A rare print of William Blake’s The Tyger poem is to go on auction where it is expected to fetch up to £120,000.
The print comes from the rare first issue of Blake’s Songs Of Experience, from around 1794, which is made up of just four copies and contains 17 of Blake’s poems, illustrated, etched and printed by the poet.
Murray Macaulay, Christie’s head of prints for Europe, said: “For many, the poetry of William Blake is familiar from school anthologies, studied solely as literary works.
“To see these etchings from Experience opens our eyes to how he intended them, as printed manuscripts.
“The play between Blake’s designs and delicate script adds a new dimension to his verse, and a touch of humour – the charming illustration for his most famous poem a little more Tigger than Tyger.
“Some of the rarest prints in our field, this remarkable group, assembled by the great scholar Sir Geoffrey Keynes, exemplifies Blake’s idiosyncratic genius as both an artist and a poet.”
The copy of The Tyger going to auction in Christie’s Old Masters To Modern Day Sale on December 3 is the only one in private ownership and was once owned by The Wind In The Willows author Kenneth Grahame.
It is valued between £80,000 and £120,000.
Seven further prints from Songs Of Experience will also go on auction including My Pretty Rose Tree, Ah! Sunflower and The Lilly, and The Clod and The Pebble (both estimated between £30,000 and £50,000), and Nurse’s Song (estimated between £50,000 and £70,000).
The Chimney Sweeper (valued between £25,000 and £35,000), A Little Boy Lost (valued between £30,000 and £50,000), A Little Girl Lost (valued between £20,000 and £30,000), and The Human Abstract (valued between £30,000 and £50,000), will also go on sale.
All of the works use the illuminated painting style invented by Blake, which saw him write his text in mirror writing and draw his designs with stop-out varnish on a single copper plate, which was then etched in relief by immersion in an acid bath.
Blake stopped using the technique after 1794 for further issues of Songs Of Experience.
The works will be on public view at Christie’s in London from November 27 to December 2.
