"ONE OF THE MORE SUCCESSFUL OF BLAKE'S BOOKS… BEAUTY AND SIMPLICITY OF LINE AND FIGURE ARE THE CHIEF NOTE OF EVERY PAGE": FINE TRIANON PRESS LIMITED FACSIMILE EDITION OF WILLIAM BLAKE'S ILLUMINATED THE BOOK OF THEL

BLAKE, William. The Book of Thel. (London: The Trianon Press, for the William Blake Trust, 1965). Quarto, original half brown morocco, marbled boards, top edge gilt, publisher's matching marbled slipcase. $750.

Fine Trianon Press limited edition facsimile of one of William Blake's illuminated books, number 353 of 380 copies (from a total edition of only 426) on Arches paper, finely reproducing in color the eight leaves of Blake's lovely illuminated poem. Printed for The William Blake Trust from the Lessing J. Rosenwald copy now in the Library of Congress. With bibliographical note by Blake expert Geoffrey Keynes.

"The Book of Thel was the first of the symbolic illuminated books to be completed after Blake had finished the plates of the Songs of Innocence and before the etching of most of the Songs of Experience… Thel proved to be one of the more successful of Blake's books, 15 complete copies being known at the present time, all painted with watercolor washes at various dates between 1789 and 1818… The mood of the poem agrees with that of Songs of Innocence, since it relates the history of a human soul in a state of innocence confronted by the problems of experience and recoiling in horrified refusal… The lovely designs illustrating Thel are as delicate as the poem and have none of Blake's more 'terrific' mannerisms so often seen in the later illuminated books. Beauty and simplicity of line and figure are the chief note of every page" (Keynes, Bibliographical Statement). Bentley, Blake Books 26. Bookplate.

Fine condition.