Only Print of William Blake's The Tyger Privately Owned to Auction

William Blake's The Tyger comes from his rare first issue of Songs of Experience and will be offered at Christie's next month as a single, unbound work, the only impression from the earliest colour printed edition that is in private hands. 

With an estimate of £80,000-£120,000, this impression was formerly owned by Kenneth Grahame, author of The Wind in the Willows. It is now being offered in The Old Masters to Modern Day Sale on December 3. It is a relief etching printed in colours, finished by hand with watercolour, circa 1793.

In addition to The Tyger, the sale will also include other poems from the first issue, all relief etchings and printed in colors, including:

• My Pretty ROSE TREE, AH! SUN-FLOWER, THE LILLY (estimate: £30,000-£50,000)
• The CLOD & the PEBBLE (estimate: £30,000-£50,000)
• The Chimney Sweeper (estimate: £25,000-£35,000)
• NURSES Song (estimate: £50,000-£50,000)
• A Little Boy Lost (estimate: £30,000-£50,000)
• A Little GIRL Lost (estimate: £20,000-£30,000)
• The Human Abstract (estimate: £30,000-£50,000)

“For many the poetry of William Blake is familiar from school anthologies, studied solely as literary works," said Murray Macaulay, Christie's Head of Prints Europe. "To see these etchings from 'Experience' opens our eyes to how he intended them, as printed manuscripts. The play between Blake's designs and delicate script adds a new dimension to his verse, and a touch of humour.”