With 5 Plates Drawn and Engraved by Blake

Ballads. Founded on Anecdotes Relating to Animals, with Prints Designed and Engraved by William Blake.

Chichester: J. Seagrave, for Richard Phillips, 1805.

Price: $4,500.00


About the item

First edition. Frontispiece and 4 plates drawn and engraved by William Blake. [vi], 212, [1, index], [1] pp. 12mo. With 5 Plates Drawn and Engraved by Blake. Contemporary half green calf and marbled boards. Rebacked, preserving the original spine. Bentley, Blake Books, 465; Bentley and Nurmi 374; Easson and Essick I, viii; Keynes 74.

Item #306614

"These Ballads were originally intended to have been issued separately in fifteen quarto parts with numerous illustrations by Blake, and for the benefit of the artist. Four parts were issued in 1802, but the series did not meet with success and was discontinued. Later it was arranged to issue them in the present, again for Blake's benefit" (Keynes).