CHECKLIST William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2009 G. E. Bentley, Jr., Hikari Sato Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 44, Issue 1, Summer 2010, pp. 1, 4- 48 A R T I c L E Commercial Engravings Previously unknown works with engravings after Blake's designs were first recorded in 2009: the Diamond Bible (1832- William Blake and His Circle: 34, 1836-37, 1840) with a copy of Blake's engraving of "Job and His Family"; Diario de los ninos (1839-40) with copies of A Checklist of Publications and Blake's Blair designs via Mora's Meditaciones poeticas; and a Discoveries in 2009 new printing (1835) of Stuart and Revett's Antiquities of Ath- ens. The most remarkable is Diario de Los ninos, only the sec- ond time designs by Blake were lithographed (the first was BY G. E. BENTLEY, JR. "Enoch" [1807]) and the first printing-by almost a century- of anything concerned with Blake in Mexico. WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF HIKARI SATO Catalogues and Bibliographies FOR JAPANESE PUBLICATIONS A marvelous new resource is J. R. de J. Jackson, Bibliography Editors' note: Addenda and corrigenda to Blake Records, 2nd of Romantic Poetry 1770-1835, which is online at the Univer- ed. (2004), which have traditionally formed an appendix to sity of Toronto Library <http://jacksonbibliography.library. this article, now appear on the journal's web site <http://www. utoronto.ca>. Phase 1, which is up and running, presents blakequarterly.org>. They will be updated yearly. 17,160 entries for 1798-1835. Phase 2, "in an advanced state of preparation;' will add 5,359 entries for 1770-97. The Blake en- tries in phase 1 (Milton and Jerusalem) are derivative, but the Blake Publications ·and Discoveries in 2009 thousands of other entries are de visu and wonderfully useful. Artcyclopedia <http://www.artcyclopedia.com> searches by Perhaps the most remarkable discovery of 2009 was that artist's name to provide links to images at institutional web Blake took an apprentice named Thomas Owen in 1788 (see sites (e.g., 41 Blake images at the Art Gallery of New South illus. 1). 1 Scarcely anything more is known about Owen or his Wales, Sydney). apprenticeship. The major discovery of 2009 for me has been Google Books The term of the apprenticeship (1788-95) coincides with a <http://books.google.com>. Despite all the hype, this is a period of enormous productivity for Blake. How much of this wonderfully useful resource. Of course I had heard of it as fecundity was fostered by the assistance of an apprentice able one of those grandiose cyber-vauntings and its challenge to to take on some of the drudgery of polishing plates, sharp- copyright, but I had no conception of how far the project has ening gravers, mixing colors, and laying in outlines, not to advanced or the sophistication of the means of access. Google mention casual carrying and fetching, which would otherwise Books has made possible the discovery of scores of previously have fallen upon Blake and Catherine? unreported references to Blake in publications of 1780-1862, a surprising number of them in French and German. Blake's Writings The volume accompanying the Blake exhibition at the Pe- tit Palais in Paris is a handsome quarto. It consists of three Blake's letter of 7 August 1804, which disappeared a cen- streams of information: the first and smallest is the catalogue tury and a quarter ago, reappeared in 2009 and, happily for of the works exhibited, the second is 31 short essays, and the us all, was acquired by Robert N. Essick. Essick will publish third is the 173 striking reproductions. a transcription which will supersede the fragments quoted in The essays, mostly by distinguished Blake scholars, are catalogues of 1878, 1885, and 2009. carefully organized to encompass Blake's whole career from Thel pl. 7, Urizen pls. 7, 11-12, 17, 19, 23, and Marriage pl. his apprenticeship to his reputation in England, the United 16 from Small Book of Designs (B), which were displayed at States, and France. The scholars, like the loaning institutions, the Tate in 2007-08, have now been sold by their still-anony- are mostly British and French. mous owner to the Tate. There has been far too little coordination of the text with Songs pl. 30 wa~ acquired by Victoria University in the Uni- the reproductions, which are often scarcely related to the versity of Toronto. essays. The surprising rewards of the most original of the es- New printings of Blake's work (mainly poems from Songs) says here-those by David Alexander, Robin Simon, and Jon were discovered in publications predating Gilchrist's Life. Stallworthy-are not significantly reinforced by the many il- lustrations. 