (1863), and the latest is 27 Nov 1864 (see below). There are no l ot numbers. W.M. Rossetti wrote to Horace Elisha Scudder, 27 Nov 1864: "A Mr. Harvey, Bookseller of 30 Cockspur-Street, London, S.W., had--and I doubt not still has--some [ Blakes Selected Letters of William Michael Rossetti ], varying from important water-colours to slight scraps; one of his tolerably recent catalogues specifies 33 of the latter sort, to be had in a lump for £1.16." ( Quoted from the MS in Harvard; see , ed. Roger W. Peattie (1990), 134 . ) The known Harvey catalogue contains no entry like this. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
207 | I have traced catalogues of books (4) and prints (14) or both (1), mostly undated, published by Francis Harvey (1830-99) first at 30 Cockspur Street and later at 4 St James's Street, but none of the catalogues corresponds to the fragment in the Anderdon Collection. Harvey also published 12 other works. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge held a posthumous auction on 21-23 June 1900 of Harvey's "Valuable and Select Stock of Books". A vignette of the shop-front of "F. HARVEY | BOOK and PRINT | SELLER | 4 S. t JAMES STREET | On Sale by General Catalogue of Rare and Valuable Engraved Portraits FRANCIS HARVEY, BOOK AND PRINTSELLER, | 4, ST. JAMES'S STREET" is on the title page of his (n.d.) <Michigan>. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
208 | Perhaps this is Blake large unpublished engraving called "Head of a Damned Soul in Dante's Inferno Separate Plates " (Essick, [1983], 170-172); none of the 7 recorded copies is associated with Harvey. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
209 | Butlin #475 gives the same history. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
210 | Perhaps the Sotheby sale of 29 April 1862, Blake lots 158-202. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
211 | Butlin lists "The Resurrection" both as #325 (colour print) and as #502 (watercolour). The former seems more likely, as it came from the Harvey sale (?1864) like several of the other Prince pictures. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
212 | See the Harvey catalogue (?1864) above. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
213 | According to a "Memorandum", it was " prepared by and revised by W ILLIAM F ROST , E SQ ., A.R.A. H ENRY R EEVE , E SQ ." The catalogue, which is not in Butlin, is organized room by room. The Munroe collection was sold at Christie's, 22-24 April 1868, the Blakes as lots 195, 489, 496-497, 499-503. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
214 | Not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
215 | This sale is not recorded in Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue (1983). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
216 | "at their rooms, 49 Collins Street West", Melbourne, Australia. My information comes from John Pascoe Fawkner's Library: Facsimile of the Sale Catalogue of 1868 With an Introductory Essay by Wallace Kirsop (Melbourne: Book Collectors Society of Australia, 1985). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
217 | "416 Broome St., New York". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
218 | The work presently has 32 leaves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
219 | I do not know the significance of " s.a. ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
220 | This is a previously unrecorded copy ( q ) of the Songs Songs of , probably consisting of pl. 3-27 ( Innocence , lacking pl. 2, the frontispiece, as here) with 20 poems on 25 leaves. The closest extant copy is Songs Innocence g 1 with 18 leaves (pl. 3-10, 12-14, 16-27, all in ) and 18 poems (counting the Innocence title page as a "Poem"). The Quaritch catalogues of March 1871 and April 1873 were pointed out to me by my generous friend Bob Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
221 | Seymour Kirkup wrote to W.M. Rossetti on 19 Jan 1866: "I had picked up Blair's Grave BR , and five little engravings by Blake himself. I have lately had a sight of his life by Gilchrist" ( (2), 288). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
222 | The vendor was almost certainly Flaxman's sister-in-law Maria Denman. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
223 | No such Blake engraving is known. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
224 | It is inscribed on the second fly-leaf, probably by Pearson, “bought at Flaxmans Sale at Christies ...”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
225 | Lots 5-6 were returned presumably because they were not as described. Can they have been the printed editions of 1839 and 1843? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
226 | The Book of Thel (C) has a note on the fly-leaf: “106 Cat June 30 1877”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
227 | Of the works named, only the Virgil has prints now associated with Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
228 | Many of the texts are partly quoted or paraphrased. In a few cases, the letters have disappeared, and the text given here is the best we have. The descriptions include the number of pages. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
229 | Not in Butlin. Mr Butlin suggested to me on 29 Jan 1985 "that the drawings are almost certainly 'Camden Hotten' fakes'". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
230 | According to The Poetical Works of William Blake , ed. John Sampson (1905), 328, "I am informed by Mr. Quaritch that the MS. was proved to be not by Blake". Martin Butlin wrote to me on 14 April 1964: "I have not myself seen the ... manuscript, but Geoffrey Keynes saw it and says it has nothing to do with Blake". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
231 | An undated and unnumbered Pearson Catalogue (after 1899), lot 21, identifies the "seven sections, entitled 'Novelties, To Be imagined, Gravities, Many Things, Considerations, Dreadfuls, and Beings'". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
232 | According to a note on the folder for the manuscript, William Smith (1808-76), “the celebrated picture dealer in Newport St., obtained this letter from William Upcott ... From Smith it passed into the hands of Mr. Anderdon ... at whose sale in 1879 at Sotheby’s it was purchased.” I have not seen this 1879 catalogue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
233 | An integral advertisement says that the Huth catalogue [1880] will be ready soon, and Ellis & White Catalogue 44 says that it is printed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
234 | George A. Smith also owned Descriptive Catalogue (M). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
235 | The "Preface" dated 15 July 1880 (p. iii) says that "This, my latest G RAND C ATALOGUE , was originally issued in numbers from July 1877 to November 1879, and is now published as a whole". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
236 | There seems to be no good reason to associate the works of Campe, Baldwin, Trimmer, or Lamb with Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
237 | Illeg at Quaritch wrote to me on 23 Dec 1968: "We do have records going back many years but unfortunately there is no record as to whom or how these eleven letters of Blake were disposed of by ourselves." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
238 | William Blake, the poet-artist-engraver, is not known to have any connection with the Complete Angler, and he was not normally referred to as "Esq.". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
239 | A similar advertisement appears on subsequent Sotheran catalogues ; that in the 1881 catalogue dates the work "1876". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
240 | The absurdly low price suggests that this is the Camden Hotten facsimile of 1868 , though Paterson may have thought it an original. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
241 | The description apparently omits pl. 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
242 | The ticket for the Naval Monument is signed by William Stadden "Blake sc ‘Change Alley " , not by the poet-engraver. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
243 | The other prints might have included some from Flaxman’s Naval Pillar Iliad (1799), 3 pl., Homer, (1805), 3 pl., and Hesiod (1817), 37 pl. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
244 | These drawings were also listed in Quaritch’s Catalogue of Works on European Philology and the Minor European Languages (1879), at £10. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
245 | I have no record of the two portraits of Dante and descriptions added except for “A bust portrait of Dante” “By Blake”, 12 x 9”, in the Goddard & Smith catalogue of R.C. Jackson (23-25 July 1923), lot 18, which is almost certainly wishful thinking of R.C. Jackson. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
246 | There is no known 19th-century facsimile of The Ghost of Abel ; Pearson, who bought it, must have recognized it as an original, as he offered this l ot in his Catalogue 58 at £12.12.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
247 | Perhaps this is related to B.H. Malkin, A Father's Memoirs of His Child (1806) or its print of his two-year-old son T.W. Malkin being carried to heaven by angels. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
