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Items Songs of innocence

Songs of innocence

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Library division & collection with this item:

LIBRARY DIVISION
Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle

  • Alphabet discs
  • The spot where the body of Shelley was burned
  • Sketchbook containing views recording a tour in Switzerland and France
  • Anne Wagner album
  • Lord Byron, as he appeared after his daily ride at Pisa & Genoa
  • Julia Conyers album
  • Watercolor portrait of Lord Byron
  • The great aerial navigator, or atmospheric machine!
  • Conundrum fan
  • Ettore
  • Lives of the necromancers (with tipped in autograph letter signed to Thomas Northmore, 3 January [1803])
  • Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet
  • Frankenstein: or, The modern Prometheus; to which is added vol. 1 of F. Schiller's The Ghost-Seer
  • Lady Anne Hamilton commonplace book of poetry
  • Songs of innocence
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Title
Songs of innocence
Names
Blake, William, 1757-1827 (Author)
Blake, William, 1757-1827 (Artist)
Blake, William, 1757-1827 (Printer)
Blake, William, 1757-1827 (Etcher)
Blake, Catherine Boucher, 1761-1831 (Colorist)
Blake, Catherine Boucher, 1761-1831 (Printer)
Dilke, Charles Wentworth, 1789-1864 (Former owner)
Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir, 1810-1869 (Former owner)
Dilke, Charles Wentworth, Sir, 1843-1911 (Former owner)
Murton, Charles, active 1821-1840 (Binder)
Pforzheimer, Carl H. (Carl Howard), 1879-1957 (Former owner)
Smith, George D. (George Dallas), 1870-1920 (Bookseller)
Spencer, Walter T. (Walter Thomas) (Bookseller)
Young, Owen D., 1874-1962 (Former owner)
Dates / Origin
Date Issued: 1789
Place: London
Publisher: The Author & Printer W Blake
Library locations
Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Shelf locator: *Pforz A-RU 06
Topics
Blake, William, 1757-1827. Songs of innocence
Genres
Books
Prints
Notes
Citation/reference: Bentley, G. E. Blake Books: Annotated Catalogues of William Blake's Writings, pages 365-412. For a detailed account of the coloring of these and other copies of Songs of Innocence see Bentley's Blake Books, pages 384-404.
Citation/reference: Bentley, G. E. William Blake and His Circle: A Checklist of Publications and Discoveries in 1999, pages 141-42.
Citation/reference: Keynes, G. & Wolf, E. William Blake's Illuminated Books: A Census, pages 13-15
Citation/reference: Viscomi, J. Blake and the Idea of the Book, chapters 12, 15, 24. For a detailed account of the printing history of Songs of Innocence see Viscomi's Blake and the Idea of the Book, especially chapter 24.
Content: Illustrations and text etched in relief with some white-line etching.
Content: All plates were hand colored in watercolor by Blake and his wife, Catherine Blake, who also assisted in the printing (The William Blake Archive, Biography Exhibition).
Content: "Blake etched the Songs of Innocence in relief, with white-line work in some designs, on thirty-one plates in 1789, the date on the title page. The first printing, also of 1789, produced seventeen (or possibly eighteen) copies: U, W, and possibly untraced Copy V were printed in black ink on 31 leaves; I, J, X, and "Innocence" of Songs of Innocence and of Experience Copy F were printed in green ink on both sides of the leaves; A-H, K-M, Z were printed in the same style in yellow ochre or raw sienna ink" (The William Blake Archive, Introduction to Songs of Innocence).
Content: Pforzheimer copy: Keynes copy K. -- 28 plates on 16 leaves, leaf-size 17.3 x 11.6 cm; printed in raw sienna on unwatermarked wove paper. -- See Bentley's Blake Books page 376 for plate order; plates 2-4, 27 are printed on individual leaves, all other plates are printed recto/verso; plate 26 is the recto of plate 22, whereas in most other copies it is the recto of plate 34 (See Viscomi page 408 for more on the shifting of plates 27 and 26 during the edition’s printing). -- While copy K was one of the first copies printed and colored in 1789, many of its impressions were printed very poorly. For this reason, it remained in Blake’s stock until at least 1794, at which time plates 34-36 (“The Little Girl Lost” and “The Little Girl Found”) were deliberately extracted and redefined as Songs of Experience plates. At the time of collation or sale Blake salvaged the poorly printed impressions of copy K by strengthening the text and designs in pen and ink. The copy was completed when Blake reprinted plate 27 (which had been the recto of the extracted plate 34) in burnt umber ink without a verso, an “anomalous“ color and format which, according to Viscomi, “indicate a later addition” (page 408). -- Binding: bound by Charles Murton possibly for Charles Wentworth Dilke (1789-1864), an early Blake admirer and collector, circa 1838 in black straight-grained morocco; upper and lower covers tooled in blind with decorative borders and decorations at inner corners, compartmented spine filleted in blind, title "BLAKE'S / POEMS" stamped in gilt, cover edges tooled in gilt, inside gilt dentelles; nonpareil endpapers, all edges gilt; housed in tan archival box. -- Provenance: Armorial bookplate and book-label "Catalogue No. 293" of Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 1st Baronet (1810-1869) to front pastedown; ink ownership signature of Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet (1843-1911) to verso of front fly-leaf. -- Illegible name on the verso of Bentley plate 2 is erased and partly cut off. -- Acquired by dealer George D. Smith in May, 1918 and sold by him to Carl H. Pforzheimer in December, 1918 (Pforzheimer's bookplate since removed from front free endpaper).
Physical Description
Etchings
Extent: [31] plates on [17] leaves : illustrations (relief etchings) ;19 cm
Type of Resource
Still image
Text
Languages
English
Identifiers
RLIN/OCLC: 34586062
NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b12421119
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 35d1d120-5392-013e-ccf5-0242ac110002
Rights Statement
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries. Though not required, if you want to credit us as the source, please use the following statement, "From The New York Public Library," and provide a link back to the item on our Digital Collections site. Doing so helps us track how our collection is used and helps justify freely releasing even more content in the future.

Item timeline of events

  • 1757: Creator Born
  • 1789: Issued
  • 1827: Creator Died
  • 2025: Digitized
  • 2026: Found by you!
  • 2027

MLA Format

Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library. "Songs of innocence" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1789. https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c90e1fa0-76e2-013e-0ec0-0242ac110002

Chicago/Turabian Format

Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library. "Songs of innocence" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed September 21, 2026. https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c90e1fa0-76e2-013e-0ec0-0242ac110002

APA Format

Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle, The New York Public Library. (1789). Songs of innocence Retrieved from https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c90e1fa0-76e2-013e-0ec0-0242ac110002

Wikipedia Citation

<ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=https://old-digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c90e1fa0-76e2-013e-0ec0-0242ac110002 | title= (still image) Songs of innocence, (1789) |author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library |accessdate=September 21, 2026 |publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations}}</ref>

Songs of innocence