HURD'S FACSIMILIES

Alamy
Commercial print
Hurd Facsimile

British Museum
Songs of  Experience
Frontispiece, Copy T

British Library
Facsimile by Samuel Hurd
Songs of Experience
Frontispiece

 
Robert Essick, in an article in Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly quotes from the publishers description of Samuel Hurd's facsimiles of Songs of Innocence and Of Experience:

"Mr. Hurd promised to colour 100 copies, but the work proved to be so much more arduous than he had anticipated or could endure, that he felt compelled to call a permanent halt when, after a struggle lasting eight and a half years, he had finished, to his own satisfaction and ours, 51 copies."

One on the copies is now in the British Library which had it digitized and makes it available to the public on their website. There is some irony in viewing a book on a computer screen in the 21st that was made with technology available in the early 20th century, in order that readers might have access to a book that originated in the late 18th century. 

Although Blake could not have any inkling of the means through which his books would be transmitted to viewers in the 21st century, he knew that means for passing knowledge from one generation to future generations was constantly being revised, reinvented and re-implemented.

Robert Essick in his article in Blake: an Illustrated Quarterly indicates that Samuel Hurd's facsimiles were published by the Liverpool book dealer Henry Young and Sons in 1923. Copy T in the British Museum seems to have been the template from which the prints were made and colored, although the appearance could not be mistaken for the original.

To my surprise the entire book made by Hurd can be viewed on the website of the British Library which also makes available a large portion of the manuscript of the Four Zoas. Although there are organized efforts to disseminate the vast body of work which Blake created, it seems that there also have always been isolated individuals working as Blake did, using what tools and resources are available as a starting point for allowing the imagination to soar.     

Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 15, (E 40)
                            "A Memorable Fancy
   I was in a Printing house in Hell & saw the method in which
knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.
   In the first chamber was a Dragon-Man, clearing away the
rubbish from a caves mouth; within, a number of Dragons were
hollowing the  cave, 
   In the second chamber was a Viper folding round the rock & the 
cave, and others adorning it with gold silver and precious
stones.
   In the third chamber was an Eagle with wings and feathers of
air, 
he caused the inside of the cave to be infinite, around were
numbers  of Eagle like men, who built palaces in the immense
cliffs.
   In the fourth chamber were Lions of flaming fire raging around
&  melting the metals into living fluids.
   In the fifth chamber were Unnam'd forms, which cast the metals 
into the expanse.
   There they were reciev'd by Men who occupied the sixth
chamber,  and took the forms of books & were arranged in
libraries.

Letters, To George Cumberland. (E 700)
"Lambeth 23 Decembr 1796 a Merry Christmas
Dear Cumberland
     I have lately had some pricks of conscience on account of
not acknowledging your friendship to me 
immediately on the reciet of your. beautiful book.  I have
likewise had by me all the summer 6 Plates which you desired me
to get made for you. they have laid on my shelf. without speaking
to tell me whose they were or that they were there at
all & it was some time (when I found them) before I could divine
whence they came or whither they were bound or whether they were
to lie there to eternity.  I have now sent them to you to be
transmuted, thou real Alchymist!
     Go on   Go on.   such works as yours Nature & Providence the
Eternal Parents demand from their children how few produce them
in such perfection   how Nature smiles on them. how Providence
rewards them.   How all your Brethren say, The sound of his harp
& his flute heard from his secret forest chears us to the labours
of life. & we plow & reap forgetting our labour      
     Let us see you sometimes as well as sometimes hear from you 
& let us often See your Works
     Compliments to Mr Cumberland & Family
Yours in head & heart
WILL BLAKE"

Letters, To Thomas Butts, (E 723)
 "I am now engaged in Engraving 6 small plates for a New
Edition of Mr Hayleys Triumphs of Temper. from drawings by Maria
Flaxman sister to my friend the Sculptor and it seems that other
things will follow in course if I do but Copy these well. but
Patience! if Great things do not turn out it is because
such things depend on the Spiritual & not on the
Natural World & if it was fit for me I doubt not that I should be
Employd in Greater things & when it is proper my Talents shall be
properly exercised in Public. as I hope they are now in private.
for till then.  I leave no stone unturnd & no path unexplord that
tends to improvement in my beloved Arts.  One thing of real
consequence I have accomplishd by coming into the country. which
is to me consolation enough, namely.  I have recollected all my
scatterd thoughts on Art & resumed my primitive & original ways
of Execution in both painting & Engraving. which in the confusion
of London I had very much lost & obliterated from my mind.  But
whatever becomes of my labours I would rather that they should be
preservd in your Green House (not as you mistakenly call it dung
hill). than in the cold
gallery of fashion.--The Sun may yet shine & then they will be
brought into open air."

Blake's Printing House

Printing House of the Mind

.