This work is one of Blake's earliest experiments with illuminated printing. He began working on it in 1788 and returned to it again in 1795. The facsimile is made from a composite of two different copies and was purchased by the Friends of the Union College Library in 1971.
The original work was composed in 1793; this facsimile was made from copy M, dating from around 1807. Union College holds two copies of this work, which were donated by Hans Rozendaal and Walter Tower. Copy 2 is a special edition demonstrating the methodology used by the Trianon Press in creating its facsimiles. It includes a set of 25 hand-colored plates showing progressive stages in the stencil work used to color the plates; seven color collotype proofs; and one original guide sheet and stencil.
This compilation of portraits was a departure for the Trianon Press, which had previously focused on facsimiles of Blake’s illuminated books and designs. But with a text by Blake scholar Geoffrey Keynes, who contributed commentary to the other facsimiles, it continued Trianon’s incomparable record of bringing all aspects of Blake’s work and life to light. This book was purchased for the Union College library by the Friends of the Library. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
Blake worked on his designs for this book (composed by Young in the 1740s) between 1795 and 1797. This facsimile edition by the Folio Society, based on the unique copy in the British Museum, was produced in 2005 using digital photography. It was issued with a commentary volume by Robin Hamlyn. This work was purchased for Union College by the Friends of the Library.
This work was composed in 1794; copies B and G, from which this facsimile was made, were produced in the same year. It was purchased by the Friends of the Union College Library in 1969.
The Trianon Press reproduced the seven engravings that Blake completed for Dante’s Divine Comedy, along with preliminary sketches and other background material, as special project in 1978. The library’s acquisition of this copy in 2016 completed its set of all of the Blake facsimiles produced by the Trianon Press between 1951 and 1987. It was gifted to the library anonymously in honor of James McCord, Union College Professor of English Emeritus.
This 1874 publication was printed after Blake’s death but from his original copper plates – the last time they were used. They are easily mistaken for an original print from 1825, the date on the title page. The 1874 plates were originally bound together in a single volume, but when the Union College copy was recently conserved, the plates were separated and the glue once used for binding the images together was stabilized on the page.
The 1987 facsimile of Blake’s illustrations of the Book of Job followed the Trianon Press facsimiles that had also been done for the William Blake Trust. This two volume edition not only reproduced the 21 plates and title page that Blake had designed for this work between 1823 and 1826 (with a confusing date of 1825 on the title page), but included related material such as essays, a catalog of states and printings, and commentary on the plates and documentary record by David Bindman. The limited edition of this facsimile was purchased for Union College by the Friends of the Library.
Union College holds two copies of this compilation from the Trianon Press of works from various stages of Blake’s life. One was purchased by the library on its Rice fund; the other was donated by Hans Rozendaal.
Not available in this form at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
The Trianon Press produced four different versions of Jerusalem. Blake only finished one colored copy of the work, which never sold. A few uncolored versions, or tinted only in black and gray, also exist. This facsimile is of the fully colored version, copy E. Published in 1951, it was not only the first of Trianon’s four versions of Jerusalem, but the first of its reproductions of Blake, which the Press would continue to make over a period of nearly forty years. Trianon produced two different colored versions of Jerusalem in 1951, one in five paper-bound parts and one in a version with all of the plates bound together in a single volume. Union College holds copies of both versions. The version in parts was purchased by the Friends of the Library in 1974; the bound version was the gift of Hans Rozendaal. Union also holds two copies of an introduction to and commentary on Jerusalem, written by Joseph Wicksteed, and published by the Trianon Press in 1953. These copies were donated to the library by Hans Rozendaal and Walter Tower.
The Trianon Press produced four different versions of Jerusalem. Blake only completed one colored copy of the work, which never sold. A few uncolored versions, or tinted only in black and gray, also exist. This facsimile is of uncolored version copy C, but it also includes a transcription of each plate. It was donated to the library by Walter Tower. Union also holds two copies of an introduction to and commentary on Jerusalem, written by Joseph Wicksteed, and published by the Trianon Press in 1953. These copies were donated to the library by Hans Rozendaal and Walter Tower.
The Trianon Press produced four different versions of Jerusalem. Blake only completed one full colored copy of the work, which never sold. A few uncolored versions, or tinted only in black and gray, also exist. This facsimile is of an incomplete set of colored prints for the poem (copy B) and includes four watercolor proofs for images that Blake printed on the verso of waste proofs from his Europe, a Prophecy. These trial proofs for Jerusalem show Blake’s re-use of precious paper. The facsimile at Union College was purchased by the Friends of the Library in 1974. Union also holds two copies of an introduction to and commentary on Jerusalem, written by Joseph Wicksteed, and published by the Trianon Press in 1953. These copies were donated to the library by Hans Rozendaal and Walter Tower.
