MORNING STARS

 In commenting on William Blake's Illustrations of the Book of Job in The Art of William Blake, Anthony Blunt wrote on page 86: 

"For once he reduced his visions to terms which are readily intelligible to all, and they gained not lost in the process...

In technique the engravings are masterly. As we know from Gilchrist, Blake had refreshed his mind and his hand by a renewed study of the engravings of Marcantonio and Durer, which he loved since childhood, and his graver takes on a new subtlety and produces a great variety of effects which he had hardly ever achieved in the earlier dry manner of his master Basire. The outline remains as firm as ever, but the modelling is fuller, the effects of light more varied, the texture richer, so that the absence of color is more than made up for; and the engravings have a concentration and force lacking in the preliminary water-colours. The variety of mood is as great as in earlier works but is achieved by moderate means...Ecstasy is given its most splendid expression in the famous plate When the Morning Stars Sang Together (Plate 14).

Yale Center for British Art

Illustrations of the Book of Job

Plate 14

"This last plate was Blake's final statement of a formal theme on which he had many variations and which derived ultimately from a crude engraving of a relief from Persepolis in Bryant's New system of ancient Mythology, published in 1776, the row of figures standing with their arms stretched upwards and overlapping. This device had appeared in one of the illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts, where the figures are cherubim with six wings, four of which cover their bodies and legs. The Job water-colours show four figures with one pair of wings each, clad in short skirts and flanked by two wisps of a cloud. In the engravings the group is made more coherent and more lively by the introduction of flowing gauze-like dresses which cover the figures right down to their feet and link with the line of the clouds, integrating them into the design. But Blake's most effective change at this stage is to add, at each end of the row of figures, an extra arm cut off by the edge of the plate, which suggests with striking effect that the row is continued indefinitely beyond the frame of the engraving and ads mystery to the whole conception."

Blake made at least two additional images of this motif. In his illustrations to Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity he pictured five angels is a row, enclosed in a circle of angels. At the bottom of plate 22 of Jerusalem Blake contrasted the Wings of Cheribim with Iron Wheels of war. The angels once again reach out to each other with the implication that an infinite pattern continues.

"Why should Punishment Weave the Veil with Iron Wheels of War
When Forgiveness might it Weave with Wings of Cherubim" 

This image of interlocked angels singing their praise and gratitude was Blake's response to the following verses in the Book of Job:

Job 38

[4] Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
[5] Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
[6] Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
[7] When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

The words Morning Star appear also in the Book of Revelation.

Revelation 22

[16] I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
[17] And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

---

In the Four Zoas Urizen and his obedient sons came not. The turned away.

Four Zoas, Night III, Page 37, (E 326)         

"Now sat the King of Light on high upon his starry throne
And bright Ahania bow'd herself before his splendid feet

O Urizen look on Me. like a mournful stream  
I Embrace round thy knees & wet My bright hair with my tears: 
Why sighs my Lord! are not the morning stars thy obedient Sons   
Do they not bow their bright heads at thy voice? at thy command
Do they not fly into their stations & return their light to thee
The immortal Atmospheres are thine, there thou art seen in glory
Surrounded by the ever changing Daughters of the Light
Why wilt thou look upon futurity darkning present joy"

Four Zoas, Night V, Page 64, (E 343)

"I well remember for I heard the mild & holy voice
Saying O light spring up & shine & I sprang up from the deep  
He gave to me a silver scepter & crownd me with a golden crown
& said Go forth & guide my Son who wanders on the ocean  

I went not forth. I hid myself in black clouds of my wrath       
I calld the stars around my feet in the night of councils dark
The stars threw down their spears & fled naked away
We fell. I siezd thee dark Urthona In my left hand falling

I siezd thee beauteous Luvah thou art faded like a flower"  

Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Song 30, (E 18) 

"O Earth O Earth return!
Arise from out the dewy grass;
Night is worn,
And the morn
Rises from the slumberous mass, 
 
Turn away no more
Why wilt thou turn away
The starry floor
The watry shore
Is giv'n thee till the break of day."

PITY IMAGED

First posted March 2014

None of Blake's images conveys more passion, power or enigma than does the Large Color Print which goes by the name Pity. Blake seems to be representing the compassion of a divine being in providing for the supine woman whose feet are in a shroud. The babe is descending from the hands of a woman on an airborne horse. In this copy the resting woman's breast is bare as if prepared to nurse the child.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Large Color Print

Pity 

In Blake's poetry pity can be cruel and destructive when in the hands of fallen men and women. Los's pity for Urizen in chains prevented him from halting the fall.

Urizen, Plate 14, (E 77)
"6. Los wept obscur'd with mourning:
His bosom earthquak'd with sighs;
He saw Urizen deadly black,                     
In his chains bound, & Pity began,

7. In anguish dividing & dividing
For pity divides the soul" 

In this poem the attributes which are beneficent in the hands of the angel are used by the devil to create misery. 

