The marriage of Heaven and Hell
Publisher: William Blake
Published: 1793
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 30
Notes: Unique copy.

Wholly engraved.

Plates produced through Blake's own process of relief etching in 1790. Printed ca. 1790. Dates from The William Blake archive.

This copy sold from the library of William Beckford in 1883, bound following The Book of Thel copy A and The first book of Urizen copy F. Acquired by E. W. Hooper, who disbound the book. This copy passed to Hooper's daughter, Mrs. Bancel Lafarge, who bequeathed it to Harvard University in 1948. For complete provenance, see Bentley. The former binding of all three copies, preserved and now housed at Harvard's Houghton Library with The book of Urizen, copy F, carries a pencil inscription on the front paste-down "Cumberland's sale H. G. [Bohm?]." Keynes & Wolf considered all three titles to have come from George Cumberland's library, but, according to Bentley, only the first title, The book of Thel, copy A, is from Cumberland's library. Cf. Keynes & Wolf, & Bentley (p. 125, 181, and 297-298).

27 plates on 15 leaves. Order of plates (Bentley numbers): 1-27. Plates on leaves [3]-[14] (plate nos. 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12,13-14, 15-16, 17-18, 19-20, 21-22, 23-24, 25-26) printed back to back. Leaves [1], [2], and [15] have versos blank.

Watermark: E & P (leaf 11, plates 19-20); printed in golden brown; colored; etched numbers: none; penned numbers: none.

Cf. William Blake archive (online, viewed July 11, 2014): The marriage of heaven and hell (1790): electronic edition.

Keynes, G. Bib. of William Blake, 36, copy A

Keynes & Wolf. William Blake's illuminated works, The marriage of heaven and hell, copy A

Bentley, G. E. Blake books, 98 (p. 285-302), copy A