Victor Watson "The Blake Plates" PDF

The Blake Plates tells two stories, connected but separate.

One of them is about Rebecca Haughton. In the spring of 1960 – seventeen and studying for her A Levels – she finds herself the owner of a set of small engraved copper plates. The plates seem to have a connection with William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Intrigued by the possibility that they might be Blake’s originals, Rebecca begins a search that brings her face to face with new people, mostly kind and helpful, but some hostile and perhaps dangerous. What will it mean for her if the plates are authenticated and she turns out to be the owner of such a valuable art-work?

Rebecca and her mother, Olivia, have a meeting with specialists at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where the Senior Keeper shows them an original copy of the Songs.