248 | BB Milton suggests that this is pl. 38. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
249 | Quaritch specifies "six ... pictures" but lists eight, while there are actually seven. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
250 | The prints in Baldwin, Campe, Lamb, Salzmann, Gymnastics , and Mrs Trimmer are no longer attributed to Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
251 | All the Blake letters are to Hayley save the second one in lot 1,030 which is to Linnell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
252 | The fact that the plates are numbered indicates that is not a posthumous copy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
253 | The loose copy of pl. 28 (printed in black, 12.3 x 16.2 cm, coloured) is numbered "29". If this pl. 28 (formerly in the collection of Sir Anthony Blunt) is a disjecta membrum from the newly recorded copy, the rest of the new copy may have been 12.3 x 16.2 cm, printed in black. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
254 | "this copy" has 50 plates, lacking pl. 1, 39, a plate in Innocence numbered 29, and another plate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
255 | "The Sick Rose", which is missing, must have been numbered "54". No extant copy of the Songs has pl. 39 as the last leaf. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
256 | There is no other record of Tatham's pl. 22, 28,30, 40, 44-46, 48 (two states). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
257 | There is no other record of these 13 "E ARLY Proof Impressions" of Job . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
258 | This is probably not Nollekens the unbound copy of , Second Edition (1829) in William Upcott’s auction by Evans, 15-19 June 1846, l ot 910, with a letter to J.T. Smith from William Twopenny about Blake’s widow (see Nov 1828 in BR (2)). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
259 | Dodd’s Memorials of Engravers went to the British Library (Add. MSS 33,397,ff.140-142), but the Blake MS did not accompany it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
260 | Samuel Holloway , fl. 1769-1819 (Ellic Howe, A List of London Bookbinders 1648-1815 (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1950), 48) . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
261 | "The Presentation in the Temple: 'Simeon was not to see Death before he had seen the Christ'" < Butlin #470, 1803-5 > , owned by Butts . The letter may have been addressed to Butts in the autumn of 1800. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
262 | The only other evidence of this letter is the paraphrase of this passage in the Sotheby catalogue of H.V. Morten (5 May 1890), l ot 22. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
263 | George Cumberland's Thoughts on Outline (1796) has 24 prints engraved by Cumberland and Blake dated 1793-1795. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
264 | The Thomas Gaisford, whose bookplate is in America The Book of Thel (B), (C), Europe Urizen (E), (C), Poetical Sketches Innocence (N), (H), Songs Visions of the Daughters of Albion (M), (I), and Young’s Night Thoughts BB (1797) (coloured copy G) is not the Greek scholar (1779-1855), as in the index, but his son with the same name (b. 1816); see Joseph Viscomi, “Two Fake Blakes Revisited; One Dew-Smith Revealed”, p. 70 in Blake in Our Time , ed. Karen Mulhallen (Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2010). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
265 | The date is probably Autumn 1800 and the recipient Thomas Butts. A full transcript is cited in Letters of William Blake , ed. Geoffrey Keynes (1968), 49-50, from a Sotheby catalogue of "3 December 1888 (lot 13)" which I have been unable to trace. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
266 | The William Griggs facsimile of Poetical Sketches was therefore probably based on Quaritch's copy N and published by Quaritch. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
267 | Described as "4 to 1789 " in the Sotheby Gaisford catalogue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
268 | Beckford acquired his copy of Blake's Songs after Blake's death. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
269 | Only copies A and D were bound in half green morocco, and D was thus bound in the British Library in 1856. Copies I and R are in full green morocco and L in 3/4 green morocco. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
270 | Copy N is a facsimile; see Quaritch's Rough List 109 (Feb 1891) below. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
271 | I cannot identify the portraits or the " MS. descriptions added ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
272 | No Blake connection with The Festival of Flora The Separate Plates of William Blake: A Catalogue is recorded in Robert N. Essick, (1983) or, so far as I am aware, anywhere else. The Festival of Flora is by Arthur Crichton. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
273 | Presumably a misprint for "21". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
274 | The lots bear the same titles they had at the Sotheby auction of 14 July 1892 where Quaritch bought them. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
275 | Perhaps these are for a lost work called King Charles' "Twelve Good Rules" (see BB , 482-483). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
276 | The price strongly suggests that this was a facsimile. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
277 | There is no known connection between Blake and Campe, Baldwin, and Sarah Trimmer, Series of Prints from the Old Testament Designed to Accompany a Book Intitled Scripture Lessons , (1797 ff.). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
278 | I have reliable records of very few of the ephemeral catalogues of James Tregaskis (d. Nov 1926) cited here , and most of those records omit the catalogue number and title (Golden Head or Caxton's Head [from at least 1901]) and even the date. After 1920, the style of the firm was James Tregaskis and Son. I have normalized the Tregaskis catalogue records here within the limits of my knowledge. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
279 | This redundancy is due to the elaborate categorization of the catalogue, with sections under Art, Books of Engravings, etc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
280 | This catalogue is not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
281 | This sounds like "Tiriel Denouncing his Sons and Daughters", but it is "in Blake's boldest style in colours", whereas the finished drawing <Butlin #198 8> is merely in "Pencil and grey wash", and the sketch for it <#199> is in pencil. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
282 | Not in Butlin. Perhaps the print is from Stuart & Revett's Antiquities of Athens (1794), though each of these has five figures of Greeks and Centaurs. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
283 | Perhaps a reproduction; Blake's watercolour <Butlin #486>was sold to the Boston Museum in 1890. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
284 | Book of Urizen , pl. 1 (Lambeth, "1796" ), probably from the Small Book of Designs (B), inscribed "This Coloured Print by W m Blake was given me by his Widow Frerderick Tatham Sculptor". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
285 | An erased inscription on the verso of pl. 1 reads “Ellis[?] | 350[?] | From the Library of | Sir Thomas W. Hamilton [or ‘Hetherington’]”. The Book of Thel (E) is inscribed “Bot of Hamilton 1853” (all save the date uncertain). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
286 | Butlin does not list them under Illustrations to the Bible Painted for Thomas Butts <#379-526> or Miscellaneous Untraced Works <#835-882>. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
287 | The collection of 43 Blake prints with "Angels and Devils" was offered in Ellis & White Catalogue 41 (?1878) at £52. 1 0.0 . The same work is listed in undated and unnumbered Pearson catalogues<Grolier Club, N.Y.>: (1) Lot 21 (mentions "seven sections, entitled 'Novelties, To be imagined, Gravities, Many things, Considerations, Dreadfuls, and Beings"), £ 300; (2)lot 45, £ 275; (3) lot 65 (dated in MS "1905"), £ 250; (4) lot 34, £ 200; (5) lot 15, £ 200; and (6) lot 19, £ 200. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
288 | Butlin gives lots "(1729 or 1730) $25 or $41". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
289 | Now in the Huntington Library. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
290 | "12, South Castle Street, Liverpool". Blake's "A Breach in a City" is reproduced on the title page. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
291 | The "original drawings" are not known to survive -- presumably it means coloured prints. The "[1860]"and price suggest that this is the undated Camden Hotten facsimile (1868) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
292 | The title page gives “No. 201”, but the running heads erroneously give “No. 202”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
293 | The Quaritch file says "Jackson v Q". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
294 | See The Book of Thel BB (a) in , in an order somewhat different from this one. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