Songs and Ballads, (E 470)
"I heard an Angel singing
When the day was springing                                      
Mercy Pity Peace    
Is the worlds release

Thus he sung all day                         
Over the new mown hay
Till the sun went down
And haycocks looked brown

I heard a Devil curse
Over the heath & the furze                
Mercy could be no more
If there was nobody poor

And pity no more could be
If all were as happy as we
At his curse the sun went down
And the heavens gave a frown

Down pourd the heavy rain   
Over the new reapd grain
And Miseries increase       
Is Mercy Pity Peace"   

As a means of understanding the return journey from the depths of Ulro, the pity of which we speak is an Eternal characteristic. If we look at the picture Pity as a stage in the return of man to Eternity, it portrays the assistance which is provided to man by the Divine Hand and by the emanation in reaching the point at which the Savior can be born in his heart.

Jerusalem, Plate 50, (E 200) 
Come O thou Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of Sin
To Sin & to hide the Sin in sweet deceit. is lovely!!            
To Sin in the open face of day is cruel & pitiless! But
To record the Sin for a reproach: to let the Sun go down
In a remembrance of the Sin: is a Woe & a Horror!
A brooder of an Evil Day, and a Sun rising in blood
Come then O Lamb of God and take away the remembrance of Sin     

Jerusalem, Plate 59, (E 209)
"And one Daughter of Los sat at the fiery Reel & another
Sat at the shining Loom with her Sisters attending round
Terrible their distress & their sorrow cannot be utterd
And another Daughter of Los sat at the Spinning Wheel
Endless their labour, with bitter food. void of sleep,           
Tho hungry they labour: they rouze themselves anxious
Hour after hour labouring at the whirling Wheel
Many Wheels & as many lovely Daughters sit weeping

Yet the intoxicating delight that they take in their work
Obliterates every other evil; none pities their tears            
Yet they regard not pity & they expect no one to pity
For they labour for life & love, regardless of any one
But the poor Spectres that they work for, always incessantly"

Jerusalem, Plate 77  (E 232)
"But Jesus is the bright Preacher of Life
Creating Nature from this fiery Law,
By self-denial & forgiveness of Sin.

Go therefore, cast out devils in Christs name
Heal thou the sick of spiritual disease           
Pity the evil, for thou art not sent
To smite with terror & with punishments
Those that are sick, like the Pharisees
Crucifying &,encompassing sea & land
For proselytes to tyranny & wrath,                
But to the Publicans & Harlots go!
Teach them True Happiness, but let no curse
Go forth out of thy mouth to blight their peace
For Hell is opend to heaven; thine eyes beheld
The dungeons burst & the Prisoners set free."      
                                     
Four Zoas, Night IV, Page 56, (E 337)
"The Saviour mild & gentle bent over the corse of Death
Saying If ye will Believe your Brother shall rise again   

And first he found the Limit of Opacity & namd it Satan
In Albions bosom for in every human bosom these limits stand     
And next he found the Limit of Contraction & namd it Adam
While yet those beings were not born nor knew of good or Evil

Then wondrously the Starry Wheels felt the divine hand. Limit 
Was put to Eternal Death Los felt the Limit & saw
The Finger of God touch the Seventh furnace in terror            
And Los beheld the hand of God over his furnaces
Beneath the Deeps in dismal Darkness beneath immensity"

_________________________________

Mark 1
[39] And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
[40] And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean."
[41] Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean."
[42] And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

John 11
[38] Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
[39] Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
[40] Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
[41] Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
[42] And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
[43] And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
[44] And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

 

CREATING THE SONGS

Wikipedia Commons

Songs of Innocence

Plate 16

---

Island in the Moon was written in 1784 when his brother Robert was alive and living with William and Catherine in the building which also served as the print shop of Blake and James Parker. The setting for these anecdotes are gatherings at the homes of participants. At first glance Blake's cynical and ironic account of the social interaction of caricatures of his friends and associates seems to bear little relationship to his later work. One exception to the light-hearted humorous nature of this sixteen page manuscript is the inclusion of drafts of three poems which Blake later incorporated in Songs of Innocence. In his book William Blake: The Creation of the Songs, Michael Phillips states  that, "Here, perhaps, is the inception of the Songs and clearly a harbinger of what is to follow."

Northrop Frey indicates that the context in which these "'delicate and fragile"' poems appear suggests that "parallel songs of experience was already in Blake's mind, and was in origin an idea connected with satire."

