The Grave: a poem by Robert Blair illustrated with Twelve Etchings Executed from Original Designs

Very good complete copy of the true second edition of a masterpiece of book illustration by William Blake, 1813.

Engraved portrait frontispiece of William Blake by Luigi Schiavonetti after the portrait by Thomas Phillips

With 12 beautiful designs by William Blake: vignette on engraved title page and 11 full-page plates, engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti.

The Skeleton Re-animated (IX, on title page)
Christ descending into the Grave (I)
Death of the Strong Wicked Man (IV)
The Soul hovering over the Body reluctantly parting with Life (VI)
The Soul exploring the recesses of the Grave (VII)
The Descent of Man into the Vale of Death (II)
The Counseller, King, Warrior, Mother and Child in the Tomb (VIII)
The Day of Judgment (XII)
The Death of the Good Old Man (V)
The Meeting of the Family in Heaven (XI)
The Reunion of the Soul and the Body (X)
Death's Door (III)

Signed in manuscript on the half-title by American writer and editor "Horace E. Scudder May 1864"

1-page dedication to the Queen by William Blake, 8-page list of subscribers (from 1808 issue), 2-page advertisement by the publisher Cromek, 2-page remarks by artist Henry Fuseli, biographical sketch of poet Robert Blair, 14-page biographical sketch of engraver L. Schiavonetti, 10-page biographical sketch of Robert Hartley Cromek, 37-page text of poem and 4-page article on Blake's designs.

"The pictorial embellishments in this edition of the poem are perfectly worthy of its subject. The painter who produced the designs is allowed to possess great powers: his pencil, imbued with the fiery genius and bold correctness of a Michael Angelo, is directed by the boundless imagination of a Dante." (Cromek, in the Life of Blair, page xxix)

"In October 1805, William Blake was commissioned by the engraver and would-be publisher Robert H. Cromek to prepare forty drawings illustrating the popular "graveyard" school poem first published in 1743. In Cromek's first prospectus of November 1805, Blake is named as both the designer and engraver of fifteen designs. In a second prospectus, also from November 1805, Cromek announced that Luigi Schiavonetti would engrave twelve designs for the new edition. Blake had lost the lucrative commission to engrave his own designs; and his relationship with Cromek descended into anger and argument. In spite of their disagreement, Cromek included a portrait of Blake as a frontispiece to the volume, published in 1808. Cromek promoted the book aggressively and the illustrations to The Grave became Blake's best known work through much of the nineteenth century." (William Blake Archive)

Thomas Philips was an English portrait painter, 1770-1845.

Luigi or Lewis Schiavonetti was an Italian engraver and etcher, 1765-1810.

Full red morocco binding by Charles Hering, 10 St Martin's Street, with his ticket, with elaborate gilt tooling on spine and boards, some scratches and scuffs to boards, interior clean and fresh, bright impressions of the plates with no foxing, a few finger smudges outside the plate, some toning to the text pages facing the engravings.

Rare to find the true second edition in such good condition (another edition dated [1813] was issued by John Camden Hotten in 1870).