295 | John Linnell Jr wrote of the Virgil woodblocks which John Linnell owned: "E. Calvert printed them for J.L. & self" ( BB , 630). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
296 | Pierpont Morgan Library (III.45.E .1); not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
297 | Pierpont Morgan Library (III.45.D], perhaps for Dante. Perhaps this lot included Butlin #570: “Beauty”, a pencil drawing perhaps for Jerusalem pl. 81, and #601, “Figures Outside a Church”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
298 | Thomas Butts worked in the office of the Commissary General of Musters but was not himself the Muster Master General. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The catalogue gives cross-references to Gilchrist but rarely gives more detail. Gilchrist's descendant is his son Herbert Harlakenden Gilchrist. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
299 | The reference "to an inscription by Blake to West, is due to a misunderstanding. There is no such inscription", according to Sotheby catalogue of 2 March 1937, l ot 169 . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
300 | When Mr Hodgson showed me the catalogue, he said he thought he remembered when the book was brought in. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
301 | “2 Church Terrace, Richmond, Surrey”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
302 | The probability that this is a facsimile is suggested by the low price and by the fact that no known copy of The Book of Thel was so bound. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
303 | Including Butlin #570, “Beauty”, a pencil sketch possibly for Jerusalem pl. 81, and #601, “Figures Outside a Church”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
304 | The sale includes books from the Butts library published as late as 1905. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
305 | T.J.Wise, who saw it at the sale, said “it was a tattered copy in grey paper wrappers” (Keynes, ed., The Gates of Paradise Book Prices Current [1968], I, 49). Keynes says t hat this copy was sold at Sothe by’s, 27 June 1906, l ot 142 for £22.1.0; the source of the error may be for 1906, which lis t s l ot 142 in the Sotheby sale twice, once (correctly) as Dryden’s Hind and the Panther and once (erroneously) as the Gates of Paradise. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
306 | Including Butlin #570, “Beauty”, a pencil sketch possibly for Jerusalem pl. 81, and #601, “Figures Outside a Church”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
307 | Exhibition of Paintings in Fresco (1809 ) (copy A); the “words in his autograph” are apparently Blake’s undated letter of May 1809 to Ozias Humphry. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
308 | All the Christie catalogues for 1907 derive from a volume called "Art Prices Current, 1907-8" which Paul Sternberg drew to my attention in December 2016. The page references are to this volume. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
309 | None of the works among the "Original Drawings by Wm Blake" is recorded in Butlin, and some of them seem surprising, such as No. 520 dated "Roma 78" and No. 531, "Robert le Bruce" (in Greek). Perhaps Butlin omitted them all because they are not by the poet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
310 | This odd notation seems to mean that the 42 plates are bound with the 1839 Pickering edition of the Songs . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
311 | It was offered by "Tregaskis in one of his catalogues shortly afterwards (36 g)", according to Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of William Blake (N.Y.: Grolier Club, 1921). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
312 | The authority for this entry is Blake's Letters , ed. Geoffrey Keynes (1968). The only Sotheby catalogue I can find for this date, for 5-9 July 1909, is entirely of coins. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
313 | N é e Ellen M. Chevalier. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
314 | The “two prints by Blake in monochrome” seem to be the same as “framed print in monochrome” of Visions pl. 3 and the “engraved Portrait of Thomas Chevalier”. I cannot identify the third Blake work implied by “(3)”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
315 | Apparently not counting "A Song of Liberty" (pl. 25-27), which is listed in the order of the prints. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
316 | Annotations on "121 pages (out of 224)". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
317 | The first fly-leaf was inscribed “Bought May – 1911 F.B.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
318 | It was apparently bought for £28 by George Herbert Palmer, who wrote on the penultimate fly-leaf “£28.0 Maggs 117”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
319 | Information about some Rosenbach catalogues derives from facsimiles in The Collected Catalogues of Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach 1904-1951 In Ten Volumes Including an Index by Don Ward Collected Catalogues (N.Y., Toronto, London, Sydney, 1967) <Huntington>, abbreviated as " " below . N.B. "We have used our own not consecutive-numbering system ... the original Rosenbach numbers" (I, [i]). For instance, the catalogue for 1920 numbered "25" in the Collected Catalogues is numbered 20 in the original. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
320 | The penultimate fly-leaf is inscribed “$900.00 Quaritch”. The purchaser was George Herbert Palmer, according to his letter with Songs of Innocence (C). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
321 | A note with Milton Milton pl. 38 says that Edward Dowden sold pl. 38 sold it (auctioneer not mentioned) on 20 Jan 1916, lot 264, for £3.5.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
322 | See [Francis Turner Palgrave], review of Gilchrist, Life of William Blake Quarterly Review (1863), , CXVII (Jan 1865), 1-27. The drawing is called "The Plague” in the Quarterly Review , "Pestilence" in Butlin <#191>. Butlin does not record this pencil drawing. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
323 | The attribution to Blake and the "zinc" are without authority. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
324 | Bob Essick wrote to me on 4 Feb 1985 that this is "A group of work at the Huntington. Only the Dante is by Blake." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
325 | A clipping dated July 1917 in ink. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
326 | In the master copy in Christie's, a note says that the vendor was "Lord Lamington", according to Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 77. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
327 | The Tregaskis bill for Marriage BB (L-M), with a £2 commission fee, is dated 16 March 1918, and Rinder's payment was received three days later, according to the Christie catalogue of the sale 30 Nov 1993. The information in this note is not in . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
328 | Willey Reveley’s letter to Blake of Oct 1791 and Blake’s reply and Blake’s letter of 3 July 1827, which went with other letters from Linnell to Henry Huntington, may have been included in lot 214 above. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
329 | This is "The Man Sweeping the Interpreter's Parlor", identified here in pencil on the engraved leaf as "The parable of the relapsed sinner & her 7 Devils". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
330 | 45 Brompton Road, London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
331 | The last reference to “Nebuchadnezzar Coin” by Butlin is “American Art Association (Anderson Galleries) by 1939”, without day, month, or lot number. Perhaps this is related to its exhibition “Philadelphia 1939 (209)”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
332 | In fact the prints of America Europe (Q) and (L) were coloured between 1913 and 1918 with intent to deceive for the dealer Walter T. Spencer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
333 | The drawings on the leaves are Butlin #201A. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
334 | 45 Brompton Road, London . Butlin dates the catalogue June 1918 . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
335 | Sketch for "The Virgin Hushing the Young Baptist" is listed by Butlin #407, as being in Parsons lot 465a, but there is no such interpolated lot in the Fitzwilliam copy I saw. Butlin also lists in Parsons “1911” “The Death Chamber”, possible sketch for Jerusalem pl. 25, which was not in the copy I saw. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
336 | No. 10 East 49th Street, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
337 | Apparently not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
338 | I have not seen this Thomas Thorpe (1919) catalogue. The evidenced for it is: (1) a clipping with Poetical Sketches Blake Studies (G), without indication of seller or date, saying the copy there offered has a presentation inscription from Flaxman on the title page (as in copy E) and (2) the statement by Keynes ( [1949]) that he was offered copy E bound “with several dramatic works” by Thorpe in Dec 1919 for ₤60. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
339 | According to Essick, Separate Plates were sold (1983), 113, lot 21 included Cumberland's inscribed copy of his card and "lots 1-163[ ] to Morton for £2,000". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