---

Island in the Moon, (E 462)
 
           " Chap 11

  Another merry meeting at the house of Steelyard the Lawgiver
  After Supper Steelyard & Obtuse Angle. had pumpd Inflammable
Gass quite dry. they playd at forfeits & tryd every method to get
good song then he sung humour. said Miss Gittipin pray
Mr Obtuse Angle sing us a song   then he sung

     Upon a holy thursday their innocent faces clean
     The children walking two & two in grey & blue & green
     Grey headed beadles walkd before with wands as white as snow
     Till into the high dome of Pauls they like thames waters flow

     O what a multitude they seemd, these flowers of London town 
     Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own
     The hum of multitudes were there but multitudes of lambs
     Thousands of little girls & boys raising their innocent hands

     Then like a mighty wind they raise to heavn the voice of song  
     Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of heavn among     
     Beneath them sit the revrend men the guardians of the poor
     Then cherish pity lest you drive an angel from your door

  After this they all sat silent for a quarter of an hour [&
Mrs Sigtagatist] <& Mrs Nannicantipot> said it puts me
in Mind of my [grand] mothers song

     When the tongues of children are heard on the green 
     And laughing is heard on the hill                 
     My heart is at rest within my breast
     And every thing else is still

     Then come home my children the sun is gone down     
     And the dews of night arise
     Come Come leave off play & let us away
     Till the morning appears in the skies

     No No let us play for it is yet day
     And we cannot go to sleep      
     Besides in the Sky the little birds fly      
     And the meadows are coverd with Sheep    

     Well Well go & play till the light fades away
     And then go home to bed
     The little ones leaped & shouted & laughd                    
     And all the hills ecchoed

Then [Miss Gittipin] [Tilly Lally sung]
[Quid] sung <Quid>

     O father father where are you going
     O do not walk so fast
     O speak father speak to your little boy
     Or else I shall be lost

     The night it was dark & no father was there                 
     And the child was wet with dew
     The mire was deep & the child did weep
     And away the vapour flew

  Here nobody could sing any longer, till Tilly Lally pluckd up a
spirit & he sung.

O I say you Joe
Throw us the ball
Ive a good mind to go
And leave you all"

Michael Phillips goes on to follow the development of Songs of Innocence and of Experience through the first drafts of the poems and the first sketches of the images to the final printing and coloring of the books. In William Blake: The Creation of the Songs From Manuscript to Illuminated Printing we follow in detail the meticulous process Blake followed in producing his works of Art:

"With the Songs, uniquely, we are in a position to be able to appreciate nearly every stage of their creation from writing to reproduction. In particular we have seen how difficult, often uncertain and demanding each stage in the creative process has been, from drafting the text, composing text and design on the copper plate, printing the plates in monochrome, hand colouring, and colour printing. That we are unable to trace this progress in the making of other illuminated books, should not lead us to believe that their creation came about more easily." (Page 113) 

.

MORE STRINGS

Jerusalem, Plate 20, (E 165)

"Vala replied weeping & trembling, hiding in her veil.

When winter rends the hungry family and the snow falls:
Upon the ways of men hiding the paths of man and beast,
Then mourns the wanderer: then he repents his wanderings & eyes
The distant forest; then the slave groans in the dungeon of stone.    
The captive in the mill of the stranger, sold for scanty hire.
They view their former life: they number moments over and over;
Stringing them on their remembrance as on a thread of sorrow."

Jerusalem, Plate 77

 

 

 

Cumberland's Card

 

 

River of Life

Illustrations to Blair's The Grave

Our Time Is Fixed

Illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts

 

Jerusalem, Plate 100

Water-colours for the Poems of Thomas Gray

PORTLAND VASE III

Portland Vase

Engraving by William Blake

William Blake had the good fortune to become involved in engraving images of the Portland Vase to appear in Erasmus Darwin's book The Botanic Garden. Joseph Johnson was the publisher for whom Blake did numerous engravings after he completed his apprenticeship. A Unitarian, Johnson like Blake "had a Dissenter's sympathies with liberal and political causes." The industrialist Josiah Wedgwood and the scientist Erasmus Darwin took a profound interest in the first century Roman Cameo glass Vase. Wedgwood was interested in the craftsmanship of the vase which he hoped to copy in his china manufacturing factory. Darwin, like many others wished to determine what the figures on the vase represented. The beauty of the vase as a work of art and Darwin's interpretation of the images as representing the Eleusinian Mysteries would have fascinated Blake.

In 1779 the vase had recently been brought to England and acquired by Duke of Portland. Josiah Wedgwood had the use of the vase for study and copying. Through Johnson, Blake was engaged to engrave four images for publication in Darwin's book. In Johnson's close circle of associates was a group of like-minded men. They were liberal, dissenters, and innovators who applied their talents to understanding the methods and meaning of the enigmatic piece of ancient glassware which was suddenly available for appreciation and study in England.

