Maggs Bros.

Serizawa’s return to Don Quixote: a new, enlarged version published 40 years after his groundbreaking book.

In 1936 Serizawa made an edition of the Don Quixote, entirely printed in katazome stencil dye with beautiful hand-colouring. This was the result of a collaboration with the American bibliophile Carl T. Keller (1872-1955), who was an avid collector of Cervantes. Only 75 copies of this edition were printed, of which 25 went straight to the US. Forty years later, in 1976, Serizawa returned to the subject through a collaboration with the art book publisher Gohachi. Together they produced a “new edition” of 185 copies, which were bound luxuriously in silk cloth with a gold-leaf design, encased in a beautiful lacquerware box. It was quite a departure from the original book, as Serizawa made entirely new stencil illustrations, which he dyed in multiple colours as opposed to hand-colouring them. Additionally, while the very first edition does not include any captions, each of the 31 plates in the new edition is accompanied by text. There is also a supplementary booklet which was issued with the book, which further expands upon the captions.

The present copy is labelled by Serizawa in the colophon as a kazobon or ‘family copy’, which are effectively an artist proofs. It is no different to the numbered copies, complete with all cases and the supplementary booklet.