340 | For a much abbreviated account of the Buxton Forman sale, see BB No. 613. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
341 | Sir Geoffrey Keynes wrote to me on 4 Oct 1968 that he has a cutting from the catalogue beside which he had written in the margin: "Sketch by Blake of a Vision of Hercules < Butlin #802A > inked over by Richmond and an extract in Blake's hand from Ceninni's Treatise on Painting". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
342 | The very large dimensions of "The Day of Judgment" do not correspond to any of the designs in Butlin associated with the Last Judgment (50, 262 2, 285, 294, 639-648). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
343 | Butlin does give day of the month, lot number, vendor, price, or buyer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
344 | The reproductions do not look at all like Blake, but they do look like George Richmond's work. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
345 | 22 King Street, St. James', London, S.W.1. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
346 | Martin Butlin, The Paintings and Drawings of William Blake (1981) lists no such portraits and nothing owned by R.C. Jackson. According to Thomas Wright, The Life of Walter Pater (N.Y.: G.P. Putnam's Sons; London: Everett & Co., 1907), 180, Jackson showed Walter Pater his "Blake treasures", including an engraving of the Canterbury Pilgrims, Blake's original oil-colour sketch for Chaucer, several copies of Blake's works in proof state, including the plates to the Book of Job Night Thoughts, , Young's and Blair's Grave --all in uncut states, and a copy of the famous " Marriage of Heaven and Hell, " coloured in water-colours by Blake's own hand. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
347 | The "Canterbury Pilgrims" is not in Robert N. Essick, The Separate Plates of William Blake (1983), though Essick does suggest (p. 154) that the "R. Jackson" who gave a copy to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1889 may be Richard C. Jackson. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
348 | BB 276 n3 guesses this may be the letter of 12 Sept 1800. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
349 | There is no other reference to such a chair which belonged to Blake, and its present whereabouts (if it survives) is unknown. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
350 | This is plainly not the "1789" edition; probably it is the edition "Printed as Manuscript" in 1917 for the William Blake Society, of which Richard C. Jackson was President. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
351 | Anon., "Felpham and the Poet-Painter Blake. The Thirty-fourth Meeting of the William Blake Society ...", Observer and West Sussex Recorder BB , 27 May 1914, said "books, with Blake's Autograph" were lent for display at the meeting by R.C. Jackson ( 681 n1), but no book known to have been owned by Blake has any known association with Richard C. Jackson. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
352 | This is now in the Library of Congress; the designs are cut out from Young's Night Thoughts (1797). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
353 | For the others, see Maggs brothers Catalogue 456 (1924) or, better, BB , 337-339. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
354 | This is probably copy 1B of the "Experimental Relief Plate" described and reproduced in Robert N. Essick, Separate Plates, 53 and pl. 29, though he does not record this history. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
355 | Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 104, reports this as lot 141. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
356 | Or perhaps the frontispiece to Lavater's Aphorisms (1789, ff.). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
357 | Geoffrey Keynes, “Blake’s Library", Times Literary Supplement , 29 Jan 1960, p. 648: “the signature was unlike Blake’s usual hand and I regarded it as of very dubious authenticity”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
358 | Butlin comments that his only evidence for the sale is the record in The Times , 9 Dec 1927. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
359 | No other reference to an engraving for Night Five is known. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
360 | D W T in a circle under a three-pronged crown. No known Blake collector has the initials D.T.W. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
361 | It does not Quaritch’s Catalogue appear in (No. 410) (Oct 1927), which lists many other books by Thomas Taylor, suggesting that it was newly acquired by Quaritch in 1928. The Quaritch catalogue does not mention the annotations. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
362 | The cover title adds: "Including the Library of O.D. Peterson, Chicago, Illinois". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
363 | The auctioneer is confident that "W.B" is "William Blake"; I am confident that he is not the poet and suggest William Beckford as an alternative. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
364 | "On page 95 of the second series ... is a caricature of a design by William Blake." I have never encountered this claim before. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
365 | Geoffrey Keynes & Edwin Wolf 2 nd , William Blake’s Illuminated Books: A Census (N.Y.: Grolier Club, 1953). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
366 | "inherited ... from their father, Mr. Albin Martin (b. 1813)". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
367 | Mr Edwards wrote to me on 2 Oct 1961: "we have no records of the years that we handled the William Blake item from the collection of Dr. Greville Macdonald, but we believe that the date was about 1930-1." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
368 | The only "Study for 'Glad Day'" in Butlin (#73) was acquired by the Victoria &Albert Museum in 1881. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
369 | Directors Jacob and David Schwartz, N.Y. Manager: Leo Schwartz, N.Y. (21 West 51st Street) & London. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
370 | This is probably the “POUNCY” watermark in the facsimile of 1886 . ] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
371 | Thena Clough. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
372 | It is erroneously inscribed on the verso: "Illustration to 'Urizen', a poem by William Blake--who also made this drawing. It belonged to my father[.] Thomas H. Cromek". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
373 | Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 113, identifies lot 287 as Cumberland's inscribed copy of his card , £150. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
374 | This is for the first design after the title page of Job ; apparently not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
375 | This catalogue is not recorded in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
376 | Innocence Innocence (N) is not in Quaritch catalogues 492-496 (all of 1934), suggesting that was sold from catalogue 491. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
377 | I know no catalogue of this date or address. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
378 | Butlin records no work belonging to Sylvia Beach or offered at Shakespeare & Co. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
379 | There is no indication of the ownership of individual lots. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
380 | There is no indication as to whether this is pl. 24 from Innocence Experience or pl. 38 from , each titled "Nurse's Song". There is no other record of a loose pl. 24 or 38 printed in blue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
381 | Not in Butlin or BB . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
382 | I know nothing further of this collection. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
383 | Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 79, gives £58. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
384 | Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 107, says that lot 202 had three copies of "The Man Sweeping" which were sold for £35.14.0 to Martin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
385 | Perhaps this is the unpublished "The Battle of Ai". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
386 | These two designs on one plate are for The Ladies New and Polite Pocket Memorandum-Book, For ... 1783 BBS (London: J. Johnson, 1782) -- see pp. 232-234. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
387 | Widow of Sydney Morse. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
388 | Butlin #258 says bought in. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
389 | See Sotheby 4-6 May 1936, lot 720. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
390 | Catalogue not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
391 | It lacks "The Little Girl Lost and Found" (pl. 34-36). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
392 | Miss Mable Zahn wrote to me on 18 August 1963 that they bought lot 29, 3 plates from Europe , "sold them to Moncure Biddle and then bought them in his sale and have sold them separately and I haven't any particular record of where they went." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