Note: As of early 2018, none of the material used for this facsimile had been digitized at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
Blake’s works entered the library’s collections in 1795 at the founding of Union College. Among the first set of books acquired for the College that year was Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy, which included four engravings by Blake. The five volume set in Special Collections, part of the First Purchase collection, is a replacement for the original copy. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
The Fables were originally published in the 1720s, well before Blake’s lifetime, but they remained popular. Blake, on commission, contributed a number of engravings, based on designs by others, to this 1793 edition. It was donated to the library as part of the Cullen Bequest in 1974. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
In 2004 the Arion Press produced this portfolio of thirteen watercolor drawings by Blake as a companion to its previous, unillustrated edition of Paradise Lost, published two years earlier. The prints by Blake were the first facsimiles printed at full scale and in full color from the original paintings held at the Huntington Library, which are a combination of drawings made for two different patrons in 1807 and 1808. The copy of this portfolio at Union College includes a prospectus for the project. The rare book collection at Union also includes a copy of the unillustrated Paradise Lost, published by Arion in a limited edition in 2002.
Ritson’s Select Collection of English Songs is divided into three volumes including an introduction, thematic sections, and “airs” or music for the songs. Blake’s engravings for this work were done on commission after designs by Thomas Stothard. The book was published by Joseph Johnson, who was part of a radical circle to which Blake also belonged. Johnson is believed to have published Blake’s first book of poetry, and it was probably he who was responsible for the commission, as he was for many of Blake’s other commissioned work. This book was donated to the library in 1951 by Water C. Baker, Union College Class of 1915. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
Though Laocoon is not an illuminated book, the Trianon Press included its reproduction of this late engraving by Blake in a volume with other miscellaneous pieces in a belief that it was appropriate for them “to be placed in their proper relation to Blake's other works." The Laocoon is a single plate, with notes that are believed to have been added late in Blake’s life, but the Trianon edition includes related material of interest as well.
Unlike many of Blake’s other early commissions, for the second edition of this work (which was first published in 1788), he was contracted to submit the designs as well as engrave those selected for the final publication. The six images in the 1791 edition are thus entirely Blake’s. Comparing them to commercial engravings that Blake based on designs by others, it is possible to see very clearly how Blake’s personal style and outlook differed, even when he was doing commercial work. Some of Blake’s designs for Original Stories from Real Life also relate to imagery in his illuminated works, which suggests that he detected rigidity even in the thinking of fellow radicals such as Mary Wollstonecraft. The copy in the Union College library was donated by Hans Rozendaal.
Milton was composed by Blake between the years 1804 and 1811; this facsimile was made from copy D in 1967. Union College holds two copies of this work, one of which was purchased with general library funds and the other of which was donated by Hans Rozendaal.
Although Samuel Palmer’s work had no formal relationship to Blake’s, the Trianon Press elected to publish Palmer’s early sketchbook as a representation of the kinds of artists with whom Blake regularly came into contact. Unlike its Blake facsimiles, for which it tried to make exact copies of original works, Trianon called this a “reproduction” rather than a “facsimile,” because a uniform ink color was used to make the presentation of Palmer’s sketches more readable. Union College holds two copies of this work in different bindings, which were purchased separately by the Friends of the Library and through the library’s annual funds. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for more information.
Songs of Innocence, composed in 1789, has a complex publication history, especially after Blake began combining it with Songs of Experience five years later. The order of poems within it, and the number selected for publication or reproduction, varies considerably. Thus not all of the poems in the series are included in all versions. The ink used for printing and the watercolors (or lack thereof) also vary from copy to copy. The 1926 version by E. Benn was made from a copy in the British Museum. Its coloring is most similar to copy A of The Songs of Innocence and of Experience held by that institution.
Songs of Innocence, composed in 1789, has a complex publication history, especially after Blake began combining it with Songs of Experience five years later. The order of poems within it, and the number selected for publication or reproduction, varies considerably. Thus not all of the poems in the series are included in all versions. The ink used for printing and the watercolors (or lack thereof) also vary from copy to copy. The 1927 facsimile, made by Joseph Patrick Trumble, Sophia Elizabeth Muir, and William Muir, was a further printing of reproductions that the Muir team had made in the late 19th century from a combination of copies in the British Museum. Its coloring is most similar to copy A of The Songs of Innocence and of Experience held by that institution. The Muirs also did a companion reproduction of Songs of Experience in 1927. That volume is also held by the Union College library.
Songs of Innocence, composed in 1789, has a complex publication history, especially after Blake began combining it with Songs of Experience five years later. The order of poems within it, and the number selected for publication or reproduction, varies considerably. Thus not all of the poems in the series are included in all versions. The ink used for printing and the watercolors (or lack thereof) also vary from copy to copy. The 1954 version by the Trianon Press was made from copy B. Union College holds two copies of this facsimile, each with a different binding. They were donated by Hans Rozendaal and Walter Tower.
This work has a complex publication history. Songs of Innocence was composed in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794, after which the two were often combined, sometimes with an additional, unified title page. The order of poems within the combined publication varies considerably, as does the number of poems selected for it (and for later reproductions). Thus not all of the poems in the series are included in all versions. The coloration also varies from copy to copy. The 1955 version by the Trianon Press was made from copy Z. Union College holds two copies of this facsimile, which were donated by Hans Rozendaal and Walter Tower.