LONDON.- A landmark moment in the market for Blake – the visionary poet, printer and painter of the Romantic period – The Tyger comes from his exceptionally rare First Issue (comprising only 4 copies) of Songs of Experience, circa 1794, a collection of seventeen poems richly illustrated, etched and printed by Blake himself (estimate: £80,000-120,000). This is a unique opportunity to acquire William Blake's most famous poem The Tyger as a single work (not bound) and the only impression from the earliest colour printed edition that is in private hands. Exemplifying his genius, The Tyger leads a total of eight exquisitely rendered relief etchings, from the same issue, all created using 'Illuminated Printing', a technique which William Blake invented. Highlighting The Tyger's iconic status, this impression was once in the collection of Kenneth Grahame, the acclaimed author of children's classic The Wind in the Willows. It is now one of the Blake group being offered, as Property from The Collection of Sir Geoffrey Keynes, the great Blake scholar and collector (lots 148-155). Part of The Old Masters to Modern Day Sale, on 3 December, during Classic Week, works will be on public view from 27 November until 2 December.

Murray Macaulay, Christie's Head of Prints Europe: “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.”

A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

Led by one of the most famous poems in world literature, The Tyger, these eight celebrated William Blake etchings – including The Chimney Sweeper and NURSES Song – are the only individual examples of these poems from the earliest printing which will ever be available. Of the four copies created in the First Issue of Songs of Experience, 1794: three are complete, or near complete; two are in public collections; and one sold at Christie's earlier this year from the revered collection of literary luminary Maurice Sendak, whose genius includes Where the Wild Things Are. These eight etchings provide a truly unique opportunity as they are from the only set to have been broken up and dispersed in the 19th century, now offered with the exceptional provenance of having been partially reassembled by Sir Geoffrey Keynes.

THE TYGER

In The Tyger the artist and poet William Blake explores the paradox of creation, evoking its mystery and wildness. While his words kindle a sense of awe, the illumination of the text is much lighter in spirit – his forests of the night indicated with a solitary, gnarly tree, and his wild cat is cub-like. Blake took the form of his Songs from what was then a newly emerging genre, picture books of moralising tales in rhyming verse, published for children. Blake the Visionary proposes a different way of seeing the world, one which embraces ambiguity and mystery, and the life of the imagination.

INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUE

Blake's genius as an artist and poet are matched by his ingenuity as a printer. Experience is printed using 'Illuminated Printing', a technique of his own invention in which he wrote his text in mirror writing and drew his designs with stop-out varnish on a single copper plate, which was then etched in relief by immersion in an acid-bath. This was a radical innovation from conventional publishing where text was outsourced to letter-press workshops, and designs executed by copy engravers. Once etched, the plates were hand-inked and printed by Blake. Using stubble brushes and opaque pigments thickened with glue or gum, Blake meticulously inked his designs, both the areas in relief, and the surrounding, recessed etched areas, varying the colours and their application with each inking of the plate so that no two impressions are the same. After 1794, Blake no longer employed this colour printing method for further issues of his Songs.