393 | R. Allan of the Brick Row Book Shop, Austin, Texas. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
394 | Linnell's Job BR account is entitled "Subscribers to & Purchasers of the Book of Illustrations of the History of Job Designed & Engraved by William Blake. Begun 1823--& Publish[ed] March, 1826, by the Author & J. Linnell"; see (2) 799-807. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
395 | For the "Memorandum of Agreement between William Blake and John Linnell. March 25. th 1823", see BR (2) 386. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
396 | See BR (2) 799, 805-807. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
397 | For Blake's eleven receipts to Linnell of 12 Aug, 11, 19 Sept, 9 Nov, 31 Dec 1818, 27 Aug, 30 Dec 1819, 30 April 1821, 1 March 1822, 14, 29 July 1826, see BR (2), 773-776. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
398 | William Haines (1778-1848), engraver and painter, was brought up in Chichester and spent 1800-1805 in Cape Town. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
399 | 794 Lexington Avenue. One copy seen is dated "Xmas 1938" in blue pencil. This Weyhe catalogue is not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
400 | This corresponds neither to any known copy of the Songs nor to the contemporary facsimiles Alpha (54 pl.) and Beta (54 pl.), and the price suggests it was taken to be a facsimile. Copy Alpha was bound in old blue morocco, like the one in the 1940 sale, but nothing is said of Riviere. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
401 | D escribed in the Pennsylvania Museum Bulletin for February 1931 . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
402 | Blake's receipt of 5 July 1805 is for £ 5.7.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
403 | William Hartman Woodin (1868-1934), railroad freight-car builder, Secretary of the Treasury in 1933. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
404 | This catalogue is not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
405 | In his Bibliotheca Bibliographici (1964), Keynes says that he acquired these works at the Asquith sale of "1942". However, there was no such sale; the Asquith sale was in 1943. Martin Butlin wrote to me on 25 September 1967: "I think Geoffrey Keynes bought his things at Hodgson's before they were actually put in the sale as he had been consulted about them." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
406 | The Maryland Lady was Christine Alexander Graham, whose bookplate appears in Songs of Innocence (A). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
407 | The copy in the Biblioteca La Solana is dated Dec 1944. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
408 | This catalogue is not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
409 | Not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
410 | The three black wash drawings slightly tinted with watercolours include America America pl. 2 and 17 . As the text of (Q) was coloured for the dealer Walter T. Spencer about 1913 with intent to deceive, the three watercolour drawings, which appeared during his custody, may be similarly suspect. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
411 | The Sessler records indicate that they sold Canterbury Pilgrims at this sale for $70 less 22%, according to Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 79. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
412 | Sixteen Blake drawings are recorded in R.N. Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 1998", Blake, XXXII (1999). The catalogue is not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
413 | The proprietor of the Brick Row Book Shop was R. Allan. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
414 | Perhaps these are the Blake fakes in the New York Public Library. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
415 | The poet died in 1827; this is another William Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
416 | Colnaghi acquired "Enoch" in a large lot of drawings and Italian prints, perhaps at this sale (see Essick, Separate Plates [1983], 55) . According to the on-line catalogue of the British Museum Print Room, most of Cumberland's print collection in the Royal Academy was sold in the 1950s . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
417 | Geoffrey Keynes, “Blake’s Library", Times Literary Supplement , 29 Jan 1960, p. 648: “in my opinion the signature is not the right one”. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
418 | A Muir facsimile of Europe pl. 1 . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
419 | There are two versions of the catalogue, one with reproductions and one without. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
420 | The Hon. Audrey Pauncefote . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
421 | Date-stamped on receipt at the Huntington "SEP 8 1958". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
422 | Fleming was the successor to Rosenbach's firm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
423 | Lady Hesketh wrote on 16 June 1802 about the first of Hayley's Designs to a Series of Ballads BR (1802) illustrated by Blake that she had "sent one to Lord & Lady Harcourt" [William Harcourt (1743-1830), Third Earl of Harcourt, Field Marshall, and his wife Mary (d. 1833)] ( (2), 132). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
424 | Lord John Kerr wrote to me on 4 May 1966: "the Blake letter was loosely inserted in the album which formed lot 236 in our sale of May 2 and which at one time belonged to the actor-manager J.L. Toole, who died in 1906. The letter was bought by Mr. George Goodspeed of Goodspeed's Bookshop in Boston." Lot 236 in the 2 May 1966 sale is an album from the collection of J.L. Toole (1830-1906), including Sarah Siddons, S.L. Clemens, Arthur Sullivan, Charles Reade, W.E. Gladstone, J.E. Millais, Henry Irving, G.A. Sala, Monk Lemon, Tom Hood, C.J. Matthews, in green morocco which had been sold as lot 119 of the Sotheby sale of 8 Nov 1906. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
425 | Sotheby, 29 July 1925, lot 147, offered a portrait inscribed "From Mr. Fuseli's sale--William Blake--drawn from life by G. Harlow"; it was not in Fuseli's sale at Christie's on 28 May 1827 ( BR (2), 345 fn. David Bindman wrote to me on 10 January 1971 that he had seen the head and that it had no plausible connection to either Harlow or Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
426 | The Old Chapel, St. Johns Road, Thatcham, Berkshire, a mimeographed sale list. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
427 | 6 Stratford Place London W1N 0BH. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
428 | Inscribed by William Bell Scott: (not by Blake? W.B.S.)". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
429 | Essick, " Marketplace " , for 1972-73, comments : "very little like anything Blake ever did. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
430 | Blake Records , Second Edi t ion (2004), 525. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
431 | The anonymous vendor of lots 26-27 was Robert Grabhorn. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
432 | The drawing was stolen from Colnaghi’s in 1976, recovered, and sold in 1979. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
433 | Not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
434 | Blake Records , Second Edition (2004), 571 footnote. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
435 | All these prints of Christ Trampling were pulled in the 20th Century, mostly without acknowledgement of the date or printer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
436 | Bought by Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
437 | Not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
438 | The picture was stolen from Colnaghi's in 1996, recovered, and offered for sale in 1979 <Butlin #553>. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
439 | Stolen on the last day of the Colnaghi exhibition but recovered in February 1978 (see Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 1976-77", Blake , XII, 1 (Summer 1978), 27). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
440 | Not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
441 | Not in Butlin. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
442 | The airmail copy to the Huntington bears the date-stamp of arrival on "DEC 19 1977". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
443 | Essick, Separate Plates (1983), 83, reports this as £240to Garton. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
444 | Huntington date-stamp "MAY 16 1978". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
445 | Robert Essick writes: "I inspected this volume when it was brought to the Heritage Bookshop, Los Angeles, in Nov. 80; I do not believe that the inscription is by our Blake" ("Blake in the Marketplace, 1980-1981", Blake , XVI, 2 (Fall 1982), 89). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
446 | That is, " IMMORAL ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
447 | An unsurpassed price inflation for a Blake work, from £ 50. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
448 | The vendor of The Felpham Rummer at Christie's, 2 Nov 1982, was from Brighton. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
449 | The bindery of W.H. Smith. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
