"The Tyger" was one of Blake's poems that was known and admired during his lifetime. These two plates are from a copy of Songs of Innocence and of Experience that has plates from two different sets. Blake himself printed and numbered the plate in brown. It is a good example of a relief etching print containing both text and image that also demonstrates the manner in which a plate would be printed in a base color to which watercolor might be added. The second, elaborately colored copy was printed and colored after Blake's death by an unidentified person.
William Blake (1757-1827), The Tyger, Copy K, ca. 1795, PML 954–55