B L KE AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY Shop till You Drop: Blake in the Marketplace, 2009 Review of William Blake's World at the Morgan VOLUME43 NUMBER4 SPRING 2010 .......______ -· · ·· - - AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY www.blakequarterly.org VOLUME43 NUMBER4 SPRING 2010 c 0 N T E N T s Article Remembrance Blake in the Marketplace, 2009 Karl Kroeber, 1926-2009 151 By Robert N. Essick 116 Newsletter Review Upcoming Conferences 151 William Blake's World: ''A New Heaven Is Begun;' Morgan Library and Museum, 11 September 2009-3 January 2010 Reviewed by Morton D. Paley 149 A D V I s 0 R y B 0 A R D G. E. Bentley, Jr., University of Toronto, retired Nelson Hilton, University of Georgia Martin Butlin, London Anne K. Mellor, University of California, Los Angeles DetlefW Dorrbecker, University of Trier Joseph Viscomi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Robert N. Essick, University of California, Riverside David Worrall, The Nottingham Trent University Angela Esterhammer, University of Zurich CONTRIBUTORS David Worrall, Faculty of Humanities, The Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG 11 SNS UK Email: [email protected] ROBERT N. ESSICK is a coeditor, with Morris Eaves and Joseph Viscomi, of the online William Blake Archive. MORTON D. PALEY's most recent book is Samuel Taylor INFORMATION Coleridge and th e Fine Arts. He is currently working on a study of Blake and George Romney. BLAKE/AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY is published under the sponsorship of the Department ofEnglish, University of Roch­ ester. Subscriptions are $60 for institutions, $30 for individu­ als. All subscriptions are by the volume (1 year, 4 issues) and 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 $20 per volume postal surcharge for airmail delivery. Credit card payment is available. Make checks payable to Blake/An Illus­ trated Quarterly. Address all subscription orders and related communications to Sarah Jones, Blake, Department of Eng­ lish, 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. MANUSCRIPTS are welcome in either hard copy or electronic form. Send two copies, typed and documented according to forms suggested in the MLA Style Manual, and with pages E D I T 0 s numbered, to either of the editors. No articles will be returned unless accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope. For electronic submissions, you may send a disk, or send your EDITORS: Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley article as an attachment to an email message; please number BIBLIOGRAPHER: G. E. Bentley, Jr. the pages of electronic submissions. REVIEW EDITOR: Alexander S. Gourlay ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR GREAT BRITAIN: David Worrall INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SERIAL NUMBER: 0160-628x. Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly is indexed in the Modern Lan­ PRODUCTION OFFICE: Department of English, Morey 410, guage Association's International Bibliography, the Modern University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627-0451 Humanities Research Association's Annual Bibliography of MANAGING EDITOR: Sarah Jones [email protected] English Language and Literature, Humanities International TELEPHONE: 585/275-3820 FAX: 585/442-5769 Complete, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Current Con­ tents, Scopus, and the Bibliography of the History of Art. Morris Eaves, Department of English, University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627-0451 Email: [email protected] Morton D. Paley, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720-1030 Email: [email protected] G. E. Bentley, Jr., 246 MacPherson Avenue, Toronto, © 2010 Copyright Morris Eaves and Morton D. Paley Ontario M4V 1A2 Canada Alexander S. Gourlay, Department of English, Rhode Island Cover: John Flaxman, "Behold this proud oppressor of my coun­ School of Design, 2 College Street, Providence RI 02903-2717 try." Courtesy of the Morgan Library and Museum. Accession no. Email: [email protected] 1975.40:2. See the review of the Morgan exhibition, p. 149. A R T I c L E H. Cromek was sold at Sotheby's, London, 17 July 2008, #9, for £20,000. On 24 February I learned from Windle that this archive, with its references to the publication of Blake's de­ signs for Blair's Grave and the controversy over Blake's and Blake in the Marketplace, 2009 Stothard's paintings of Chaucer's Canterbury pilgrims, had been acquired at the auction by two British book dealers, John Hart and C.R. Johnson. They wrote a forty-six-page overview BY ROBERT N. ESSICK of the archive's contents and priced the collection at £45,000. The archive was acquired in March by Princeton University Library, received by the library on 3 April (according to Don­ Editors' note: Color versions of all illustrations are online