 

This diverse group of men were drawn together to explore the secrets of the vase:

Joseph Johnson - Publisher

Henry Fuselli - Artist

John Flaxman - Sculptor

Josiah Wedgwood - Industrialist

Erasmus Darwin - Scientist - Author

William Blake - Poet - Engraver.

 

 

PORTLAND VASE

First posted in 2016

When Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles Darwin) brought his book to Joseph Johnson to be published he was in need of engravers to supply the illustrations. Following the suggestion of Fuseli, Blake was engaged to engrave several pictures over a period of time. Darwin's book consisted of Part I of The botanic garden: a poem, in two parts. Part I. Containing the economy of vegetation. Part II. The loves of the plants. With philosophical notes. The larger part of the book is Darwin's copious notes. 

We learn how Blake became involved in this project from the article, THE PORTLAND VASE: SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON, JOSIAH WEDGWOOD AND THE DARWINS by Milo Keynes.
 

"With the poem, there were 120 pages of Additional Notes; Note XXII (pp. 53-59) was on the Portland Vase, and was illustrated by four engravings: (1) the Portland Vase (figure 10); (2) and (3) the two compartments with the figures; and (4) the handles and bottom of the Vase (figure 5). From a letter written to him by Wedgwood on 17 November 1789, Darwin had thought of using the Bartolozzi prints, but was worried that their use might infringe Sir William Hamilton's copyright.
...
On 9 July 1791, Darwin wrote to Wedgwood that the engraver suggested by Joseph Johnson (1738-1809), his publisher, wished to see the Bartolozzi prints, and that 'Johnson said He is capable of doing anything well'. Johnson wrote to Darwin on 23 July that: It is not the expense of purchasing Bartolozzi's plates that is any object; they cannot be copied without Hamilton's consent, being protected by act of pari1. Blake is certainly capable of making an exact copy of the vase, I believe more so than Mr. B[artolozzi], if the vase be lent him for that purpose.. . It was William Blake (1757-1827), thus recommended by Johnson, who engraved the four plates for 'The Botanic Garden', but it is not known whether he worked from the Portland Vase itself, not yet on loan to the British Museum, had access to a Wedgwood copy, or adapted Cipriani's drawings and Bartolozzi's engravings. His work was finished by 1 December 1791 —The Economy of Vegetation', though dated 1791, probably was not published until June 1792.52 Later, Blake was to provide engravings of Wedgwood ware for Josiah II in 1815 and 1816." 

 

Blake contributed seven engravings to Darwin's book:
Fertilization of Egypt
Tornado
Amaryllis and
Four images of the Portland Vase to illustrate the philosophical note.

 

Blake had become interested in studies of Greek and Roman literature through his friend Thomas Taylor. The Portland Vase, which dated from first century Rome, was decorated with scenes from classic mythology. The exquisite craftsmanship interested many in London's intellectual community, but the puzzling figures created the main fascination. Josiah Wedgwood became absorbed by both. Darwin's interpretation of the decorations as delineating the Eleusinian Mysteries would have made Blake's task of providing illustrations all the more interesting to him.

The best place to view Blake's four engravings is this website.

 

From Note XXII of Part I - Containing the economy of vegetation is Darwin's commentary on the Portland Vase:

 

"This central figure then appears to me to be an hieroglyphic or Eleusinian emblem of MORTAL LIFE, that is, the lethum, or death, mentioned by Virgil amongst the terrible things exhibited at the beginning of the mysteries. The inverted torch shews the figure to be emblematic, ... The man and woman on each side of the dying figure must be considered as emblems, both from their similarity of situation and dress to the middle figure, and their being grouped along with it. These I think are hieroglyphic or Eleusinian emblems of HUMANKIND, with their backs toward the dying figure of MORTAL LIFE, unwilling to associate with her, yet turning back their serious and attentive countenances, curious indeed to behold, yet sorry to contemplate their latter end. 

 

...  
2. On the other compartment of this celebrated vase is exhibited an emblem of immortality, the representation of which was well known to constitute a very principal part of the shews at the Eleusinian mysteries, as Dr. Warburton has proved by variety of authority. The habitation of spirits or ghosts after death was supposed by the antients to be placed beneath the earth, where Pluto reigned, and dispensed rewards or punishments. Hence the first figure in this group is of the MANES or GHOST, who having passed through an open portal is descending into a dusky region, pointing his toe with timid and unsteady step, feeling as it were his way in the gloom. This portal Aeneas enters, which is described by Virgil,—patet atri janua ditis, Aen. VI. l. 126; as well as the easy descent,—facilis descensus Averni. Ib. ... The MANES or GHOST appears lingering and fearful, and wishes to drag after him a part of his mortal garment, which however adheres to the side of the portal through which he has passed. The beauty of this allegory would have been expressed by Mr. Pope, by "We feel the ruling passion strong in death."
 

