Sold on behalf of the Charities Aid Foundation
BLAKE, Willim (1757-1827) -- [Blake's Illuatrations of Dante, Seven Plates, designed and engraved by W. Blake, Author of 'Illustrations of the Book of Job' &c. &c.'. London: 1838 or ?1892.]
細節
BLAKE, Willim (1757-1827) -- [Blake's Illuatrations of Dante, Seven Plates, designed and engraved by W. Blake, Author of 'Illustrations of the Book of Job' &c. &c.'. London: 1838 or ?1892.]
Sheet size: 338 x 478mm. A complete set of seven line engravings, plates each approximately 276 x 353mm, fine clear uniform impressions on india paper, mounted on wove paper. Letterpress title label (131 x 160mm) loosely inserted, on laid paper, with crowned shield with hunting horn watermark. (Light spotting to the second [B648] and sixth plates [B651].) Loose in modern morocco-backed cloth portfolio. Provenance: George Goyder (armorial bookplate).
John Linnell commissioned Blake to produce engravings for the Divine Comedy, but they remained unfinished at his death in 1827. They became John Linnell's property, and remained unpublished except for a few proofs, until September 1838. According to Keynes, Dixon & Ross printed 120 sets for Linnell, but Bentley quotes their daybook indicating that only 38 complete sets (plus four additional plates), india paper on colombier paper, were produced. A futher fifty copies, again on india paper mounted, were printed for Linnell's son in 1892. Sets with an 1822 watermark are probably from the first printing, and sets on thick mounting paper (about .45mm) are probably from the second. Most sets however, show no watermark and have mounting between .23 and .34 mm thick. The present set belongs to this latter group and cannot, as yet, be assigned to either issue with any degree of certainty. Both editions are on similar paper with no appreciable variety in the quality of impression. (see G. E. Bentley Jr., Blake Books, 1977, no. 448 pp. 544-546; D. Bindman, The Complete Graphic Work of William Blake, 1978, nos 647-653, p. 487.)
Sheet size: 338 x 478mm. A complete set of seven line engravings, plates each approximately 276 x 353mm, fine clear uniform impressions on india paper, mounted on wove paper. Letterpress title label (131 x 160mm) loosely inserted, on laid paper, with crowned shield with hunting horn watermark. (Light spotting to the second [B648] and sixth plates [B651].) Loose in modern morocco-backed cloth portfolio. Provenance: George Goyder (armorial bookplate).
John Linnell commissioned Blake to produce engravings for the Divine Comedy, but they remained unfinished at his death in 1827. They became John Linnell's property, and remained unpublished except for a few proofs, until September 1838. According to Keynes, Dixon & Ross printed 120 sets for Linnell, but Bentley quotes their daybook indicating that only 38 complete sets (plus four additional plates), india paper on colombier paper, were produced. A futher fifty copies, again on india paper mounted, were printed for Linnell's son in 1892. Sets with an 1822 watermark are probably from the first printing, and sets on thick mounting paper (about .45mm) are probably from the second. Most sets however, show no watermark and have mounting between .23 and .34 mm thick. The present set belongs to this latter group and cannot, as yet, be assigned to either issue with any degree of certainty. Both editions are on similar paper with no appreciable variety in the quality of impression. (see G. E. Bentley Jr., Blake Books, 1977, no. 448 pp. 544-546; D. Bindman, The Complete Graphic Work of William Blake, 1978, nos 647-653, p. 487.)