1263 Heads – “The Dante Folio” – 11 works

Tom Phillips RA (1937-2023)

Now available only as individual etchings to buy as some have sold.

10 etchings with aquatint (including title page) together with one ink wash.  The folio, often referred to as The Dante Folio was published in 1979 as an edition of 110 by Talfourn Press, London on BFK Rives heavy wove paper with deckled edges.

1263 Heads – I had not known death had undone so many….

The title alludes to lines in Dante’s Inferno, where the poet observes a procession of souls damned to hell. Not long after the portfolio’s publication, Phillips published his own limited-edition translation of the Inferno, illustrated with his original prints, in 1983.

Each sheet is numbered 62/110 and signed in pencil apart from one sheet which we believe is an ink wash (the head with the downward arrows) which has what looks to be an ink wash signature – referenced on the University of Maryland art gallery website which has the complete set. This sheet is also numbered in pencil.

Measurements: 65.5 x 49.5cm sheet

Condition: never framed, been stored in a folio with acid free tissue in between each sheet. The title page is a crease to the bottom corner and one of the etchings has some blue printers ink to the upper left hand edge which must have always been there as the sheets are otherwise in super condition.

Price on Application