Ellis, Edwin John and William Butler Yeats. THE WORKS OF WILLIAM BLAKE POETIC, SYMBOLIC, AND CRITICAL . WITH LITHOGRAPHS OF THE ILLUSTRATED 'PROPHETIC BOOKS,' AND A MEMOIR AND INTERPRETATION [3 Volumes : Compete as issued]. Bernard Quaritch, London, 1893.

Price: US$1850.00 + shipping

Condition: Good

Description: Three volumes bound in green cloth with gilt titling and upper cover pictorial illustrations in gilt, top edge gilt, 4to, approx. 400pp/volume. A landmark production of late 19th century publishing and printing notable for numerous lithographic illustrations (mostly in vol. 3). One of five hundred sets comprising the regular paper issue. A solid and respectable set with moderate shelfwear, rubbing and to corners, tips and extremities, light soiling to spines, light spotting to boards at edges). Size: 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall

Seller: Vashon Island Books, Vashon, WA, U.S.A.

BLAKE, WILLIAM. The Works of William Blake: Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical, Edited with Lithographs of the Illustrated "Prophetic Books, " and a Memoir and Interpretation. Bernard Quaritch, London, 1893.

Price: US$2000.00 + shipping

Condition: Very Good

Description: Three volumes in green cloth elaborately gilt lettered and decorated with Blake's designs. Frayed cloth at head and heel of spines, and a folded cover on the third volume, all expertly repaired. Gilt designs very sharp with minimal wear. Top edges gilt. Limited edition of 500 copies only. Label declaring it to be from the library of George Woodward Wickersham, former Attorney General of the U.S.A. Occassional edgewear to books. In it's time the best edition of Blake extant. A beautiful set. Size: Quarto

Seller: Contact Editions, ABAC, ILAB, Toronto, ON, Canada

BLAKE, William; ELLIS, Edwin John & YEATS, William Butler (editors).. The Works of William Blake. Poetic, Symbolic, and Critical. Edited with Lithographs of the Illustrated "Prophetic Books," and a Memoir and Interpretation.. London Bernard Quaritch, 1893.

Price: US$3932.50 + shipping

Description: First edition, first impression, deluxe 'large paper' issue, one of 150 copies thus; 3 vols, large 8vo (29 x 20.5 cm); frontispiece to each vol., with tissue guards, errata slip facing p.xvi of first vol., profusely illustrated in black and white, some foxing, heavier to preliminary and terminal leaves; publisher's half tan morocco, cloth sides, decoration after Blake and titles to spines gilt, top edges gilt, others untrimmed, some rubbing to corners and extremities, else very good. The scarce 'large paper edition' (Wade), in half tan morocco binding. An edition of 500 copies issued in light green cloth was also printed in 1893. Despite Blake's reputation having been established by the 1890s, a full collected edition of his works had still not been published. Yeats and Ellis took up the task and produced this work of 'great originality'. Not only did they issue Blake's work at length, but they also undertook the 'explanation of "The Symbolic System" [which] occupied 185 pages, and the "Interpretation and Paraphrased Commentary" another 300. And here, directed at a comparatively wide audience, were not only transcripts of the Prophetic Books but facsimiles of them as well.' (Bentley). Wade 218.

Seller: Shapero Rare Books, London, United Kingdom