William Blake’s designs for Gray’s poems reproduced full-size in monochrome or colour from the unique copy belonging to His Grace the Duke of Hamilton. . .

London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1922. FIRST EDITION. Tipped in frontispiece portrait and engraved title preceding 116 plates (6 in color). Original publisher’s cloth, gilt lettering, some rubbing on corners; interior excellent. First publication of Blake’s designs for Thomas Gray’s poems, number 16 of 650 copies. The sculptor John Flaxman commissioned the project as a gift for his wife in 1797. Blake produced 116 watercolors for his friend, all of which are reproduced in this limited edition. Gray (1716–1771) was a popular poet in eighteenth-century England; however, due to his self-critical nature, he only published thirteen poems in his lifetime. His poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard remains his most well-known work and earned him his popularity and legacy in English literary history. Blake (1757–1827), a poet in his own right as well as an artist, was well-suited for illustrating Gray’s poems, including Elegy, given his romantic style and underpinnings of religion, philosophy, and melancholy.