William Blake's Illustrations to the Grave

Discussion in 'Books' started by SeaGoat, Jun 12, 2016.

  1. SeaGoat

    SeaGoat Well-Known Member

    I bought a book from a yard sale titled 'William Blake's Illustrations to the Grave'
    It is large and yellow.

    The last page reads, "This book has been printed by photo "offset litho"graphy from the orgiginal edition of 1804. It is number three in the Double Elephant "San Vito PreB series. ...................................
    .................................................

    SEATTLE
    8.xi.1969

    Copyright, 1969 by Double Elephant Folio & Quarto Co., Inc.



    It is FULL of beautiful large full paged illustrations.
    Ive googled it and have seen prices from $12-$173


    Im not sure what the "It is number three in the Double Elephant .... series" means.
    Does anyone know anything about this book?
     
    lauragarnet and KingofThings like this.
  2. KingofThings

    KingofThings 'Illiteracy is a terrible thing to waist' - MHH

    Check Abebooks and Quill & Brush.
     
    lauragarnet likes this.
  3. moreotherstuff

    moreotherstuff Izorizent

    This is the only book I found under the “Double Elephant Folio & Quarto Co.” banner. There are a couple other titles under “San Vito Press”. My guess is that San Vito was the publisher/distributor, and Double Elephant was the printer… but that’s purely a guess.

    I can’t find anything on Blake’s original art. Several references concerning this book say that the prints are from an 1808 book “Original Inventions of William Blake” that contains 12 plates from Blake’s work etched (engraved?) by Luigi Schiavonetti (1765–1810), with copies in the Library of Congress and the Huntington (amongst others).

    Most of the listings mention 'No3 in the series' without any other explanation. It doesn’t seem to bother those sellers... although enquiring minds do want to know.

    I did find an intriguing (if irrelevant) reference to a different edition published in 1926 “from the Original Plates in the possession of an American collector”. Don’t know if those are the Schiavonetti plates, or what.

    It is possible that the original art is lost and that the Schiavonetti is the earliest extant record.

    This link shows an illustration from the 1808 edition:
    http://collections.artsmia.org/art/...nventions-of-william-blake-luigi-schiavonetti

    And this screen capture is from "A Blake Bibliography: Annotated Lists of Works, Studies, and Blakeana" (includes that reference to original plates):
    zz.jpg



     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2016
    Figtree3, SeaGoat and KingofThings like this.
  4. anundverkaufen

    anundverkaufen Bird Feeder

    "It is large and yellow."

    How large? Double Elephant is a folio size.
     
  5. SeaGoat

    SeaGoat Well-Known Member

    The link to the image is in the book.

    Ill measure and take pictures tomorrow during daylight.

    The pages are not "normal" book pages.
    It seems they printed on one side of a long sheet, folded it in half, and bound the loose edges leaving the "bent" side as the pages edge.
     
    KingofThings likes this.
  6. anundverkaufen

    anundverkaufen Bird Feeder

    Too small for double elephant and bigger than quarto.
     
    KingofThings likes this.
  7. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    Paper used to have lots of names for a wealth of sizes.

    http://home.clara.net/brianp/paper.html

    Your publisher probably uses the term double elphant loosely or because it sounds big and archaic. They were, after all, Americans.:)

    To complete the picture, once the paper was used in books, the actual book size was described by how many times the sheet used was subdivided, hence a crown sheet folded in half was a crown folio, down through quarto, octavo, hexadecimo (usually written 16mo. and 32mo.

    All more or less forgotten nowadays. How much grander to order a quire of grand eagle.
     
  8. moreotherstuff

    moreotherstuff Izorizent

    Other examples online are approximately 14" by 11". The name of the company was "Double Elephant Folio & Quarto Co."; an ambitious name, but one that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what they produced.
     
  9. Figtree3

    Figtree3 What would you do if you weren't afraid?

  10. moreotherstuff

    moreotherstuff Izorizent

    Very interesting! Lost until 2001.

    I like that link. It answers several questions, including:
    zza.jpg
    (The 13th plate being Schiavonetti's portrait of Blake.)
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2016
Draft saved Draft deleted
Similar Threads: William Blake's
Forum Title Date
Books Tales and Sketches William Stone Mar 3, 2020
Books william blake book 1929 japanese Nov 22, 2017

Share This Page