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AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY From 99p to $1.5 Million: Blake in the Marketplace, 2006 VOLUME 40 NUMBER 4 SPRING 2007 &}lahe AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY www.blakequarterly.org VOLUME 40 NUMBER 4 SPRING 2007 CONTENTS Articles Review Blake in the Marketplace, 2006 Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried: By Robert N. Essick 116 William Blake and die Sexual Basis of Spiritual Vision Reviewed by G. E. Bentlcy, Jr. 150 Gilbert Dyer: An Early Blake Vendor? By/. B. Mertz 147 Minute Particular "Mr. J. Blake" By Morton D. Pa lev 151 ADVISORY BOARD G. E. Bentley, Jr., University of Toronto, retired Nelson 1 Iilton, University of Georgia Martin Butlin, London Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles Detlef W. Dorrbecker, University of Trier Joseph Viscomi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Robert N. Hssick, University of California, Riverside David Wbrrall, The Nottingham Trent University Angela Fsterhammer, University of Western Ontario CONTRIBUTORS David Worrall, Faculty of Humanities, The Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS UK Email: [email protected] ROBERT N. ESSICK'S first sales review was for 1971; that year, he detailed the sale of "Tiriel Supporting Myratana" and "Tiriel Leaving Har and Heva" for $15,420 and $9766 respectively. This year, he records the auction of another Tiriel drawing for £170,400 (including fees). J. B. MBRTZ ([email protected]) is writing what he hopes will be the last chapter of his doctoral thesis on William Blake and the circle of Joseph Johnson. He has published ar• INFORMATION ticles on Blake in this journal as well as in Notes and Queries and Modern Philology. G. E. BENTLEY, JR., writes on Blake's bibliography, biography, BLAKE/AS ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY is published under the spon• and texts. sorship of the Department of English, University of Roches• ter. Subscriptions are $60 for institutions, $30 for individu• MORION D. PALEY is completing a book on Samuel Taylor als. All subscriptions are by the volume (1 year, 4 issues) and Coleridge and the fine arts. begin with the summer issue. Subscription payments received after the summer issue will be applied to the current volume. Addresses outside the US, Canada, and Mexico require a $15 per volume postal surcharge for surface delivery, or $20 for airmail. Credit card payment is available. Make checks pay• able to Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly. Address all subscription orders and related communications to Sarah Jones, Blake, De• EDITORS partment of English, University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627-0451. Back issues are available; address Sarah Jones for information on issues and prices, or consult the web site. EDITORS: Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley MANUSCRIPTS are welcome in either hard copy or electronic BIBLIOGRAPHER: G. E. Bentley, Jr. form. Send two copies, typed and documented according to W YII u EDITOR: Alexander S. Gourlay forms suggested in the MLA Style Manual, and with pages ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR GREAT BRITAIN: David Worrall numbered, to either of the editors. No articles will be returned unless accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. PRODUCTION OFFICE: Department of English, Morey 410, For electronic submissions, you may send a disk, or send your University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627-0451 article as an attachment to an email message; please number MANAGING EDITOR: Sarah Jones [email protected] the pages of electronic submissions. The preferred file format TELEPHONE: 585/275-3820 FAX: 585/442-5769 is RTF; other formats are usually acceptable. Morris Eaves, Department of English, University of INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SERIAL NUMBER: 0160-628x. Blake/An Rochester, Rochester NY 14627-0451 Illustrated Quarterly is indexed in the Modern Language Asso• Email: [email protected] ciation's International Bibliography, the Modern Humanities Research Association's Annual Bibliography of English Lan• Morton D. Paley, Department of English, University of guage and Literature, Humanities International Complete, California, Berkeley CA 94720-1030 Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents and Email: [email protected] the Bibliography of the History of Art. G. E. Bentley, Jr., 246 MacPherson Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4V 1A2 Canada © 2007 Copyright Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley Alexander S. Gourlay, Department of English, Rhode Island Cover: William Blake, A Father and Two Children beside an School of Design, 2 College Street, Providence RI 02903-2717 Open Grave at Night by Lantern Light, detail. See pages 120 and Email: [email protected] 123. Photo courtesy of Sotheby's New York. ARTICLES 8). This was the most spectacular Blake sale since the legend• ary auction of