"THE RARE IMAGINATIVE POWER OF WILLIAM BLAKE"

(BLAKE, William) BLAIR, Robert. The Grave. [London: John Camden Hotten, circa 1870]. Folio (11 by 14 inches, modern three-quarter red morocco, raised bands, top edge gilt. $1650.

Third edition of Blair's singular poetic achievement, with splendid engraved frontispiece portrait of William Blake and 12 engraved plates rendered by Shiavonetti after Blake's original designs, including the engraved title page.

In October 1805 Blake was commissioned by the engraver and would-be publisher Robert H. Cromek to prepare 40 drawings for Robert Blair's Grave, from which Cromek planned to select 20. While The Grave originally appeared in 1743, the illustrations in this very scarce second edition and the rarely found 1808 first edition are especially famous for vividly demonstrating "the rare imaginative power of William Blake" (Magnusson, 162). "In fact Blair had a perceptible influence on Blake the poet as well as on Blake the painter" (Kunitz & Haycraft, 46). A dispute over a preliminary etching "in white-line" called "Death's Door," which Cromek rejected, resulted in Blake's being prevented from engraving his own designs, so the 12 drawings eventually selected were rendered by Louis Schiavonetti "with a mingled grace and grandeur which won for them a wider popularity… Never has the theme of death been handled in pictorial art with more elevation and beauty" (DNB). Also featured is Blake's dedicatory poem "To the Queen," a prefatory comment on the designs by Henry Fuseli, and a concluding section, "Of the Designs."

Preceded by the rare 1808 edition of less than 600 copies and the large folio second edition of 1813. This third edition was produced by John Camden Hotten sometime around 1870, after Gilchrist's 1863 Life of William Blake reawakened an interest in the poet/artist. With minor alterations, Gilchrist was able to use the original plates from the 1813 edition, with the reset text being a very close imitation of the original; the letterpress title page is still for the 1813 Ackermann edition, for instance, with no mention of Hotten or 1870. Bentley, Blake Books 350A. Keynes 82. Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England 6a. See Lewine, 68.

Fine condition.