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Vala 5

Diane Eagles




God is light in The Blake Society Vala 5
God is light in The Blake Society Vala 5

God is Light is a decorated ceramic chamberstick informed by the etchings and poems of William Blake, bringing into being a visual correspondence, with candlelight representing the light of God. The piece was inspired by Blake’s engravings from a pattern book of Josiah Wedgwood’s Catalogue, Earthen ware and Porcelain (1816). Referencing this catalogue, Essick (1991) writes: ‘Blake’s plates were never published and sold in a conventional manner but were apparently used by Wedgwood and his salesmen as a pattern book [or sample book] without any letterpress text’ (96). T he British Museum print library has a complete set of impressions of Blake’s eighteen plates for the Wedgwood catalogue. Some were purchased by the British Museum from Frederick Tatham in 1867 and the estate of John Linnell in a Christies auction in 1918. One engraving includes the chamberstick. Blake’s friend and supporter John Flaxman was one of the most significant artists employed by Wedgwood and a founding member of the Swedenborg Society. It’s likely that he was the link for the etching commis sion (Bentley 1990). In bringing the Blake Wedgwood engraving to life, and supporting the correspondence of God and Light, a creative addition was made to the chamberstick, its base decorated with the final lines from ‘Auguries of Innocence’ (1803), first published in Gilchrist’s biography of 1863: God Appears & God is Light To those poor Souls who dwell in Night But does a Human form Display To those who Dwell in Realms of Day (ll. 129-32, E493)

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