A little lower down in the group the manes or ghost is received by a beautiful female, a symbol of IMMORTAL LIFE. This is evinced by her fondling between her knees a large and playful serpent, which from its annually renewing its external skin has from great antiquity, even as early as the fable of Prometheus, been esteemed an emblem of renovated youth. The story of the serpent acquiring immortal life from the ass of Prometheus, who carried it on his back, is told in Bacon's Works, Vol. V. p. 462. Quarto edit. Lond. 1778. For a similar purpose a serpent was wrapped round the large hieroglyphic egg in the temple of Dioscuri, as an emblem of the renewal of life from a state of death. Bryant's Mythology, Vol II. p. 359. sec. edit. On this account also the serpent was an attendant on Aesculapius, which seems to have been the name of the hieroglyphic figure of medicine. This serpent shews this figure to be an emblem, as the torch shewed the central figure of the other compartment to be an emblem, hence they agreeably correspond, and explain each other, one representing MORTAL LIFE, and the other IMMORTAL LIFE.

 

This emblematic figure of immortal life sits down with her feet towards the figure of Pluto, but, turning back her face towards the timid ghost, she stretches forth her hand, and taking hold of his elbow, supports his tottering steps, as well as encourages him to advance, both which circumstances are thus with wonderful ingenuity brought to the eye. At the same time the spirit loosely lays his hand upon her arm, as one walking in the dark would naturally do for the greater certainty of following his conductress, while the general part of the symbol of IMMORTAL LIFE, being turned toward the figure of Pluto, shews that she is leading the phantom to his realms.
...
The figure of PLUTO can not be mistaken, as is agreed by most of the writers who have mentioned this vase; his grisley beard, and his having one foot buried in the earth, denotes the infernal monarch. He is placed at the lowest part of the group, and resting his chin on his hand, and his arm upon his knee, receives the stranger-spirit with inquisitive attention; it was before observed that when people think attentively they naturally rest their bodies in some easy attitude, that more animal power may be employed on the thinking faculty. In this group of figures there is great art shewn in giving an idea of a descending plain, viz. from earth to Elysium, and yet all the figures are in reality on an horizontal one. This wonderful deception is produced first by the descending step of the manes or ghost; secondly, by the arm of the sitting figure of immortal life being raised up to receive him as he descends; and lastly, by Pluto having one foot sunk into the earth. There is yet another figure which is concerned in conducting the manes or ghost to the realms of Pluto, and this is LOVE. He precedes the descending spirit on expanded wings, lights him with his torch, and turning back his beautiful countenance beckons him to advance. The antient God of love was of much higher dignity than the modern Cupid. He was the first that came out of the great egg of night, (Hesiod. Theog. V. CXX. Bryant's Mythol. Vol. II. p. 348.) and is said to possess the keys of the sky, sea, and earth. As he therefore led the way into this life, he seems to constitute a proper emblem for leading the way to a suture life."

 

 

CHICHESTER

British Museum
Chichester
1802

William and Catherine Blake moved from the busy city of London to the quiet village of Felpham in Sussex in Sept 1800. G.E. Bentley, Jr., in his biography of Blake, Stranger from Paradise, includes on Page 209 a portion of a letter from Blake to his friend George Cumberland:

"I have taken a cottage at Felpham on the Sea Shore of Sussex between Arundel & Chichester. Mr Hayley the Poet is soon to be my neighbor; he is now my friend: to him I owe the happy suggestion, for it was on a visit to him that I fell in love with my cottage."

The engraving of Chichester showing the ancient cathedral situated within sight of the ocean was created in 1802 as the tailpiece for a series of animal ballads written by William Hayley and published in parts by Blake.

Before the Blakes left London they sent a letter to the Flaxmans enclosing this poem:

"To my dear Friend Mrs Anna Flaxman

     This Song to the flower of Flaxmans joy
     To the blossom of hope for a sweet decoy
     Do all that you can or all that you may
     To entice him to Felpham & far away

     Away to Sweet Felpham for Heaven is there
     The Ladder of Angels descends thro the air
     On the Turret its spiral does softly descend
     Thro' the village then winds at My Cot i[t] does end

     You stand in the village & look up to heaven
     The precious stones glitter on flights seventy seven
     And My Brother is there & My Friend & Thine
     Descend & Ascend with the Bread & the Wine

     The Bread of sweet Thought & the Wine of Delight
     Feeds the Village of Felpham by day & by night
     And at his own door the blessd Hermit does stand
     Dispensing Unceasing to all the whole Land
                                              W. BLAKE

(E 708) H[ercules] B[uildings] Lambeth, 14 Sepr 1800   

After the move was complete Blake wrote to Thomas Butts praising his new surroundings:

Letters, To Thomas Butts, (E 713)
"Felpham Octr 2d 1800
 Mr Butts will I hope Excuse my not having finishd the
Portrait.  I wait for less hurried moments.  Our Cottage looks
more & more beautiful.  And tho the weather is wet, the Air is
very Mild. much Milder than it was in London
when we came away.  Chichester is a very handsom City Seven miles
from us we can get most Conveniences there.  The Country is not
so destitute of accomodations to our wants as I expected it would
be We have had but little time for viewing the Country but what
we have seen is Most Beautiful & the People are Genuine Saxons
handsomer than the people about London." 