450 | The work was almost certainly printed by Shaw, who owned the copperplate. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
451 | Butlin #451 (" Untraced since 1923 ") differs from the work offered in 1985 chiefly in size (16 ¾ x 31 ⅝ " in 1923 vs 16 ¼ x 21 ¾" in 1985) and in the omission of "The Death of Hercules" on the recto. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
452 | Antiquarian Book Monthly Review , June 1985, p. 243. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
453 | Reproduced for the first time in Blake , XX, 1 (Summer 1986), 16, inscribed , by Varley or Linnell, at top left "[Jona]than the | [trimmed off] of David", probably a Visionary Head. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
454 | The Marsh letters were immediately bought by Robert N. Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
455 | The prospectus is implicitly from the Archive of Charles Townley (1735-Jan 1805), lot 560 &c in the sale. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
456 | The Townley Archive went in 1992 to the British Museum Archives; see BR (2), 81 & fn, 82 footnote, 853 endnote 95. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
457 | Mary Wollstonecraft's Original Stories has only 6 prints. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
458 | The Old Rectory, Froxfield, Marlborough, Wiltshire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
459 | Acquired by David Bindman. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
460 | Essick comments: "Like hundreds of other unsigned pls. of the period, this one, etched in a free style similar to pls. by and after J.H. Mortimer, may be by Blake, but there is simply no evidence for such an attribution." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
461 | The excellent minute details are probably chiefly due to Thomas V. Lange whose assistance is acknowledged. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
462 | Actually the Dent facsimile (1902); it was correctly identified when it appeared in the catalogue of the Nineteenth Century Book Shop, lot 41, $1,800, according to R.N. Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 1988", Blake , XXIII, 1 (Summer 1989), 4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
463 | Acquired by G. Ingli James. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
464 | This was sold by Christopher Powney as a Flaxman drawing to Agnew, attributed to Blake by Martin Butlin, "Six New Early Drawings by William Blake and a Reattribution", Blake Blake , XXIII (1989), 107-112. R.N. Essick, , XXIV, 1 (Spring 1989), 232, writes that "Nothing in this loose drawing suggests Blake's hand to me"; the "drawing is probably, but not certainly, by Flaxman". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
465 | The contents of the Large Blake-Varley Sketchbook are detailed in the 1989 catalogue and in BR (2) 348-353. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
466 | This had belonged to Blake and was acquired by R.N. Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
467 | Essick annotated his copy "May 1969". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
468 | Alfred Felton (1831-1904), Australian philanthropist. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
469 | Songs (D) does not include "A Divine Image" [pl. b], but it does contain pl. a, not mentioned in the description here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
470 | It does not contain "A Divine Image", as Robert N. Essick told Sotheby's explicitly (letter to me of 12 Nov 1989). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
471 | Thel was knocked down for $130,000 to D. Heald [for R.N. Essick], but an employee of Sotheby's protested that she had missed bidding because of the noise in the room, and the bidding was re-opened over Heal's protests. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
472 | Or rather plates 1-2 in first state, plates 3-6 in second state, as Essick points out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
473 | All are in the second state, according to Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
474 | The print, probably printed and coloured posthumously, belonged to a New York print dealer who also owned its posthumous companions, pl. 6 ("The Ecchoing Green") and pl. 33 ("Holy Thursday") from Experience . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
475 | The plate is signed "Blake Sc Change Alley", i.e., William Staden Blake. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
476 | The Huntington copy bears the datestamp "OCT 30 1990". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
477 | Essick comments: "In my opinion, this is not ... by Blake .... Not at all like Blake's known Robinson Crusoe Drawings (Butlin #14--41)". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
478 | Annotated at the Huntington "28 May 1990 ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
479 | Essick says it is "actually wove" paper. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
480 | Almost certainly not the poet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
481 | Almost certainly not the poet. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
482 | Kevin Vegas from Venezuela whose father acquired it from Hugh Fraser of the British Mission at the United Nations. The Blake prints had been inserted in Gilchrist (1863), Vol. I. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
483 | Gilchrist Vol. II has bound in Horace E. Scudder, "William Blake, Painter and Poet", Scribner's Monthly , XX (1880), 225-240. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
484 | "The Chaining of Orc" and "The Man Sweeping" were offered as lots 6-7 in the same sale. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
485 | Essick suggests that these were probably Josephus, Works Botanic Garden (c. 1795); Darwin, , 2 vols. in 1; and Wolf's second copy of Hayley Life of Cowper (1803-6), 4 vols. bound in 3. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
486 | Essick describes the Tinker letter (reproduced in the Jonathan Hill catalogue) as "interestingly mean-spirited". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
487 | Essick wrote on the title page "Oct. 1991". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
488 | According to Essick, "The print was purchased at an unknown time by the vendor, Oscar Lewenstein, for £ 88 from Sotheran's of Sackville Street, London". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
489 | This is 4 more than in the 1783 edition. In fact, this set, now in the University of Kent, has the ordinary woodcuts after Stothard of the 1813 edition, some which were copied after Blake’s engravings. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
490 | When Beth and I saw the book before the sale, Mr Michael Heseltine of Sotheby's told us that the volume was bought about thirty years before by a small-time collector; after his death, his son is offering it for sale. Robert N. Essick, "Blake in the Market Place, 1992", Blake (1993) says that the vendor was John Wilson. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
491 | The catalogue does not mention that at the top of the verso of pl. 18 is the pencil signature of "W Blake 1773" in what appears to me to be Blake's hand, the "WB" formed as a ligature. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
492 | On 14 Dec 1992 Michael Heseltine told me on the telephone that, while potential buyers were examining the volume, the "spine became more supple", and a drawing of a leg was revealed which was unmistakably by Blake, and the work was withdrawn to allow the cataloguer to make a fuller description to do it justice. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
493 | The reproduction shows that the inscription below the image has been omitted. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
494 | "The unusual tomato-red color which is used as a highlight in this image also occurs in the coloring of the impression of plate 51 from Jerusalem ... now in the Fitzwilliam Museum". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
495 | There is No Natural Religion (E), which was also in the Rinder Collection, was withdrawn before the catalogue was published when Joseph Viscomi pointed out that it is a facsimile. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
496 | The identification of these prints as "relief etchings" is almost certainly mistaken. Anon. [Nicholas Barker], Book Collector , XLIII, 1994), 109 commented that the Virgil plates "were the subject of some inventive cataloguing". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
497 | The date here derives from Linnell's account book [ BR (2) ,804]. R.N. Essick told me on the telephone on 5 Dec 1993 that it was on WHATMAN TURKEY MILL paper. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
498 | It lists "W. Blake. 'King Edward the Third,' Drama. 8vo. 1783. Printed in a Pamphlet, called, 'Poetical Sk e tches'" (p. 258). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
499 | The list of subscribers includes "Mr. W. Blake, Engraver." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
500 | Blake is named as the engraver of Hogarth's "Beggar's Opera" (II, 349). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
501 | See Blake Records , Second Edition (2004), 123-124. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
