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[BLAKE'S CHAUCER: PROSPECTUSES]

[First Prospectus]

BLAKE'S CHAUCER,

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS.

THE FRESCO PICTURE,

Representing Chaucer's Characters painted by

WILLIAM BLAKE,

As it is now submitted to the Public,

The Designer proposes to Engrave, in a correct and finished Line manner of Engraving,

similar to those original Copper Plates of Albert Durer, Lucas, Hisben, Aldegrave and

the old original Engravers, who were great Masters in Painting and Designing, whose

method, alone, can delineate Character as it is in this Picture, where all the Lineaments

are distinct.

It is hoped that the Painter will be allowed by the Public (notwithstanding artfully

dissemminated insinuations to the contrary) to be better able than any other to keep his

own Characters and Expressions; having had sufficient evidence in the Works of our

own Hogarth, that no other Artist can reach the original Spirit so well as the Painter

himself, especially as Mr. B. is an old well-known and acknowledged Engraver.

The size of the Engraving will be 3-feet I-inch long, by I-foot high.-- The Artist engages

to deliver it, finished, in One Year from September next.--No Work of Art, can take

longer than a Year: it

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may be worked backwards and forwards without end, and last a Man's whole Life; but

he will, at length, only be forced to bring it back to what it was, and it will be worse

than it was at the end of the first Twelve Months. The Value of this Artist's Year is the

Criterion of Society: and as it is valued, so does Society flourish or decay.

The Price to Subscribers--Four Guineas, Two to be paid at the time of Subscribing, the

other Two, on delivery of the Print.

Subscriptions received at No. 28, Corner of Broad-street, Golden Square; where the

Picture is now Exhibiting, among other Works, by the same Artist.