. 

MANCHESTER ETCHING WORKSHOP

Blake Quarterly
Manchester Etching Workshop
Songs of Innocence and of Experience

British Museum
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
Copy B 

It seems that there is some degree of chance involved if one is open to attempting to do something original. Paul Richie learned through a chance conversation with the curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum that the electrotypes for Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience might be made available to him in order to make a facsimile. In an abandoned warehouse, the Manchester Etching Workshop was set up in 1978 to make facsimiles of Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Copy B in the British Museum was used to determine the hand coloring in watercolor which should be followed. There are 16 pages in a set to match the number of electotypes in the V&A collection.

The process used by Manchester Etching Workshop followed Blake's methods instead of turning to more resent technology. The V&A electrotypes were made from the set used in Alexander Gilchrist’s Life of Blake, 1863 and 1880. The V&A electrotypes had been made from Blake's original copper plates which had later been destroyed. The same meticulous attention which went into making prints as close as possible to monochrome prints made by Blake, went into the coloring of the images according to the way Blake had colored Copy B.

One copy of the Manchester Etching Workshop facsimile was given to the British Museum by Ritchie. The total number of copies made were 40 colored copies and 35 monochrome. Ritchie was particularly qualified to oversee the printing since he was educated as an artist and a printmaker. Ritchie like Blake although willing to make prints of another artist's work, preferred to be a printmaker of his own work and he returned to Scotland to open his own studio and gallery.

---

Descriptive Catalogue, (E 547)  
"NUMBER IX.
Satan calling up his Legions, from Milton's Paradise Lost; a
composition for a more perfect Picture, afterward executed for a 
Lady of high rank. An experiment Picture.

THIS Picture was likewise painted at intervals, for experiment on
colours, without any oily vehicle; it may be worthy of attention,
not only on account of its composition, but of the great labour
which has been bestowed on it, that is, three or four times as
much as would have finished a more perfect Picture; the labor
has destroyed the lineaments, it was with difficulty brought back
again to a certain effect, which it had at first, when all the
lineaments were perfect.
  These Pictures, among numerous others painted for
experiment, were the result of temptations and
perturbations, labouring to destroy Imaginative power, by means
of that infernal machine, called Chiaro Oscuro, in the hands of
Venetian and Flemish Demons; whose enmity to the Painter himself,
and to all Artists who study in the Florentine and Roman
Schools, may be removed by an exhibition and exposure of their
vile tricks.  They cause that every thing in art shall become a
Machine.  They cause that the execution shall be all blocked up
with brown shadows.  They put the original Artist in fear and
doubt of his own original conception.  The spirit of Titian was
particularly active, in raising doubts concerning the possibility
of executing without a model, and when once he had raised the
doubt, it became easy for him to snatch away the vision time
after time, for when the Artist took his pencil, to execute his
ideas, his power of imagination weakened so much, and darkened,
that memory of nature and of Pictures of the various
Schools possessed his mind, instead of appropriate execution,
resulting from the inventions; like walking in another man's
style, or speaking or looking in another man's style and manner,
unappropriate and repugnant to your own individual character;
tormenting the true Artist, till he leaves the Florentine, and
adopts the Venetian practice, or does as Mr. B. has done, has the
courage to suffer poverty and disgrace, till he ultimately
conquers."
 

Songs of Experience, Plate 48, (E 28)
"INFANT SORROW                                  

My mother groand! my father wept.
Into the dangerous world I leapt:
Helpless, naked, piping loud;
Like a fiend hid in a cloud.

Struggling in my fathers hands:
Striving against my swadling bands:
Bound and weary I thought best
To sulk upon my mothers breast."

---

Although I have not learned the the prices at which the Manchester Etching Workshops facsimiles were originally offered, I find that prices of used copies at Abe Books and at Archives Fine Books ranged from 14 to 20 thousand dollars. 

 

Images from the Abe Books website:

Title Page Songs of Innocence

Title Page Songs of Experience

Embossed Title

. 

HURD'S FACSIMILES

Alamy
Commercial print
Hurd Facsimile

British Museum       Songs of  Experience      Frontispiece, Copy T

British Library      Facsimile by Samuel Hurd     Songs of Experience    Frontispiece

Robert Essick, in an article in Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly quotes from the publishers description of Samuel Hurd's facsimiles of Songs of Innocence and Of Experience:

"Mr. Hurd promised to colour 100 copies, but the work proved to be so much more arduous than he had anticipated or could endure, that he felt compelled to call a permanent halt when, after a struggle lasting eight and a half years, he had finished, to his own satisfaction and ours, 51 copies."

