Jerusalem is the last and greatest of Blake’s illuminated books. There are only five complete copies known that Blake printed, four in monochrome charcoal black, as the impressions here, of no less than 100 plates that make up the work, and that Blake laboured over for nearly 20 years, between 1804, the date on the title page, and c. 1820, when the first copy was completed. 

Jerusalem is arguably Blake’s masterwork in the techniques he developed in relief etching and white-line engraving, that he invented to produce his books of word and image, and that he was then able to print on his own copper-plate rolling press. This was the method he described metaphorically as ‘Illuminated Printing,’ associating these works with medieval illuminated manuscripts. These same techniques, first employed, crudely and hesitatingly, in the early unpublished tractates of 1788, are here, in maturity, used to create a tour de force of graphic forms. The white-line work - a technique in which the plate is prepared so that when etched the lines appear white against a black background – create stark, dramatic contrasts. Hatching and cross hatching, used to create shade and colour, is sometimes so fine, like netting or silk stocking, it can be mistaken for finishing touches with the brush.

No two plates have been rendered in exactly the same way. All bear close study if the wonders that Blake achieved as an artist-printmaker of the illuminated book are to be fully appreciated. The weight and texture of the hand-made wove papers; the three-dimensional qualities of colour, depth and shade achieved in monochrome; and the sheer drama of handling and being in the presence of these prints; are qualities that are lost, or not possible to achieve, in the two-dimensional reproductions of the facsimile, or viewed digitally.

The selection of 28 plates presented here has been made to display this diversity of technique, as well as to include the most dazzling, dramatic and stunning of the images contained in Jerusalem, as strong, startling and powerful today as when they were first issued. These include all four of the full-page designs. Each of the plates heading the four chapters is included, that mark the poem’s progress and shifts in perspective. In format, here are Blake’s only landscapes, including the extraordinary Plate 26, ‘SUCH VISIOINS HAVE APPEARD TO ME’, the equally fearful Satanic trinity depicted on Plate 51, and the epiphany that is Plate 100. Here also a proof and to compare with it the published version of the haunting Frontispiece, that beckons us to follow Los on his epic journey, until the vision is finaly resolved, in resurrection, joy and dance.

The paper used in printing has been specially hand made to reproduce the papers Blake used; as described in the Prospectus, ‘the most beautiful wove papers that could be procured.’ In size this was a quarter of an Imperial sheet, measuring 390 x 280 mm.  The lower right corner of each sheet is watermarked with Blake’s initials. 

Included in the archival drop-back box, containing each set, is a bound pamphlet, printed in letterpress, describing how the replica relief-etched copper plates were made, the inks mixed to match the coloured inks that Blake used, and how the impressions were printed - on an early nineteenth-century star-wheel rolling press – with the colophon noting the number of each set. 

More than two years in the making, the sets of Jerusalem are the last in the series of five Limited Edition sets of Blake’s illuminated books. In format, the Limited Edition sets of Jerusalem match and stand alongside those of America a Prophecy and Europe a Prophecy offered previously, and the first in the series of five works, the sets of Songs of Innocence and of Experience and The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Jerusalem is limited to ten sets only, P.O.R.

The replica relief-etched copper plates shown opposite the selection of printed impressions below, and used to print these impressions, were made by Michael Phillips. These are not for sale.

Any one or more of the plates that have been made to print the Limited Edition sets can be printed separately to order. Please contact Michael Phillips.

Click images to enlarge

28 Plates of the Limited Edition

In the list below click on the title to see an example of the image, and click again to enlarge and scroll over it.