Ballads, Founded on Anecdotes Relating to Animals, with Prints designed and Engraved by William Blake.
1805. Chichester: J.Seagrave for Richard Phillips, 1805.
Small 8vo, (6), 212, (1, index)pp., with 5 plates designed and engraved by Blake. Overall a clean and very pleasing copy in contemporary calf, skillfully rebacked retaining the original backstrip and red label. Bookplate of Benjamin Dickinson, ink signature of J.W. Dickinson dated Oct. 9th 1824, later bookplate of Walter Hirst.
§ First edition, with plates 1-3 in the first state. An important book in the Blake canon, being his second version of the Ballads after the extremely rare 1802 edition (see above for the frontispiece). “For this 1805 volume, Hayley added twelve ballads to the four first published in 1802. Blake engraved new plates of his designs for three of the 1802 ballads (plates 1-3) and both designed and engraved new illustrations for two of the additional ballads (plates 4-5). Blake and Phillips were to “go equal shares . . . in the expense and the profits” (Blake’s letter to Hayley of 22 January 1805, Erdman page 763). Robert Southey’s mocking review of Hayley’s poems and Blake’s illustration to “The Dog” (Plate 1) appeared in the Annual Review for 1805.” Bentley, BB, 465. Easson and Essick, WBBI, Vol. I, VIII. Bindman, Complete Graphic Works of Blake, 403-407. Item #122873
Price: $6,500.00