The Complaint; or Night Thoughts by Edward Young. London: Printed for John Sharpe by C. Whittingham, 1817.
-------------------
A finely bound example of Edward Young's famous Night Thoughts. The most special aspect of this book is not the beautiful fine binding, nor the lovely illustrations throughout, but the phenomenal fore-edge painting after William Blake's original painting held at the Tate Museum in London, England. It is a very early copy of William Blake's original, which the Tate Museum attributes to c.1795-1805 and titled "Elohim Creating Adam."
The Tate's description of the painting is copied below:
"Elohim is a Hebrew name for God. This picture illustrates the Book of Genesis:
‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground’. Adam is shown growing out of the earth, a piece of which Elohim holds in his left hand.
For Blake the God of the Old Testament was a false god. He believed the Fall of Man took place not in the Garden of Eden, but at the time of creation shown here, when man was dragged from the spiritual realm and made material.
Gallery label, May 2003"
-------------------
Size: 101 x 159 mm (approx.)
Condition:
[pp.[1]-12, pp.[1]-324]
Half black calf leather over marbled boards with a red tooled morocco label and gilt crowns in compartments between raised bands. Slight bump to the second compartment else fine. Joints fine. Boards near fine with slight bumps to the top corners. Binding a little warped but without shelf lean. Page edges non-uniform, likely due to the application of paint to the fore edge. All edges gilt. One way fore-edge painting present to fore-edge visible when the leaves are spread apart as usual. The book itself collates as complete. New endpapers alongside an original blank at the front, lacking the original blank at the rear if called for. Text block toned with the odd spot of foxing else clean throughout. No ownership inscriptions etc.
[Orbis 9712714].
