Rare first issue of #WilliamBlake’s ‘The Tyger’ to fetch up to £120,000 at auction

A rare first printing of William Blake’s iconic poem, Fabricsis set to go up for auction, with experts predicting it could fetch up to £120,000.

This exceptional piece comes from Blake’s Songs of experiencepublished around 1794, a collection so rare that only four copies exist, each containing 17 poems meticulously illustrated, engraved and printed by the poet himself.

Murray Macaulay, Christie’s Head of Prints for Europe, highlighted the profound significance of these works. “For many, the poetry of William Blake is familiar through school anthologies, studied only as works of literature,” he explained.

“Seeing these Experience prints opens our eyes to how he conceived of them, as printed manuscripts.”

Macaulay added that “the interplay between Blake’s drawings and delicate writing adds a new dimension to his verse and a touch of humor – the charming illustration of his most famous poem, a little more Tigger than Tyger”.

He concluded by describing them as “some of the rarest prints in our field, this remarkable group, collected by the great scholar Sir Geoffrey Keynes, illustrates Blake’s idiosyncratic genius as an artist and poet.”

The specific Fabrics The print for Christie’s “Old Masters To Modern Day” sale on December 3 is further notable for being the only one in private ownership, having formerly belonged to The wind in the willows author, Kenneth Grahame. Its valuation is between £80,000 and £120,000.

Accompanying Fabrics are seven additional prints of Songs of experience. These include My pretty rosebush, Ah! Sunflower, The LilyAnd The clod and the stoneboth estimated at between £30,000 and £50,000.

Nurse’s Song carries a higher estimate of £50,000 to £70,000. Other notable pieces on offer are The chimney sweep (£25,000 – £35,000), A lost little boy (£30,000 to £50,000), A lost little girl (£20,000 to £30,000), and The human summary (£30,000 to £50,000).

All of these works showcase Blake’s pioneering “light painting style.” This complex process involved writing mirror-image text and drawing patterns with stop varnish directly onto a copper plate, which was then relief etched in an acid bath.

Blake stopped using this unique technique after 1794 for later editions of Songs of experiencewhich makes these early prints particularly rare.

The collection will be available to the public at Christie’s in London from November 27 to December 2, before the auction.