Blake was paid 24 guineas for his illustrations

The 19 works by the English artist and poet illustrate Robert Blair's Gothic poem The Grave.

They were sold privately to an anonymous overseas bidder after a High Court battle over their ownership was settled.

The result is a huge windfall for the Glasgow bookshop where the pictures were found and for the two Yorkshire book dealers who discovered them.

The works, all original drawings, were commissioned by engraver Robert Cromek to illustrate a new edition of The Grave in 1804.

Until the watercolours were found more than a year ago, there had been no trace of the illustrations since Cromek's widow sold the originals at an Edinburgh auction in 1836.

The only known record of them had been a set of engravings of 12 of the drawings, produced by Luigi Schiavonetti.

Compromise

In 2001, book dealers Paul Williams and Jeffery Bates found the folio in Caledonia Books in Glasgow.

They acquired it and took it to Dominic Winter, a Wiltshire book auctioneer who had it verified by Blake experts.

However, when the owners of the bookshop heard of a proposed auction of the book, they sued the Yorkshire dealers, claiming they did not own the watercolours.

A compromise was finally reached that saw the bookshop and the book dealers share in the sale price.

The �5m dwarfs the previous record of �195,000 paid for a Blake work at Sotheby's in 1998.