"LITTLE LAMB, WHO MADE THEE?": BEAUTIFUL MANCHESTER ETCHING WORKSHOP FACSIMILE PRINTING OF BLAKE'S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE, WITH 14 HAND-COLORED PLATES AND ADDITIONAL FRAMED LEAVES
BLAKE, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. Manchester: Manchester Etching Workshop, 1983. Small square quarto, original full burgundy morocco wallet-style binding; 19 mounted leaves. Accompanying essay in original wrappers housed in a side pocket. In original clamshell box. WITH: two leaves, each measuring 3-1/2 by 5 inches; framed together, piece measures 10-1/2 by 13-1/2 inches. $4500.
Limited edition, number 10 of only 40 copies, of this beautiful reproduction in the original size of Blake’s famous illuminated book, with 19 plates, 16 of which are hand-colored, with an accompanying framed piece of two separate impressions of the plate "The Lamb," done in 1863 and 1983.
"Blake's works reverse the roles of [moral verses and didactic fables]… In them it is not the poet who instructs the child, but the child who teaches the poet. In Songs of Innocence the child recounts the pleasures of a life in nature; in Songs of Experience the reader is shown children trapped and bewildered in the prisons of state and church" (Britannica). "The Manchester colored issue is in many ways one of the most accurate facsimiles ever published and beyond question the most accurate hand-colored reproduction of plates from an illuminated book. To my eyes, it is also one of the two or three most beautiful facsimiles when considered as a work of graphic art independent of its relationship to its prototype" (Robert N. Essick, Blake Quarterly, Summer 1985). The framed piece has a lengthy note on the back from noted Blake collector William T. Moore: "Two impressions of "The Lamb" from William Blake's Songs of Innocence. The left version was imprinted in 1863 from the original plate (or electrotype) for the first edition of Gilchrist's Life of William Blake (1863). The right version was imprinted in 1983 from the electrotype in the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was done by Paul Ritchie as part of the facsimile edition of Songs of Innocence / Songs of Experience published by the Manchester ethcing Workshop from the sixteen surviving electrotype plates of that work. The plates were hand-colored in exact facsimile of copy "B" in the British Museum. The entire edition was limited to 40 numbered sets, of which my copy is #10/40. This additional plate is one of the very few workshop "colourist's proofs," offered to me by Paul Ritchie." With an accompanying booklet with an essay by Joseph Viscomi, "The Art of William Blake's Illuminated Prints," explaining in detail Blake's printing process.
An extraordinary production in fine condition.