Folio Archives 395: The Poems of Thomas Gray – LIMITED EDITION 2013
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1wcarter
The Poems of Thomas Gray with Watercolour Illustrations by William Blake – LIMITED EDITION 2013
Between 1797 and about 1805 the idiosyncratic English artist William Blake created 110 watercolours to illustrate the poems of Thomas Gray. These paintings of imagination and energy are amongst the greatest of this visionary artist.
Blake cut windows in large sheets of paper and mounted the text of a 1790 edition in these windows then painted in a flowing way around the text. He marked the couplet he was illustrating with a pencilled + on each page.
The paintings vary significantly in style, energy and colour and were commissioned by the neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman. After Flaxman’s death, the paintings were sold to the eccentric millionaire William Beckford, but when he died they disappeared and were not rediscovered until 1919 by Prof. Herbert Grierson when Beckford’s home, Hamilton Palace in Scotland, was being demolished. They are now kept in the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut.
The 120 page facsimile volume contains all 110 paintings in their original size. The accompanying 224 page commentary volume by Irene Taylor is housed in a slot in the Solander case and gives a comprehensive account of how the illustrations were produced.
The huge facsimile volume measures 42.8x33.3cm. and is printed on Modigliani Insize Candido paper. It is quarter bound in brown leather with cloth covers blocked with a gilded and colour design and with an inset leather label that is gilt printed with the title. The endpapers are gold with a dark brown backing on the verso. The page edges are plain and undecorated.
The commentary volume by Irene Tayler is unillustrated except for a frontispiece portrait of Blake. It is bound in grey cloth and has a paper title label on the front cover. It has extensive introductory remarks and then analyses each poem. It measures 25.1x16.2cm.
Both volumes are housed in a brown buckram solander box with a gold printed leather label on the edge. It measures 46.5x36x7.8cm. It matches in height the other FS limited edition of Blake’s work, Night Thoughts.
The edition was limited to 1000 copies and on publication cost £495.
. . . . 
An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
Between 1797 and about 1805 the idiosyncratic English artist William Blake created 110 watercolours to illustrate the poems of Thomas Gray. These paintings of imagination and energy are amongst the greatest of this visionary artist.
Blake cut windows in large sheets of paper and mounted the text of a 1790 edition in these windows then painted in a flowing way around the text. He marked the couplet he was illustrating with a pencilled + on each page.
The paintings vary significantly in style, energy and colour and were commissioned by the neoclassical sculptor John Flaxman. After Flaxman’s death, the paintings were sold to the eccentric millionaire William Beckford, but when he died they disappeared and were not rediscovered until 1919 by Prof. Herbert Grierson when Beckford’s home, Hamilton Palace in Scotland, was being demolished. They are now kept in the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut.
The 120 page facsimile volume contains all 110 paintings in their original size. The accompanying 224 page commentary volume by Irene Taylor is housed in a slot in the Solander case and gives a comprehensive account of how the illustrations were produced.
The huge facsimile volume measures 42.8x33.3cm. and is printed on Modigliani Insize Candido paper. It is quarter bound in brown leather with cloth covers blocked with a gilded and colour design and with an inset leather label that is gilt printed with the title. The endpapers are gold with a dark brown backing on the verso. The page edges are plain and undecorated.
The commentary volume by Irene Tayler is unillustrated except for a frontispiece portrait of Blake. It is bound in grey cloth and has a paper title label on the front cover. It has extensive introductory remarks and then analyses each poem. It measures 25.1x16.2cm.
Both volumes are housed in a brown buckram solander box with a gold printed leather label on the edge. It measures 46.5x36x7.8cm. It matches in height the other FS limited edition of Blake’s work, Night Thoughts.
The edition was limited to 1000 copies and on publication cost £495.
. . . . An index of the other illustrated reviews in the "Folio Archives" series can be viewed here.
2SF-72
I've got this one and it's really a fantastic edition that does Blake's originals complete justice. I was able to compare when I saw the Blake exhibition in Tate Britain a few years ago and was all the more impressed. It's also quite astonishing what kind of limited edition 495 Pounds used to get you in those days.
3cronshaw
>1 wcarter: Thank you Warwick, this has to be one of the most beautiful LEs the Folio Society ever produced. The variety of Blake's imagery is extraordinary.
>2 SF-72: I was thinking exactly the same thing. If today's FS published this it would be £1,000 at the very least.
>2 SF-72: I was thinking exactly the same thing. If today's FS published this it would be £1,000 at the very least.
4podaniel
> 1
It's obviously thinner but it's about the same dimensions as that other great FS LE, William Blake's Night Thoughts (I just pulled out my two copies for comparison and Night Thoughts is about half an inch wider).
It's obviously thinner but it's about the same dimensions as that other great FS LE, William Blake's Night Thoughts (I just pulled out my two copies for comparison and Night Thoughts is about half an inch wider).
5HonorWulf
>3 cronshaw: Ironically, in today's dollars, that £495 in 2013 would be £675 today, so you're probably not far off the mark.
