“HEAR THE VOICE OF THE BARD! WHO PRESENT, PAST, & FUTURE, SEES”: HANDSOMELY BOUND ELLIS AND YEATS EDITION OF WILLIAM BLAKE’S WORKS AND ART, 1893

(BLAKE, William) YEATS, William Butler, and ELLIS, Edwin John. The Works of William Blake, Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893. Three volumes. Royal octavo, original elaborately gilt green cloth, top edges gilt, uncut. $2800.

Limited first Ellis and Yeats edition of Blake’s writings and artwork, one of only 500 copies, with portrait frontispieces and numerous plates, in the beautiful elaborately gilt publisher's binding.

This important edition was informed by W.B. Yeats' own extensive research on symbolism and mythology. "The greater part of the 'symbolic system' is my writing," Yeats records in his own private copy of this work, "the rest of the book was written by Ellis working over short accounts of the books by me…" With numerous lithographic plates of Blake's "prophetic books," and first printings of a few poems from the famous Rossetti manuscript that were not included in Gilchrist (1861) or Swinburne (1868). "The enthusiasm and comprehensiveness of this work are of considerable historical importance" (Bentley). Wade 218. Bentley 369. Bookplates.

Interiors clean, a fw loose signatures expertly reattached, beautiful gilt bindings in excellent condition. An impressive production in near-fine condition.