Title:
Songs of Innocence and of ExperienceOrigination: William Blake:
author,
inventor,
delineator,
etcher,
printer,
colorist
Origination: Catherine Blake:
printer
Publisher:
William Blake
Note: Blake's name is given as the "printer" on
the title pages to
Songs of Innocence and
Songs of Experience, but he is also the
"publisher."
Place of Publication:
London
Note: The place of publication is not printed in the
book, but Blake lived in London and its suburb, Lambeth, during the
composition, etching, and printing of this volume.
Date:
1789, 1794
Note: The 1789 imprint appears on the title page to
Songs of Innocence,
the 1794 imprint on the title page to
Songs of Experience.
Composition Date:
1789 (plates 1-28, 42-44 as arranged in this copy); 1794 (plates 29-41, 45-50 as arranged in this copy)
Print Date:
1795
Note: Both the
Innocence and
Experience sections were printed in 1795.
Number of Objects:
50
Object Order:
3, 2, 4, 22, 23, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13, 20, 21, 11, 24, 27, 54, 15, 18, 12, 19, 53, 14, 8, 5, 16, 17, 26, 25, 29, 28, 30, 31,
40, 32, 41, 37, 42, 48, 45, 38, 47, 34-36, 44, 49, 46, 39, 33, 43
Note: Bentley plate numbers are used unless otherwise stated. The frontispieces to each section (Bentley's plates 2 and 28) are
bound following their respective title pages. Blake's numbering of the plates confirms this order as authoritative.
Object Size:
Ranging between 12.4 x 7.9 cm. and 10.5 x 6.3 cm.
Number of Leaves:
50
Note: All plates are printed on rectos
only.
Leaf Size:
38.0 x 27.1 cm.
Medium:
Relief and white-line etching with hand coloring.
Printing Style:
Relief.
Ink Color:
Plates 1-28 (as arranged in this copy) in grayish black ink, plates 29-50 (as arranged in this copy) in olivish light
black ink.
Support:
wove paper
Watermark:
I Taylor
Note: The watermark appears on plates 6, 21, 44, and 48 as arranged in this copy.
Etched Numbers:
none
Penned Numbers:
1-26 on plates 3-28 (as arranged in this copy), 1-20 on plates 31-50 (as arranged in this copy).
Note: The
Innocence and
Experience leaves are independently numbered top right.
Frame Lines:
none
Binding:
Vellum, 2 volumes, with the leaves mounted on heavy paper.
Stab Holes:
Plates 1-28 (as arranged in this copy) stabbed through four holes, 11.0 cm. from the top and 4.5, 2.0, and 6.0 cm. apart;
plates 29-50 (as arranged in this copy) stabbed through three holes, 10.5 cm. from the top and 7.8, 8.1 cm. apart.
Note: The stab holes indicate that the work was once in a different binding, also in two volumes.
Provenance
Name:
The British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings
Date:
1927
Dealer:
none
Price:
none
Note: Probably acquired from Blake by artist George Romney and sold from his collection (on behalf of his son, John Romney) at
Christie's, 10 May 1834, lot 86x (added in pen and ink to the copy of the catalogue now in the Yale Center for British Art),
where the work is described only as "Blake's two volumes"; Isaac Disraeli; his son, the Earl of Beaconsfield; sold from Beaconsfield's
collection, Sotheby's, 20 March 1882, lot 56 (£85 to the dealer Dowdeswell); Bernard Buchanan Macgeorge by no later than 1892;
sold from Macgeorge's collection, Sotheby's, 1 July 1924, lot 111 (£760 to the dealer Martin, possibly on behalf of Mrs. Macgeorge);
given by Mrs. Macgeorge to the British Museum, 26 July 1927.
Present Location
British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
United Kingdom
Telephone: 44-2076-361555
URL: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/
Department:
Department of Prints and Drawings
Collection:
none
Call Number:
1924.7.26.1(1-28, 1-22)
Call Number:
none