W. Graham Robertson's collection at Christie's London in 1949. The supposed sale of the Grave designs in 2005 to a firm in Switzerland was simply a way for the London Blake in the Marketplace, 2006 dealer Libby Howie and her financial backers to get the de• signs out of Britain. If sold individually in a London auction, each would require an export license, and this might have had BY ROBERT N. ESSICK a chilling effect on any non-British bidders. That concern, combined with the fact that most important Blake collectors reside in North America, prompted the New York venue. he 2006 Blake market began auspiciously with the Janu• The pending auction attracted a good deal of attention in Tary auction of a watercolor drawing, Oberon and Titatiia the press. The first news story, by Carol Vogel, appeared in on a Lily (illus. 9). Sotheby's New York placed a brave estimate the 16 February issue of the New York Times, complete with of $400,000 to $600,000 on this small work, for many years four illustrations, two in color. The title of the story, "Art Ex• in the collection of the great book and print collector Philip perts Protest Sale of Rare Set of Blakes," indicates its general Hofer (1898-1984) and, since his death, apparently in the pos• thrust. Vogel's well-researched essay was followed by an un• session of one or more of his descendants. Not for the first signed editorial in the 20 February Times claiming that "to time, my suspicion that a work by Blake was overestimated sell the watercolors one by one is, at the very least, to miscon• proved unfounded. Bidding began at $200,000, rose rapidly strue Blake's art." The contentious relationship between art to $400,000, paused for about seven seconds at that level, and and commerce, so much a part of Blake's life and writings, then jumped two more steps of $25,000 each to reach a suc• continues into our own time. John Windle also believed that cessful bid of $450,000 ($520,000 inclusive of the buyer's pre• the impending auction would mean the tragic dispersal of an mium). The winner was John Windle, the San Francisco book integrated series of designs. Accordingly, in March he wrote dealer who specializes in Blake, acting on behalf of the artist to a number of Blake collectors, asking them to form a con• and writer Maurice Sendak. The whole process took about sortium to make a presale offer for all nineteen designs (or, ninety seconds. Given his earlier acquisitions, including cop• failing that, bid on each at auction) and donate the series to ies of Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, Sendak must an institution, such as the Tate Collection or the Huntington be considered one of the major Blake collectors of our time. Library, which already had a significant Blake collection. This Loyal readers of this journal will have learned of the disper• worthy effort came to naught. sal of Blake's nineteen watercolors illustrating Robert Blair's Sotheby's went all out to promote the auction. Selling nine• The Grave from E. B. Bentley's lively and insightful essay in teen highly valued Blakes at one time could easily overwhelm the fall 2006 issue.' This report will necessarily repeat infor• the niche market for such material. Thus, it was incumbent mation provided by Bentley, but will add a few new facts and upon Sotheby's to attract bidders from the much larger pool speculations. Sotheby's New York offered the drawings at a of collectors of British and Old Master drawings, most of special auction, devoted exclusively to the Grave illustrations whom had demonstrated no prior interest in Blake. In mid- and with each design in its own lot, on 2 May 2006 (illus. 2-5, March, potential bidders were sent a handsome brochure with color reproductions of five designs and of the red morocco case in which the entire group had been housed, possibly for 1. Bentley, "Grave Indignities: Greed, Hucksterism, and Oblivion: over 180 years. The watercolors were displayed at Sotheby's Blake's Watercolors for Blair's Grave," Blake 40.2 (fall 2006): 66-71. For the recent history of the watercolors, see also the sales reports for 2002, 2003, facilities in London (9-15 March), Paris (20-24 March), Chi• and 2005 in Blake 36.4 (spring 2003): 116; 37.4 (spring 2004): 116; and cago (27-28 March), New York (31 March-5 April), and Los 39.4 (spring 2006): 154. For discussions of the designs, see Martin Butlin, Angeles (11-12 April). The catalogue for the sale, sure to be• "New Risen from the Grave: Nineteen Unknown Watercolors by William come a collector's item in its own right, was published as a Blake," Blake 35.3 (winter 2001-02): 68-73; G. E. Bentley, Jr., "William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2001," hardbound book with all nineteen watercolors reproduced Blake 36.1 (summer 2002): 13-16; and Alexander S. Gourlay, "'Friend• in color, supplementary illustrations of related designs, and a ship,' Love, and Sympathy in Blake's Grave Illustrations," Blake 37.3 (win• scholarly text by Nancy Bialler, Sotheby's senior vice president ter 2003-04): 100-04.