![[BLAKE, WILLIAM] BLAIR, ROBERT. The Grave. A Poem](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/2015-04-15/1049179.jpg?itok=ctMC5vjX)
Lot Details
Lot 204
[BLAKE, WILLIAM] BLAIR, ROBERT. The Grave. A Poem...
... London: R. Cromek, 1808. First Blake edition. Full period blind-stamped brown calf decorated in blind with geometric, Greek key and palmate rolls, all edges gilt. 13 3/8 x 11 inches (34 x 27 cm); engraved portrait of William Blake after Phillips, engraved title, xiv pp. (including the printed title, Blake's verse to the Queen, subscriber list and the texts by Cromek and Hayley), 36 pp. interspersed with 11 plates engraved by Schiavonetti after Blake, plus [4] pp. prospectus, on paper watermarked "J. Whatman 1808". Rebacked with plain calf, joints again weak, internally the plates generally clean, the paper of the text gently age-toned, but in all a fresh copy.
The preferred folio edition, a fairly large copy with Blake's magnificent designs for Blair's Grave, the text being the principal work of the so-called "Graveyard School," first published 1743. The top and bottom edges of the engraved title are very slightly trimmed within the plate mark as is usual, so it is not possible to determine if this is one of the proof examples. Blake prepared about forty drawings for Cromek, and he naturally assumed that he would be the engraver, and was indeed named such in the first issue of the prospectus for the book in November 1805. However, Blake's refined white-line engraving that he then submitted was not to Cromek's taste, and he replaced Blake with the then-popular Schiavonetti. Blake was incensed, and this was the genesis of a series of bitter verses about the publisher, the best-known of which are:
A Petty sneaking Knave I knew
O Mr Cr-------- how do ye do
and:
Cr------- loves artists as he loves his Meat
He loves the Art but tis the Art to Cheat.
Bentley & Nurmi 350.
C Estate of William W. Appleton
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