502 | Not in Butlin (1981), but see "A New Color Print from the Small Book of Designs", Blake , XXV I (1992), 19-21. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
503 | Lot 1076 was Blake's watercolours for Young's Night Thoughts . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
504 | Lot 940 is Songs Night Thoughts (U), and lot 1130 is Blake's watercolours for Young's . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
505 | Not in Butlin (1981); see Butlin, "Two Newly Identified Sketches for Thomas Commins's An Elegy Blake ", , XXVII (1993), 42-44. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
506 | The buyers reported here for Windle's catalogue were named in Windle's letter to me of 9 Jan 1995. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
507 | Both Holland and Newton had bookplates copying this design. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
508 | G.E. Bentley, Jr adapted it for a book-plate; see the title page here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
509 | Dated by Essick "1995". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
510 | According to Essick, Blake History of England (Spring 1997), 108, the Blake plates consisted of Allen, , pl. 1; Ariosto, Orlando Furioso Botanic Garden , pl. 1; Darwin, , pl. 1; Fuseli, Lectures on Painting Life of Cowper , pl. 1; Hayley, , pl. 4; Hayley, Life of Romney Triumphs of Temper , pl. 1; Hayley, , pl. 2-5; Lavater, Essays on Physiognomy Elements of Morality , pl. 4; Salzmann, , plates in Vol. II numbered 20 and 22; Stedman, Narrative Pastorals , pl. 6, 15-16; Virgil, , pl. 26-27; Whitaker, Seraph Original Stories , pl. 1; Wollstonecraft, , pl. 1-2; and an "engraving of a nude figure in classical drapes by Blake for Young". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
511 | After the auction they were sold to an Anonymous collector, i.e., Alan Parker . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
512 | The manuscript advertisement, in the hand of Linnell but not signed is quoted in the catalogue: Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job. Consisting of 2 Plates engraved by himself upon Copper from his own Designs, Price to subscribers [ £ ]3.3. Proof on India paper [ £ ]5.5 Subscriptions [ £ ]1. received by the Author Wm. Blake, 3 Fountain Court, Strand or Mr. J. Linnell 6. Cirencester Place Fitzroy Square. These Plates are engraved entirely by Mr Blake with the graver only (that is without the aid of aqua fortis). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
513 | Such an " ORIGINAL BOX as described by Linnell" is not known elsewhere; it seemed to E.B. Bentley to be of c. 1890-1930.This is the copy of Job Marriage of Heaven and Hell in which John Windle discovered (M). The "variant original title label" is merely cut off. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
514 | A sketch from the life mask, with eyes closed and lips sealed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
515 | Windle removed the prospectus and sold it in May to R.N.Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
516 | Essick comments: "On the sheet illustrated in Spelman's cat., the head on the right is very similar to the center head on p. 12 of the smaller Blake-Varley sketchbook (see Butlin #692.12, where the heads on this page are attributed to 'Blake, Varley or Linnell')." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
517 | Essick demonstrates that this is almost certainly a reproduction of For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise , pl. 7. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
518 | The Whitney collection comes from estates on Long Island, Saratoga Springs (N.Y.), Beekman Place (N.Y.), St James (London), and Georgia. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
519 | Essick comments: Returned by the purchaser to Christie's; by July in the possession of Justin Schiller. On 30 June 1999 Joseph Viscomi and I inspected the print; we both came to the conclusion that it was posthumous. The salient features are the ink color (a red terra cotta used by Tatham but not by Blake), the flat and even texture of the ink, the heavy printing pressure, and the slightly greater size of the image compared to a lifetime impression. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
520 | Essick reports that the dimensions are 17.9 x 11.6 cm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
521 | Essick, who acquired this coloured copy of Night Thoughts Blake , describes it in extenso in (Spring, 2000), 102-104. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
522 | Annotated by Essick "Nov 1999". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
523 | Acquired for La Biblioteca La Solana. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
524 | Probably the engraver William Bromley, a subscriber to The Grave . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
525 | The purchaser told Bob Essick that it is in the second state, printed in black on laid paper, trimmed to a rectangle 31.2 x 29.5 cm, cutting slightly into the border at the top and on both sides and cutting off the imprint and all but a fragment of the inscribed verses, surface dirt and some staining. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
526 | "William Bromley, Hammersmith" is in the Blair subscription list, so this is not a gift as Cromek's inscription would imply. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
527 | These three stab holes in Songs BB (E) are "about 5.0 cm from the top and 3.5, 3.4 cm apart" ( , 414). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
528 | This "new evidence" merely demonstrates that the Innocence Songs plates [pl. 2-27, 53-54] in (E) may once have been stabbed together with Innocence Innocent (J) [pl. 2-12, 16-18, 22-27, 54]. Clearly this stabbing was intended merely to keep these prints together; no one would suggest that Blake intended to issue together a copy of Songs of Innocence Innocence with 20 duplicate plates in it. The "new evidence" therefore scarcely bears upon when and by whom the prints in (J) were collated. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
529 | Annotated by Essick "Oct. 2001". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
530 | Essick comments: "I very much doubt that the initials are those of William Blake, poet and artist". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
531 | Perhaps the Blake collector Lt.-Col. W.E. Moss. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
532 | Perhaps for the hypothetical Folio Blake-Varley Sketchbook, c. 27 x 42 cm. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
533 | For details of the sale, see R.N. Essick, “Blake in the Marketplace, 2004", Blake ,XXXVIII (2005). The price was a Blake record. The buyer was a collector in Europe not previously associated with Blake | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
534 | The Old School, Maxwell Street, Swindon, Wiltshire SN1 5DR. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
535 | From the Small Blake-Varley Sketchbook. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
536 | According to R.N. Essick, “Blake in the Marketplace 2005", Blake Eclectic Review , XXXIX (2006), 162. , N.S., I (May 1807), 460 listed the “second edition ... 4l. 4s. or with coloured plates, 6l. 6d.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
537 | Essick comments succinctly: "I remain unconvinced that Blake is portrayed and that the painting is by Phillips." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
538 | A fuller description is provided by Essick: posthumous impression (previously unrecorded), in gray-black ink, platemark 12.5 x 7.3 cm, on wove paper without watermark, the sheet trimmed to 17.9 x 11.0 cm to match the leaf size of the host copy of Songs of Innocence and of Experience (William Pickering, 1839), lacking "The Little Vagabond" into which it is bound as a frontispiece; inscribed in pencil below the image "See P. 37." (where the poem begins) and on the verso in pencil, probably in the same hand, "From a print shop in West Street, / given me by my Bro' in Law / M. r W.M.H. / 1857, / A.H."; the recto of the front flyleaf is inscribed in ink "Adelaide A.L. Hewetson. / From her husband, with affection. / 15 th Nov. 1861" . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
539 | Eliot Moran, the vendor, told Robert Essick that the cast was "found ... in a lot of period items", including a "Phrenological and Physiological Register" bearing the printed dated 1889 and the date "10/2/[18]90" in pen and ink. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
540 | According to BBS Innocence 120, Dr Walter Neuerburg placed (Y), consisting ofpl. 4-18, “on permanent deposit in 1978 in the WALLRAF-RICHARTZ-MUSEUM, Cologne”; the ownership and location of the seven leaves (Y 2 ) with pl. 6-8, 11, 13-15 are not alluded to in the Sotheby catalogue. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
541 | Prices and buyers derive from R.N. Essick, “Blake in the Marketplace, 2007", Blake, XLI (2008). The underbidder for the Essick lots was Parker and for the Parker lots Essick. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
542 | Sold in February to Victoria University in the University of Toronto. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
543 | Printed in "brown ink" according to the vendor, Chandler and Reed Rare Books (Sunderland, Massachusetts). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
