An Inquiry into the Requisite Cultivation and Present State of the Arts of Design in England

London: Richard Phillips, 1806. 8vo, xxiv, 270, ii (publisher's booklist)pp., with Blake's engraved frontispiece of Sir Joshua Reynolds design "The Graphic Muse." Original blue-grey boards, spine slightly darkened and worn at edges. § First edition, a very scarce book, especially in boards. With the bookplates of Gilbert Redgrave and George Goyder; there are also signatures of Sir Edward Hoare, an early owner, on the title page and other pages. Bentley, Blake Books 474. Essick, William Blake's Commercial Book Illustrations, XLVIII. The artist and playwright, Prince Hoare, had been appointed honorary Secretary for Foreign Correspondence at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1799. In this call-to-arms he argues for the importance of the Arts to a nation's prestige and morals, the role of the Royal Academy, the peculiar genius of English artists, and the need for public patronage.