INSPIREDBYBLAKE
The Illuminated Books of
William Blake Recreated
We are thrilled to be hosting a special exhibition of Michael Phillips' exquisite Blake prints, which will be displayed in our coffee shop throughout December and January. Do pop in and have a look!
Michael Phillips has recreated Blake’s relief-etched copper plates that disappeared in the nineteenth century; he prints impressions by hand on old papers using historic pigments mixed to match the coloured inks that Blake used. The impressions that he produces compare with the rare original monochrome impressions that Blake printed, and in many respects are indistinguishable from them.
By inking and printing from only the delicate relief surfaces using little pressure, Blake could print more than one impression from the same inked plate. This process has been followed. By printing up to three impressions from the same inked plate, and increasing the pressure each time, each impression prints lighter than the one before, producing different and quite extraordinary colour effects. With each subsequent impression the embossment of the relief-etched copper plate also becomes more pronounced, leaving a ‘ghost’ of the plate impressed into the paper. The result, like Blake’s original prints, is that each impression is unique.
A selection exclusively printed for Blackwell’s, mounted on acid-proof card and framed in natural oak is available for sale during the exhibition. Prints from the Songs of Innocence and of Experience are £75.00 each and the larger prints from America a Prophecy and Europe a Prophecy are £165.00 each.
Individual plates or sets of plates from the illuminated books can also be printed to order. A list of the relief-etched copper plates from the illuminated books is given at
Orders and further information may be obtained from