One on the copies is now in the British Library which had it digitized and makes it available to the public on their website. There is some irony in viewing a book on a computer screen in the 21st that was made with technology available in the early 20th century, in order that readers might have access to a book that originated in the late 18th century.

Although Blake could not have any inkling of the means through which his books would be transmitted to viewers in the 21st century, he knew that means for passing knowledge from one generation to future generations was constantly being revised, reinvented and re-implemented.

Robert Essick in his article in Blake: an Illustrated Quarterly indicates that Samuel Hurd's facsimiles were published by the Liverpool book dealer Henry Young and Sons in 1923. Copy T in the British Museum seems to have been the template from which the prints were made and colored, although the appearance could not be mistaken for the original.

To my surprise the entire book made by Hurd can be viewed on the website of the British Library which also makes available a large portion of the manuscript of the Four Zoas. Although there are organized efforts to disseminate the vast body of work which Blake created, it seems that there also have always been isolated individuals working as Blake did, using what tools and resources are available as a starting point for allowing the imagination to soar.     

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 15, (E 40)
                            "A Memorable Fancy
   I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which
knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.
   In the first chamber was a Dragon-Man, clearing away the
rubbish from a caves mouth; within, a number of Dragons were
hollowing the  cave, 
   In the second chamber was a Viper folding round the rock & the 
cave, and others adorning it with gold silver and precious
stones.
   In the third chamber was an Eagle with wings and feathers of
air, 
he caused the inside of the cave to be infinite, around were
numbers  of Eagle like men, who built palaces in the immense
cliffs.
   In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire raging around
&  melting the metals into living fluids.
   In the fifth chamber were Unnam'd forms, which cast the metals 
into the expanse.
   There they were reciev'd by Men who occupied the sixth
chamber,  and took the forms of books & were arranged in
libraries.

Letters, To George Cumberland. (E 700)
"Lambeth 23 Decembr 1796 a Merry Christmas
Dear Cumberland
     I have lately had some pricks of conscience on account of
not acknowledging your friendship to me 
immediately on the reciet of your. beautiful book.  I have
likewise had by me all the summer 6 Plates which you desired me
to get made for you. they have laid on my shelf. without speaking
to tell me whose they were or that they were there at
all & it was some time (when I found them) before I could divine
whence they came or whither they were bound or whether they were
to lie there to eternity.  I have now sent them to you to be
transmuted, thou real Alchymist!
     Go on   Go on.   such works as yours Nature & Providence the
Eternal Parents demand from their children how few produce them
in such perfection   how Nature smiles on them. how Providence
rewards them.   How all your Brethren say, The sound of his harp
& his flute heard from his secret forest chears us to the labours
of life. & we plow & reap forgetting our labour      
     Let us see you sometimes as well as sometimes hear from you 
& let us often See your Works
     Compliments to Mr Cumberland & Family
Yours in head & heart
WILL BLAKE"

Letters, To Thomas Butts, (E 723)
 "I am now engaged in Engraving 6 small plates for a New
Edition of Mr Hayleys Triumphs of Temper. from drawings by Maria
Flaxman sister to my friend the Sculptor and it seems that other
things will follow in course if I do but Copy these well. but
Patience! if Great things do not turn out it is because
such things depend on the Spiritual & not on the
Natural World & if it was fit for me I doubt not that I should be
Employd in Greater things & when it is proper my Talents shall be
properly exercised in Public. as I hope they are now in private.
for till then.  I leave no stone unturnd & no path unexplord that
tends to improvement in my beloved Arts.  One thing of real
consequence I have accomplishd by coming into the country. which
is to me consolation enough, namely.  I have recollected all my
scatterd thoughts on Art & resumed my primitive & original ways
of Execution in both painting & Engraving. which in the confusion
of London I had very much lost & obliterated from my mind.  But
whatever becomes of my labours I would rather that they should be
preservd in your Green House (not as you mistakenly call it dung
hill). than in the cold
gallery of fashion.--The Sun may yet shine & then they will be
brought into open air."

Blake's Printing House

Printing House of the Mind

.

MUIR'S FACSIMILES

In the same way that Sampson in 1905 was only interested in studying the poems produced by Blake, William Muir in 1884 was only interested in making available the images which Blake produced. Although Muir had not originally been a printer he set out to "make available colored facsimiles of Blake’s works in Illuminated Printing." To create the outlines he make lithographs which could be hand colored by himself and a close knit group of colorists relying on Blake's coloring of a single copy.
 
