The Wit’s Magazine; or Library of Momus. Being a Compleat Repository of Mirth, Humour, and Entertainment.
1784. London: Harrison and Co., 1784–1785.
2 vols. in one, 8vo, [1-9], 10-485, (1); [1-5], 6-193, (1) pp. With a folding frontispiece (second version) and numerous folding engraved plates of which 5 are engraved by Blake, one after Stothard and four after Samuel Collings. Contemporary marbled boards, modern-calf backstrip and tips, a very good set with good margins around the plates: rare.
§ Only edition. "These are the only caricature prints engraved by Blake. The graphic style is appropriately broad and rugged, particularly in the barnyard scene... 'Fun I love but too much fun is of all things most loathsom' (Blake to Trusler 1799). Blake may have felt that the great rage for caricature prints in the 1790s was a hindrance to the sale of his own original graphic works." (Essick, CBE, p. 37). Bentley, Blake Books, 513. Essick, William Blake’s Commercial Book Illustrations, XVI. Item #104672
Price: $3,750.00