William Blake
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
A Limited Edition of all 27 plates of William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell printed by Michael Phillips.
By re-creating Blake’s original relief-etched copper plates, lost in the nineteenth century, it is possible to print impressions from the Illuminated Books exactly as Blake did, and that compare with the excessively rare originals.
Plate 14. “printing in the infernal method”
Blake produced only nine copies of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, his most iconoclastic work. Here are the ‘Proverbs of Hell’ – ‘Damn, braces: Bless, relaxes’ ‘No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings’ – more than 70 in all that are as challenging today as they were more than 200 years ago. While, on Plate 14, the significance of Blake’s invention of ‘printing in the infernal method’ is famously described, by relief etching, ‘melting apparent surfaces away,’ the ‘doors of perception’ will be cleansed, revealing to man ‘the infinite which was hid.’ Appositely, the plate that follows describes a ‘Printing House in Hell.’
Arguably, The Marriage is Blake’s best known and most frequently quoted work. Yet in its original form it is one of the rarest. Here, for the first time, by faithfully re-creating Blake’s processes, replicas of all 27 relief-etched copper plates have been made, so that impressions can be printed exactly like those Blake printed himself.
The edition is limited to 20 sets. Each of the 27 plates is printed in monochrome in one of the colours of ink that Blake specially mixed to print the first copies, including brick red, charcoal black, yellow ochre, gamboge, charcoal green and raw umber. Examples from the set may be seen below. Included in each set is a bound pamphlet printed in letterpress describing how the replica relief-etched copper plates were made and the impressions printed. The colophon notes the number of the set. Few sets remain. P.O.R.
In format, the Limited Edition sets of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell matches those of the Limited Edition sets of 45 plates of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the sets of eight plates each from America a Prophecy, Europe a Prophecy and finally the sets of 28 plates from Jerusalem.
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
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
27 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.
Plate 1, Title page, 156 x 105 mm
Plate 2, The Argument, 153 x 107 mm
Plate 3, “As a new heaven is begun”, 158 x 112 mm
Plate 4, The Voice of the Devil, 137 x 107 mm
Plate 5, Those who restrain desire, 152 x 109 mm
Plate 6, -ah fell. & formed a heaven, 154 x 103 mm
Plate 7, "Proverbs of Hell", 157 x 109 mm
Plate 8, “Proverbs of Hell.”, 156 x 107 mm
Plate 9, “Proverbs of Hell.”, 155 x 106 mm
Plate 10, “Proverbs of Hell.”, 156 x 104 mm
Plate 11, The Ancient Poets, 152 x 103 mm
Plate 12, A Memorable Fancy, 155 x 107 mm
Plate 13, would at last be proved, 153 x 110 mm
Plate 14, “The ancient tradition” (“printing in the infernal method”), 154 x 105 mm
Plate 15, “A Memorable Fancy”, 158 x 103 mm
Plate 16, The Giants who formed this world, 168 x 106 mm
Plate 17, to reconcile them seeks to destroy existence, 167 x 105 mm
Plate 18, root of an oak he was suspended, 159 x 106 mm
Plate 19, us with all the fury of a spiritual existence, 166 x 104 mm
Plate 20, number of monkeys, baboons, & all of that species, 148 x 107 mm
Plate 21, “I have always found that Angels”, 156 x 104 mm
Plate 22, one on earth that ever broke a net, 153 x 111 mm
Plate 23, greatest men best, 153 x 106 mm
Plate 24, “-pulse: not from rules.” (“One Law for the Lion & Ox is Oppression”), 154 x 112 mm
Plate 25, “A Song of Liberty”, 146 x 113 mm
Plate 26, hurld the new born wonder, 150 x 108 mm
Plate 27, he promulgates his ten commands, 154 x 110 mm