2 1. David Alexander, "William Blake, graveur d'interpretation" (see William Blake [1757-1827}: Le Genie visionnaire du romantisme anglais 2. The most important visual feature referred to in the text (96)-the under 2009 in Part IV) 80. See also the addenda to BR(2), online. cricket bat in the second plate of "Pre tintant" ("The Ecchoing Green")- 4 Blake/ An Illustrated Quarterly Summer 2010 1. Record of the apprenticeship of Thomas Owen to William apprenticeship (7 years), the fee paid for the apprentice (£52.10.0 Blake, from the Apprenticeship Books 1710-1811 (ref. IRl/33 or 50 guineas), and the duty paid on the fee (£2.12.6). [pp. 218-19]) in the National Archives. The book is for apprenticeships outside the City of London, The record is in a large folio volume. On the verso of one where Blake was apprenticed. The record was first cited by leaf (above) are the date (Thursday 10 July [17]88), the name David Alexander (see note 1). The only previous record of a of the master (W". Blake), his parish (St. James's, Westminster, Blake apprentice known to me is in the fiction by Peter Carter, County of Middlesex), his trade (engraver), and the name of the The Gates of Paradise <BBS p. 433>. 5 apprentice (Tho • Owen). Images reproduced by courtesy of the National Archives of On the recto of the facing leaf (below) are the date on which the UK. the apprenticeship began (23 June [ 17] 88), the length of the 12 (; 23 1_ /I J 0 t 4- 2-t b# J ) 1 It ~ J_ /2 J ,., ,_, ~ The contents of the modest volume, Seen in My Visions, that terials, his copperplates and woodblocks, particularly their accompanied the Blake exhibition at the Tate are useful but unengraved versos with evidence of rep9ussage or hammer- not exciting.3 It is a pity that no attempt was made in either ing the copper to alter a feature of the engraved recto.5 She the exhibition or the catalogue to reproduce the layout of the finds that Blake used repoussage a good deal more than did 1809 exhibition on the floor above the haberdashery shop at other engravers, such as Schiavonetti. "This either means that 28 Broad Street.4 This would have allowed current viewers to Blake made many more mistakes in handling his burin than experience the pictures as the few original patrons did. others (and so was not a very skillful engraver), or that he had John Windle's handsome and enormous catalogue 46 ([No- a freer attitude towards engraving and did not mind making vember] 2009) of books by and about Blake and his circle mistakes and subsequently correcting or revising them on the is perhaps the largest bookseller's catalogue ever devoted to copper plate" (57). Blake. It is valuable to scholars and critics as well as to hopeful Would she draw similar conclusions about the alterations collectors for what it brings to light. in Blake's manuscripts such as his Notebook and Vala? Might such alterations not indicate meticulousness in improving his Criticism, Biography, and Scholarly Studies earlier version? Her argument is vitally supported by reproductions, but Google Books has made possible the discovery of references there are only 8 figures; her dissertation (2005) with 99 pho- to Blake by such notable contemporaries as Lady Charlotte tographs, including recto and verso of all the Job plates, is far Bury (1830), Leigh Hunt (1810), and John Landseer (1834). more generous in this respect. Mei-Ying Sung's William Blake and the Art of Engraving (2009) is rather more narrowly focused than its title suggests. Red Herring It concentrates very rewardingly upon Blake's engraving ma- A print in the London Metropolitan Archives bears the im- print "The ITALIAN PUPPET SHow:', "Printed for & Sold by 1 is not reproduced at all, although there are many other plates from the Bowles & Carver", "N°. 69 in S • Pauls.Church Yard London'', Songs. and "Published as the Act directs" (see cover illus.). The pen- 3. The Tate exhibition included paintings exhibited in 1809 by Blake's contemporaries which are not referred to in the catalogue. 4. See Troy R. C. Patenaude, "'The glory of a Nation': Recovering Wil- 5. Almost all the evidence is from Blake's engravings of his own de- liam Blake's 1809 Exhibition;' British Art Journal 4 (2003): 52-63 <Blake signs; the copperplates engraved from the designs of others do not sur- (2004) >. vive, except for the Hogarth plate. Summer 2010 Blake/ An Illustrated Quarterly 5 B L KE AN ILLUSTRATED QUARTERLY ·nw IT.\T.L\ :\ Pl' l'J>ET s IJO W. ('., .J, u Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 2009 VOLUME44 NUMBER 1 SUMMER2010 cil drawing for it in the same collection is labeled "S.