Description

Extra-illustrated with 50 additional plates, this is the first edition of Alexander Gilchrist's Life of William Blake, "Pictor Ignotus". Per the Contents pages, the Songs of Innocence and Experience are "sixteen of the original plates". A hand-written note at the front states that there are 50 extra plates; I have provided a breakdown of those plates below. Regarding these plates, I don't see impression marks, so while they are well executed, I do believe that they are produced via photo-lithographs (or some similar technique) and not from the original blocks. I suspect there is a book that was published in the early 1900s that produced these 50 illustrations, but I have been unable to find which one that is. The spines are damaged, but once removed from the slipcase, the bindings are handsome fine-binding, stamp signed by Bayntun bindery in Bath, England. About William Blake - William Blake (1757 –1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his "prophetic works" were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "human existence itself". - Wikipedia About the Life of William Blake - Alexander Gilchrist (1828 – 1861), an English author, is known mainly as a biographer of William Etty and of William Blake. Gilchrist's biography of Blake is still a standard reference work about the poet. Although he studied law, Gilchrist adopted literary and art criticism as his main pursuits. In 1856 he became a next-door neighbor of his friend Thomas Carlyle at Chelsea and his wife Jane Welsh Carlyle, both of them notable writers. Gilchrist had all but finished his Life of William Blake when he contracted scarlet fever from one of his children and died. His wife Anne helped to complete the Life (his magnum opus). Dante Gabriel Rossetti also contributed to the completion of the book. Bibliographic Details - Worldcat OCLC record number 1396704785. Notes that the preface is signed "Anne Gilchrist". Not a rare book, when not extra-illustrated. 1st edition. Re-issued in 1880. Physical Attributes - 2 volumes, finely bound, in a slipcase. Each volume measures approx. 22.5 x 15 x 3.5 cm, quarto. Red calf bindings. Spine with five raised bands; "Life of William Blake" in gilt in one compartment, volume in gilt in one compartment, and "Extra Illustrated 1863" in gilt at base of spine. Marbled endpaper. Leather hinges. Turn-ins framing endpaper, stamped by binder, and with a frame of gilt fillet with corner florets. Extra illustrated. List of plates - Below is a list of the plates in this set. While many of them have a tissue with a title printed on them, some of them do not; for the plates with no tissue, I made up a description and these are not the true names of the works. Plates that are not extra-illustrated: plates called out at Volume 1 in “Directions to Binder” – Frontis portrait, Job plates 8 and 14 at page 4, Plague at 54, Albion’s Angel at 112, From Europe at 126, Spider’s Web at 129, Jerusalem at 182, By Satan’s Watch-Fiends and The Crucifixion at 194, Canterbury at 230 (but used as frontis of V2 here), Job Plate V at 286 Frontis 4 – Job 8, Job 14 4 – Fire! 1 and 2 12 – God 28 – Gates Paradise 36 – Gates Paradise 50 – God Creating 54 - Plague 58 - Bank of the Thames 76 – Dante Degli Abati in the Lake 80 – Job Restored 90 – 2 woodcuts from Eclogue 110 – 2 woodcuts from Eclogue 112 – Albion’s Angel 115 – 2 Eclogue 120 – 2 Eclogue 127 – From Europe 128 – Title page Los 128 – Spider Web 128 – Children guiding serpent 130 – color man water 138 – color angel woman baby 166 – color rainbow woman 182 – From Jerusalem 182 – Jerusalem page 39 194 – From Jerusalem 202 – Bath Canterbury York 216 – Jesus on Lamb 234 – Zacharias’ Angel 260 – Creating Adam 272 – 2 Eclogues 275 – Paradise Regained 286 – Job V 292 – Christ’s Dream 316 – Pouring a cup on a man Volume 2 Foldout – Canterbury Pilgrims 4 – Los Enitharmon and Orc – Los Bound with the Chain of Jealousy 16 – Fire 32 – Man Woman Flower 50 – Holy Thursday 52 – Emanation Jerusalem 64 – Paola Francesca 74 – Man above well 98 – Jerusalem Chapter 3 110 – Title Night the Third 114 – Jurizen 126 – Pity 138 – Floating woman and baby 144 – noses pointing 158 – Foreboding man with bell 160 – Heaven to Hell 182 – Paradise Regained, Christ ministered by Angels 185 – Chained woman in wave 192 – Albion contemplating Jesus 206 – Annihilate Jerusalem 217 – Philippa 224 – Albion 232 – Oragon Woman 240 – Jerusalem page 46 254 – Albion turning from daughters 260 – Limbs of Albion Book of Job – page 1-21 Songs of Innocence (page 6 misnumbered 9), 1-16 Condition - See pictures. Spines are in rough condition, which also made the joints tender. But the boards, text-blocks, etc. were very well protected by the slipcase and are nice. There's a few spots, a dog-eared page (182), the fore-edges of the Canterbury plate are folded back, etc. but mostly the text block is very clean and the paper is quite bright, the edge gilt bright as well.