Francis Douce, George Cumberland and William Blake at the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum
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ARTICLE “Undisturbed above once in a Lustre”: Francis Douce, George Cumberland and William Blake at the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum Joan K. Stemmler Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 26, Issue 1, Summer 1992, pp. 9-18 Summer 1992 BLAKE/ANILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY 9 "Undisturbed above once in a Lustre": Francis Douce, George Cumberland and William Blake at the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum by Joan K. Stemmler hen Francis Douce died on 5 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Socially, Douce's family was more WApril 1834, he bequeathed to Copy B with the separate plate, "Our highly placed than that of the middle- the Bodleian Library almost all the End is come," and The Book of Thel class Cumberland or the artisan Blake. printed books, coins, prints, and Copy I, plus the Descriptive Catalogue All three were younger sons, a position manuscripts he had collected.1 Sir Copy H and a third state of the Canter affecting their education and income: Frederic Madden believed that in bury Pilgrims; a 1794 purchase which in the 1770s, Douce was admitted as "leaving them to the Bodleian he con- will be discussed below has not been an attorney of the King's Bench, Cum- signs them to neglect and oblivion!" previously noted, Blake's For Child berland worked at the Royal Exchange where they would "sleep on ... undis- ren: the Gates of Paradise. Douce like- Assurance Office in London, finally turbed above once in a lustre by some wise collected some of Cumberland's earning £60 per annum,13 and Blake prying individual of antiquarian books, but more important is the re- served his apprenticeship with James celebrity."2 On the 150th anniversary velation of the way Douce used Cum- Basire, the engraver for the Society of of the bequest, an exhibition and berland as one of his resources for Antiquaries. Cumberland was admit- catalogue celebrated the rich deposit, information about the visual arts. ted as a student at the Royal Academy now divided between the Bodleian Campbell Dodgson called Douce a bib- in 1772, an expression of his true inter- Library and the Ashmolean Museum. liophile and collector of woodcuts of ests.14 In their third decade, the three Through Douce's antiquarian ac- advanced taste.8 I suggest that Cum- men approached the world of books tivities, he met and corresponded with berland, in his appreciation of early and prints from different directions. a number of similarly-minded in- woodcuts and the work of Giulio di Douce was said to have made his first dividuals; the letters were bequeathed Antonio Bonasonec and in his advo- purchase of an antique coin at age 10.15 to the British Museum and in 1930 cacy of Blake, both personally and Elected as a Fellow of the Society of given to the Bodleian Library.3 Of in- through his books, played a role in Antiquaries by 1779, he tried to devote terest to this art historian was a pattern forming that taste. This essay also of- himself to literary and antiquarian pur- revealed in these sources of direct and fers corroborating information to that suits as much as possible. Blake was indirect contacts between Douce and recently published by Joseph Viscomi.10 said to have frequented print-shops the life-long friends, George Cumber- With his suggestion that Isaac D'Israeli, and auction sales as a boy. He aspired land and William Blake. Although I a close friend and correspondent of to be a painter and poet: his first ex- was well acquainted with Cumber- Douce, bought in 1834 part of George hibition at the Royal Academy was re- land4 and Blake, Douce's connections Romney's collection of books in illu- viewed by Cumberland. Upon the death with these men were only marginally minated printing by Blake, Viscomi of his father in 1784, he went into a known to me5 until I explored selected focuses interest on new ways of un- brief partnership with James Parker as sections of the Bodleian catalogues, derstanding how Blake's books were an engraver and printseller, after which Douce's collected letters, his note- produced and collected, illuminating he began to make his own books and books, especially his "Collecta," his the "tenuousness of our assumptions reproductive engravings for others. portfolios and his lists and notes relat- regarding patronage and the earliest Cumberland had an omnivorous in- ing to proposed publications in the modes by which illuminated books terest in learning and in writing; by archives at the Ashmolean Museum.6 were produced and disseminated."11 1780 he reported to his brother that he This paper will show when and how In the Douce bequest, a hitherto un- had met some "Geniuses and Men of these three individuals, first only published network of relationships