544 | Acquired in October by Victoria University in the University of Toronto. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
545 | Bookseller of Binham, Norfolk. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
546 | In a letter of 9 August1979 Dennis Read told me that the original copy of the Memorials dated 25 July 1865 was in the possession of Mr Wi lfred Warrington, Cesterton’s, Yattendon, Near Newbury, W. Berks, RGH 16 OXD. A photocopy of this version is quoted in BR (2) 224, 262. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
547 | Tatham’s letter of 11 April 1829 about Catherine Blake is quoted in BR , 495-496, 871. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
548 | Robert Burns, Works , ed. W. Scott Douglas (1877), II, 292, referring only to the “Memorials” (according to a letter to me from Dennis Read). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
549 | Dennis Read provided me with a Cromek genealogy according to which T.H.Cromek’s daughter Mary (1840-1907) married John Warrington (1820-1908), and their son Austin Warrington (1879-1953) married Isabella Wimpenny (1874-1970) and begot Paul Warrington (b. 1909). Austin’s brother Thomas Warrington (1881-1937) married Ursula Paul (1877-1964) and begat 8 children including Wilfred Warrington (b. 1910). Paul and Wilfred Warrington therefore are cousins. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
550 | Works by Blake sold in previous years and named in the catalogue are omitted here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
551 | The French and English Juvenile Library was “an imprint of M.J. Godwin & Co., founded by William Godwin (1756-1836) and his second wife, Mary Jane Clairmont Godwin (1766-1841)”, as R.N. Essick, “Blake in the Marketplace, 2009”, Blake , XLIII (2010) points out. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
552 | I omit the collections recorded in BB. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
553 | Essick comments: "This amateurish drawing may be c. 1824-30 but it is not by Blake. The "W. Blake" inscription looks nothing like his handwriting. The drawing attracted 17 bidders, 16 of whom were fortunate." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
554 | Perhaps Harry Wood (active in the 1890s) or more probably Henry Thomas Wood (1900-1930). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
555 | When the attribution to Blake was controverted by G..E. Bentley, Jr, Alexander Gourlay, and Joseph Viscomi, Bonhams added to its on-line catalogue: "The consensus of several scholarly oppinions [sic] is that the inscriptions on the title are not in the hand of William Blake." In fact, they are by Blake's friend John Hawkins (1761-1841). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
556 | I cannot determine with confidence how much of this description is in the catalogue and how much was added by Essick after he acquired the book. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
557 | See Adam Fuss & Andrew Roth, Ark ([Kolkata [India]: Adam Fuss], 2007). 43 cm, 35 pp. According to the colophon, it was "Designed by Adam Fuss and Andrew Roth. 333 signed and numbered copies, printed by Anderson Printing House and Laurens & Co. Press, Kolkata, India. Engraving by William Blake, 1776. All daguerreotypes, 2004." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
558 | Prices and buyers here derive from Robert N. Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 2012", Blake , XLVI, 4 ( Spring 2013). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
559 | Information from R.N. Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 2012", Blake , XLVI, 4 ( Spring 2013). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
560 | Libson's title is "A Doubled-Sided Sheet of Drawings, Job and His Wife Playing Instruments", recto and verso". Essick reproduces the drawings and discusses them in detail. Essick gives a plausible provenance, but I cannot determine how much of it is explicit in the Libson catalogue: (1) Probably acquired directly from Blake by Charles Augustus Tulk (1786-1849); (2) Tulk's daughter Louisa Susanna Tulk (1819-48?), who mounted this watercolour in an album; (3) the album was inherited by her husband James Peard Ley (1807-85); (4) inherited by his son James Verchild Ley; (5) inherited by son James Richard Ley (sole heir to his daughter Judith Penelope Ley, executors John Paul Hindle and Judith Penelope Ley; (6) sold by the estate spring or early summer 2012 to the London dealer Lowell Libson Ltd. One of these may be the drawing which Nancy Flaxman told her husband John, July 16, that "our Friend" (C.A. Tulk?) "bought ... of him" [Blake] ( BR (2), 326). "The Tulk family album ... contains 90 pp. of Whatman paper, leaves 22.0 x 27.0 cm., bound in calf, according to a representative of the Tulk estate. It included other works by Blake ..., Flaxman, and a good many drawings by others, probably Continental, artists." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
561 | Essick reproduces the drawings and discusses them in detail. The leaf to which the watercolour was attached was inscribed in pencil "Parents meeting". "Parental Affection" was advertised by Libson and reproduced in Art Newspaper British Art Journal , No. 236 (June 2013), and there are comments and reproductions in Anon., "Forthcoming Events", , XIII, 1 (Spring 2012), 96; Huon Mallalieu, "Drawn to Success", Country Life Burlington Magazine , CCVI, 26 (27 June 2012), 112-113; Richard Green, "Master Drawings", , CLIV (Sept 2012), 651; and Mallalieu, "From the Zoo to the Big Apple", Country Life , CCVI, 40 (2 Oct 2012), 114-115. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
562 | The Enoch lithograph is also reproduced in Essick, ut supra. The leaf is 33.1 x 23.8 cm on wove paper without watermark. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
563 | Essick comments in Blake (2014): "A previously unrecorded impression printed in dark brown ink on laid paper with an illegible watermark probably composed of letters. Leaf 18.0 x 21.0 cm, trimmed to an oval close to the design, only the signatures retained among the inscriptions." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
564 | R eproduced and discussed by Essick in Blake , 2014 . | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
565 | Libson's web site September 2012 reported it to have been sold to a "Private Collection, USA". For information on the drawings and reproductions, see Blake , XVI, 4 (Spring 2013), illus. 12-14. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
566 | Sometimes spelled "Houl é ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
567 | Reproduced and discussed by Essick in Blake , 2014. It is signed in pencil "Blake del & sc", emended in ink to "Blake del --" when the engraving commission was given to Perry. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
568 | Neagle, Mr [James (1764-1822)], London engraver, subscribed to Blair's Grave (1808). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
569 | Reproduced and discussed by Essick in Blake , 2014. The laid paper has a fleur de lis watermark near the center of the leaf and chainlines running horizontally 2.9 cm apart. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
570 | Essick, Blake Divine Comedy (2014) comments: "Louisa Hope may be the second wife (n é e Louisa Beresford) of the important collector and connoisseur Thomas Hope (1769-1831). He commissioned Flaxman's designs for Dante's no later than 1793. Maria Flaxman, John Flaxman's half-sister, invented the designs Blake engraved for this 1803 ed. of Hayley's Triumphs ." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
571 | BB Lord Cunliffe 428 reports that at the death of Lord Conifer in 1963 the prints "passed to his son The Present ". | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
572 | Not in BR Blake (2) or its supplements in (1992 ff). The reproduction of p. 1 illegible. Mr Gedge tells me that he purchased the manuscript in Britain from a dealer who was selling off items taken out of a 19th century album that contained letters mainly written by musical and artistic figures of the 19th century. He could find no sign of ownership in the album. He believes it was originally purchased at auction in Britain by a different dealer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
573 | Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 2016" Blake , L, 4 (Spring 2017). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
574 | The Art Institute of Chicago declined to acquire the work when it was offered to them in Nov." 2016 (Robert N. Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 2016", Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly (Spring 2017)). It was acquired in March 2017 by the Cleveland Museum of Art. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
575 | Bauman offered it in Sept 2015 for $65,000 (Essick, "Blake in the Marketplace, 2016", Blake , L, 4 (Spring 2016). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
576 | I record here only works offered at more than $1,000, plus 9 works marked SOLD and one marked "P.O.R." (Price on Request). The total of works of $1,000 and over is $1,368,765 + P.O.R. There are also scores of works at $5 to $950. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
577 | The Darwin entry is entered on an errata slip. |