Over a period of 50 years Muir produced copies of 13 of Blake's Illuminated Books limiting the number of copies for each to 50 or less. The project depended on the bookseller Quaritch to distribute the books in a way that was profitable to both the producer and the seller.
 
Muir made both uncolored and colored copies using books in the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam and in Quaritch's collection to obtain patterns for printing and coloring each book.

The Muir facsimiles, as antiquarian books, are on the market today and a sample page can be viewed at the website of John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller, San Francisco, California, USA.

 
The title page of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell was advertised at Biblio.com .

Windle Antiquarian Bookseller     Facsimile of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
   Title Page, Copy A

Compare the facsimile to the Blake plate of the same copy in the Blake Archive. Copy A is known as the Beckford copy; the original is in the collection of the Houghton Library of Harvard University.
 
The Blake Archive gives this Copy Information for Copy A of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:  
"Acquired at an unknown time by William Beckford; sold from his library, Sotheby's, 29 Nov. 1883, lot 764, bound with The Book of Thel copy A and The Book of Urizen copy F (£121 to the dealer Bernard Quaritch); the three works still bound together offered by Quaritch, "Rough List" 67 of Jan. 1884, item 80 (£150), and "Rough List" 73 of Nov. 1885, item 51 (£150); acquired no later than 1891 by Edward W. Hooper, who probably disbound the volume (see the Note on Binding, above); copy A of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell acquired by Hooper's daughter, Mrs. Bancel Lafarge, possibly by inheritance in 1921; bequeathed by Lafarge in May 1948 to the Houghton Library, Harvard University."

Keri Davies made this statement on his blog in 2014:
 
"Most copies of Muir's facsimile of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell are colured in emulation of copy A (the Beckford copy), only a very small number being coloured from the Fitzwilliam Museum copy (H)." [Copy I]

____________________

Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers   Facsimile of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell  Title Page, Copy I

The Blake Archive Copy Information for Copy I in the Fitzwilliam Museum states: "Copy I is the last copy of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Blake printed, only a few months before his death."

A Muir facsimile with different coloring from Copy A was offered for sale by Bonhams Fine Art Auctioneers. Their description of the work follows:

"BLAKE (WILLIAM) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, NUMBER 2 OF 50 COPIES, numbered and signed by Muir on final leaf, 27 hand-coloured plates, 6 uncoloured leaves, modern morocco, gilt lettered on upper cover, 4to (290 x 225mm.), Edmonton, [William Muir], 1885

Footnotes

"In 1884, William Muir set to work to make available colored facsimiles of Blake's works in Illuminated Printing. Working by methods similar to Blake's, he made lithographs (not copperplate relief etchings) of the outlines which he and his assistants printed and then colored by hand" (G.E. Bentley, "Blake... Had No Quaritch. The Sale of William Muir's Blake Facsimiles", article in Blake, Vol. 27, 1993).

On the preface leaf of this copy the note stating that copies are facsimiled from a copy in the possession of Quaritch is struck through, and replaced with a manuscript note that it is copied from the "Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge Copy". In the Quaritch sale catalogue of Muir's facsimiles it was noted that "only a very small number being coloured from the Fitzwilliam copy".

________________

G. E. Bentley, Jr. in his article on Muir Facsimiles in Blake: An Illustrated Qrarterly wrote:

"In 1884, William Muir set to work to make available colored facsimiles of Blake’s works in Illuminated Printing. Working by methods similar to Blake’s, he made lithographs (not copperplate relief etchings) of the outlines which he and his assistants printed and then colored by hand. Usually, of course, Muir used one original as the model for all copies of a facsimile title, rather than making each copy deliberately different as Blake generally did. Altogether he reproduced 13 works in Illuminated Printing, generally in editions not exceeding 50 copies, and a few in more than one edition. His editions were larger than Blake’s, though not much larger, and, until the Blake Trust began publishing Blake facsimiles in 1951, Muir’s facsimiles were often the only color reproductions available. His color facsimiles of Milton (1886) and The Song of Los (1890) were the only ones for almost a century (1967 and 1975)."

_____________

THE MARRIAGE of HEAVEN and HELL, PLATE 2, (E 33)

             "The Argument.
Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep

Once meek, and in a perilous path,
The just man kept his course along 
The vale of death.
Roses are planted where thorns grow.
And on the barren heath
Sing the honey bees

Then the perilous path was planted:
And a river, and a spring
On every cliff and tomb;
And on the bleached bones
Red clay brought forth.

Till the villain left the paths of ease,
To walk in perilous paths, and drive
The just man into barren climes.

Now the sneaking serpent walks
In mild humility.
And the just man rages in the wilds
Where lions roam.

Rintrah roars & shakes his fires in the burdend air;
Hungry clouds swag on the deep."

____________

Look through the book (Copy D) The Marriage of Heaven and Hell on the Library of Congress website.