- 72
Blake, William.
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 GBP
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Description
- Autograph letter signed, unpublished and rich in biographical detail, to William Hayley
- ink on paper
on personal and artistic subjects, including pleasure at news that Hayley was writing poetry ("...I also particularly rejoice to hear that your Muse is rocking the Cradle Pray take care of both Mother & Child & suffer not the wicked harlot Prose to ingross too much of your precious time..."), reporting on his ongoing engraving work ("...the Plate goes on with Spirit & neatness...") and requesting ten pounds ("...I had hoped by incessant Labour to have managed my Money Matters so well as not to have troubled you for any till I had produced a Proof of my Plate..."), hinting at the melancholy with which he had been struggling and expressing a renewed self-belief, concluding with pointed thanks for Hayley's compliments to Catherine ("...You have quite Elated my Wife & not a little made me remember my unworthiness..."), three pages, 4to, 17 South Molton Street, 7 August 1804, postal markings and red wax seal impression, seal tear
"...I know my own weak side & will by labour supply what Genius Refuses how it can be that lightness should be wanting in my Works, while in my life & constitution I am too light & aerial is a Paradox only to be accounted for by the things of another World. Money flies from me Profit never ventures upon my threshold tho every other mans door stone is worn down unto the very Earth by the footsteps of the fiends of Commerce..."
Letters by Blake are exceptionally rare at auction: this is the first to be offered in more than fifteen years. A total of just 92 letters by Blake are listed by Keynes. More than two-thirds of these are in institutional libraries, and only five known letters - including this one - remain unpublished. The letters Blake wrote to William Hayley (sold in these rooms in 1878) form much the largest series and comprise the central source for his life in the first years of the nineteenth century.
At the time of writing this letter Blake had been back in London for nearly a year, after three years as Hayley's guest in Sussex. He was attempting, without great success, to live by commercial engraving, but was still dependent on Hayley's patronage - especially the provision of plates for his projected Life of Romney. Blake thanks Hayley for helping him in his struggle with melancholy and optimistically informs his friend that "I do know that soon these fiends will be vanquished." The relationship between Blake and Hayley was a complex one with a developing undercurrent of tension, which is expressed here in Blake's thinly veiled jealousy of his wife in response to Hayley's "Klopstockian Compliment" (i.e. in the vein of Mrs Klopstock, whose letters of conjugal love he had just been reading).
Passages already quoted show how Blake's inimitable visionary prose brings drama to this letter - for example when he sets his aerial Genius against the "fiends of Commerce" - and there are also quieter moments which flicker with the imagery of his mystical world-view, such as when, on hearing of the recovery to health of Harriet Poole, a mutual friend from Sussex, he writes that "the hills and valleys of beautiful Sussex ... must sadly lament her sickness".
"...I know my own weak side & will by labour supply what Genius Refuses how it can be that lightness should be wanting in my Works, while in my life & constitution I am too light & aerial is a Paradox only to be accounted for by the things of another World. Money flies from me Profit never ventures upon my threshold tho every other mans door stone is worn down unto the very Earth by the footsteps of the fiends of Commerce..."
Letters by Blake are exceptionally rare at auction: this is the first to be offered in more than fifteen years. A total of just 92 letters by Blake are listed by Keynes. More than two-thirds of these are in institutional libraries, and only five known letters - including this one - remain unpublished. The letters Blake wrote to William Hayley (sold in these rooms in 1878) form much the largest series and comprise the central source for his life in the first years of the nineteenth century.
At the time of writing this letter Blake had been back in London for nearly a year, after three years as Hayley's guest in Sussex. He was attempting, without great success, to live by commercial engraving, but was still dependent on Hayley's patronage - especially the provision of plates for his projected Life of Romney. Blake thanks Hayley for helping him in his struggle with melancholy and optimistically informs his friend that "I do know that soon these fiends will be vanquished." The relationship between Blake and Hayley was a complex one with a developing undercurrent of tension, which is expressed here in Blake's thinly veiled jealousy of his wife in response to Hayley's "Klopstockian Compliment" (i.e. in the vein of Mrs Klopstock, whose letters of conjugal love he had just been reading).
Passages already quoted show how Blake's inimitable visionary prose brings drama to this letter - for example when he sets his aerial Genius against the "fiends of Commerce" - and there are also quieter moments which flicker with the imagery of his mystical world-view, such as when, on hearing of the recovery to health of Harriet Poole, a mutual friend from Sussex, he writes that "the hills and valleys of beautiful Sussex ... must sadly lament her sickness".
Provenance
Sale in these rooms, 20 May 1878, lot 22, to Naylor; sale in these rooms of Autograph letters and literary documents of the late Mr F. Naylor, 27 July to 1 August 1885, lot 1031, to Molini; Robert Griffin of Court Garden, Marlow, Bucks (c.1840-1921); thence by descent
Literature
The Letters of William Blake, ed. Geoffrey Keynes, 3rd edition, Oxford, 1980
Condition
Condition is described in the main body of the catalogue, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."