Robert Blair William Blake Illustrator (4 results)

Marbled boards. Condition: Very Good. William Blake (illustrator). First Edition. The 1808 1st edition, with William Blake's 11 celestial plates and L. Schiavonetti's engraved portrait of Blake (at the frontispiece), his etched title page and his additional engravings suffused with Blake's drawings. Solid and VG in its contemporary-to-the-period marbled boards and more recent professional re-backing along the spine. Folio, published by R.H. Cromek of London. "These designs by Blake are considered his best-known work and his most forcible and poetic thinking on the subject of death" (Bentley, 435B).

First Edition. [N. P.]: The William Blake Trust, 2009. Folio, 95pp. Original black silk binding, with morocco labels, stamped in gilt, to top board and backstrip, black cloth-covered slipcase; illustrated throughout with color reproductions of watercolor drawings, as well as engravings. As new. § First edition, limited to 186 copies, out of print on publication. From the announcement: "These watercolor designs, which disappeared from the public eye from 1836-2001, came to light in a Glasgow bookshop, and were [later] offered as an entity to institutions and collectors at a price which, as it turned out, none could afford, or at least, was prepared to pay. Eventually, in the face of much protest, the portfolio and the 19 designs were offered for sale in 20 separate lots at Sotheby's, New York, in 2006. The drawings are now widely dispersed and it is most unlikely that they will ever again be seen together." The sale was roundly condemned at the time as an act of cultural crime. This book (and the facsimile portfolio in the de luxe issue) are now the only record we will ever have of the original series. Happily, the Blake Trust created a superb book, which is and will surely remain the single most valuable reference work on these remarkable Blake drawings.

William Blake (illustrator). First Edition. 1st edition, quarto, (xiv), 36, [4]. of Blake's illustrations for Blair's 1743 poem. Portrait frontispiece after Phillips, etched title page, 11 plates by Luigi Schiavonetti engraved after Blake's designs. One of about 590 copies published by subscription. Some foxing, particularly concentrated at the portrait and etched title page, else very good in 20th century ¾ calf and marbled boards. In October 1805, Blake was commissioned by the publisher Cromek to prepare 40 drawings for the poem. Disagreements between Blake and Comek about the artistic direction led to hiring Schiavonetti for the engraving. Bentley, Blake Books, 435B. Bindman, Complete Graphic Works of Blake, 465-476. Keynes 81. Ray 6.

Condition: Near Fine. First edition. Quarto (pages 275 x 340mm): [xvi], 36, [4, prospectus]; complete with the engraved frontis of Blake, engraved title page and eleven other plates engraved by Louis Schiavonetti after illustrations by William Blake. Handsomely bound in early 20th century full calf with rules stamped in black and a blue morocco spine label. Illustrated title trimmed a little tightly, no loss to the illustration. A clean and attractive copy internally with all plates retaining their tissue guards. With the armorial bookplate of C. E. Richardson, motto: virtute aquiritus honos. Housed in a custom slipcase. A blank verse poem, The Grave was the work for which Scottish writer Robert Blair was most renowned. "In October 1805, William Blake was commissioned by the engraver and would-be publisher Robert H. Cromek to prepare forty drawings illustrating the popular "graveyard" school poem first published in 1743. In Cromek's first prospectus of November 1805, Blake is named as both the designer and engraver of fifteen designs.In a second prospectus, also from November 1805, Cromek announced that Luigi Schiavonetti would engrave twelve designs for the new edition. Blake had lost the lucrative commission to engrave his own designs; and his relationship with Cromek descended into anger and argument. In spite of their disagreement, Cromek included a portrait of Blake as a frontispiece to the volume, published in 1808. Cromek promoted the book aggressively and the illustrations to The Grave became Blake's best known work through much of the nineteenth century" (William Blake Archive). Near Fine.