re- Science.",6 By 1784, he knew and wrote loosely connected through location and veals more information about practices on behalf of the sculptor, Thomas developing common interests, finally of selling and collecting books and Banks, and through him met Richard came into closer contact by the 1800s. prints during the late eighteenth and Cosway, and, later, Thomas Johnes and Though we know that in Douce's col- early nineteenth centuries. Home Tooke.17 In 1784, Cumberland lection at his death there were two Douce and Blake were both bom in came into a £300 inheritance, releasing books of illuminated printing by Blake, 1757, Cumberland three years earlier.12 him from his fourteen years of "ser- 10 BLAKE/AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY Summer 1992 vitude" at the Royal Exchange.18 from the catalogue.28 Blake, working By 6 August 1792, Twiss is in Paris Devoting himself to experiments in in London all this time, publishes in buying for Douce.39 However, in a has- printing and practical ways of self- 1789 The Songs of Innocence and The tily scrawled letter of 25 August 1792, publishing, he probably shared this Book ofThel; by 1790, his imagination Twiss recounts his relief at his escape knowledge with Blake. Traveling se- fired by the Revolution, he finishes from Paris, with his head still affixed to veral times to the continent, Cumber- some plates of his Marriage of Heaven his body and not on a pike: "The Lord land met Baron de Murr in Nuremberg and Hell. By 1795 he makes eight have mercy on the two thousand and the librarian of the Grand Duke of more books, prints color-prints, and English now in Paris!"40 Blake's close Tuscany in Florence, experiences he does much reproductive engraving. In associates, the Swiss artist, Henry Fu- later recorded in his book Thoughts on the same year, Richard Edwards, the seli, and Joseph Johnson, the publish- Outline of 1796.19 Settling in Italy by younger brother of the booksellers, er and bookseller, plan to go to France 1788, away from the "cold weather asks Blake to make drawings and en- as well in the same year, but are de- and cold receptions" given to his un- gravings for an edition of Young's terred by the events of the Terror. The orthodox family in England,20 he cul- Night Thoughts. name Fuseli is mentioned in connec- tivated friends like John Irvine in that Cumberland also publishes three tion with another facet of Douce's in- "school of real students in sculpture books:29 he mentions on 17 January terest in natural science: Twiss had and painting" in Rome.21 He established 1792 that he has laid his work before begun sending to Douce unhatched lifelong relationships with dealers and "one of our first rate London Collec- pupae, describing in detail the butter- gem-cutters of Rome, collecting gems, tors, a Dignitary of high literary char- flies which would emerge, including books, prints and information. acter who unites to a great fortune information on mounting the speci- Douce began in 1779 a correspon- great knowledge in all that is worth mens. Among the books about which dence with Richard Twiss, a wealthy knowing or having" and has had it he tells Douce is one by Fuseli's bro- older fellow antiquary, traveler and approved.30 The work, Some Anecdotes ther, "'Fuesleis [sic] les insectes de la miscellaneous writer, from which we of the life offulio Bonasoni, published Suisse', 4l°, with 55 Col.d plates."41 On gain an insight into Douce's early con- by 17 February 1793,31 is dedicated to 2 September 1794, Twiss mentions cern with collecting.22 Twiss mentions Sir William Hamilton who may have "the book of directions for insects from in 1788 Mr. Edwards, Mr. Raspe, Mr. been the "London Collector." By 6 Johnson" at St. Paul's Churchyard, in- Marchand, bookseller, cataloguer and March over half these books were sold.32 dicating that Douce already has it.42 gem-cutter respectively,23 as men in Douce purchases Cumberland's Despite these indications that Douce whom Douce would take an interest. Bonasoni by November 1793, as we had a marginal knowledge of Fuseli The Edwards brothers, James and John, know from a letter of thanks from and Johnson, figures well known to opened their Pall Mall book-shop in Andrew Lumisden, who borrowed the Blake, the first mention of the name of 1784. Jean Hagstrum suggests that Blake book of Douce: "I return you, with Blake in connection with that of Douce probably knew the shop and that he many thanks, Cumberland's anecdotes occurs in a letter from Twiss to Douce may have seen there medieval prayer of the life of Bonasoni."33 Cumberland on 13 September 1794.43 Blake had books, like the Bedford Book of visits Johnes, a patron of Banks and printed For Children: Gates of Para Hours.24 In 1788, Blake is said to have Stothard, between May and July 1794, dise, "Published by William Blake #13 discovered how to print illuminated and dedicates in 1796 a "really beautiful Hercules Building Lambeth and J.