ald Skemer, Curator of Manuscripts at Princeton), and cata­ at the journal's web site <http://www.blakequarterly.org>. logued under the call number C1313. A detailed description of the Cromek papers is available online at <http://diglib. princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=Cl 313&kw=>. HE 2009 MARKETPLACE is memorable for several dis­ The Tate Collection, London, has purchased the eight re­ T coveries and rediscoveries. Blake's unpublished letter to cently discovered color prints from A Small Book of Designs William Hayley of 7 August 1804 reappeared after an absence copy B. 1 At the conclusion of a successful fund-raising cam­ of 124 years. The contents of this letter have been known only paign, the Tate was able to acquire these prints in late Decem­ through brief excerpts in auction catalogues of 1878 and 1885; ber 2009 or early January 2010. Another recent discovery, an see under Manuscripts, below, for all the details presented in impression of Blake's great "Job" separate plate, may also be Sotheby's 17 December auction catalogue. Poetical Sketches destined for the Tate, where it remains on long-term loan. 2 copy M reemerged, or at least its existence was confirmed; As far as I have been able to determine, only one further plate see below under First Editions of Blake's Writings. A leaf of from an illuminated book, a posthumous impression of the previously unrecorded verso sketches was uncovered when a "Introduction'' to Songs of Experience, changed hands during drawing in need of conservation was removed from its mat the year. Although several drawings listed in my 2008 review (illus. 1). The year also brought forth several discoveries about (Blake 42.4 [spring 2009]: 117-22) remained available from Blake's nineteenth-century reputation, including six litho­ dealers, none to my knowledge was sold. graphic reproductions of his designs published in Mexico in The market for Blake and his circle held its own in 2009, 1840 (illus. 4). These publications are listed among the first seemingly unfazed by financial difficulties elsewhere in the thirteen items under Interesting Blakeana, below; see also world economy. The more common items, such as sets of note 5. John Highmore's 1779 journal of a sketching tour with the Job illustrations and copies of Blair's Grave, continued to George Cumberland and Thomas Stothard, although not di­ fetch good prices. Windle's sale of a copy of the 1802 Designs rectly related to Blake, offers insights into the activities of his to a Series of Ballads (prefatory material and Ballad 1 only) friends; see under Cumberland, befow. to Northwestern University Library probably established a John Windle's enormous William Blake: Catalogue 46, with new record for a letterpress book illustrated with Blake's in­ 1706 entries on 164 pages, appeared in October. Published taglio engravings. The year's final month saw new auction re­ in a limited number available for $25, the catalogue contains cords for "Chaucers Canterbury Pilgrims" and a manuscript a CD-ROM of all items to make them searchable. The full by Blake. Perhaps old books and prints offer tangible, time­ catalogue is also available as a PDF file accessible through tested values, in contrast to abstract entities such as credit­ Windle's web site <http://www.johnwindle.com/shop/windle/ default swaps. A book in the hand is worth more than a de­ index.html>. Much of the material listed came from the col­ rivative in hyperspace. lection of Kay and Roger Easson, supplemented by several The year of all sales and catalogues in the following lists important items from Roger Lipman, who built most of his is 2009 unless indicated otherwise. Most reports on auction collection just a few years ago with Windle's help, as well as catalogues are based on the online versions. Dates for dealers' Windle's own stock and a few works on consignment from other collectors and dealers. Highlights include two versions of The Resurrection of the Dead, one in wash and one in pen­ 1. See Blake 41.4 (spring 2008): 141-42, and Martin Butlin and Robin Hamlyn, "Tate Britain Reveals Nine New Blakes and Thirteen New Lines cil, the latter bearing the newly revealed verso sketches (il­ of Verse;' Blake 42.2 (fall 2008): 52-72. See also the Times [London], "Rare lus. 1). All items (including those sold prior to publication) in Etchings by William Blake Discovered in Railway Timetable;' accessed Windle's landmark catalogue customarily within the purview 11 Jan. 2010 <http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_ of this report are listed below. The illustrations in the printed entertainment/visual_arts/ article69 828 5 2. ece >. catalogue are in black and white, but in color in the online and 2. Information on the Tate's acquisitions and on plans for the Job en­ graving was kindly supplied by Alison Smith, Head of Acquisitions, Brit­ CD-ROM versions.