The Grave, A Poem. By Robert Blair. Illustrated By Twelve Etchings Executed From Original Designs. To Which Is Added A Life Of The Author.

The title page calls for twelve etchings. 'Of The Designs' also lists plates I-XII. But number 'IX', 'The Skeleton Re-Animated' is the added engraved title-plate, which incorporates a figure of a skeleton. The twelve plates do not themselves carry numbers, but most carry the number of the page to which they relate.

The title on the added engraved title-plate reads, 'The Grave, A Poem. Illustrated by twelve Etchings Executed By Louis Schiavonetti, From the Original Inventions Of William Blake. 1808'. All plates carry the publication-date of March 1st 1808.

Blair's poem had first been published in 1743. A meditation on death and the fragility of human life - but including lines on friendship and the resurrection - it was the first in a line a line of 'mortuary' verses by such writers as Edward Young, Thomas Gray and James Macpherson.

The edition with Blake's engravings, engraved by Luigi Schiavonetti, was first published in 1808, in folio and in quarto. The present edition was also issued in folio as well as in this quarto format. (A small folio edition is also found, carrying the date '1813' on the title page but in fact published in 1870. This edition replaces the outline type of the words 'Original Designs' of the title page with solid type. Essick and Paley list in detail the other variants.)

The plates are captioned, and show:

[frontis.] 'William Blake';

title plate (uncaptioned);

[1] P.1. 'Christ descending into the Grave';

[2] P.21. 'The descent of Man into the Vale of Death;

[3] P.32. 'Death's Door';

[4] P.12. 'Death of the Strong Wicked Man';

[5] P.30. 'The Death of the Good Old Man';

[6] P.14. 'The Soul hovering over the Body';

[7] 'The Soul exploring the recesses of the Grave';

[8] P.11. 'The Counsellor, King, Warrior, Mother & Child, in the Tomb';

[9] i.e. the added engraved title-plate; uncaptioned but described in 'Of the Designs' as 'The Skeleton Re-Animated';

[10] P.32. 'The Reunion of the Soul & the Body';

[11] 'The meeting of a Family in Heaven';

[12] P.28. 'The Day of Judgment'.

In his 'Advertisement' R.H. Cromek states that 'the Proprietor submitted the Drawings, before they were engraved, to the following gentlemen, members of the Royal Academy of Painting, in London ... Benjamin West ... Sir William Beechey ... Richard Cosway ... John Flaxman ... Thomas Lawrence ... Joseph Nollekens ... William Owen ... Thomas Stothard ... Martin Arthur Shee ... Henry Thomson ... Henry Tresham'.

The lengthy list of subscribers includes nineteen Academicians and six Associates of the Academy.