Background
This two-volume compendium of surimono in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, is arguably the most important study of the print genre published in English.
As the book jacket states, "There is no more comprehensive collection of surimono in Europe than the one which the English scholar Jack Hillier began to assemble in the 1950s for the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin: this book provides an illustrated catalogue of the collection. The first and largest of its three sections includes surimono in the Ukiyo-e style produced in Edo between the 1760s and 1840s. The second includes the privately printed illustrated books and albums which are also in the library. The third consists of prints by artists of the Shijô school, mostly created in Osaka 1850-70. The catalogue is preceded by a historical introduction: biographies of the artists are given before the relevant entries and two final sections are devoted respectively to an index of the kyôka poets whose verses appear on the surimono in the first section and to later copies of the prints."
Description
London (1985), 2 vols., hardcover (red cloth); Fine condition with fine dust jackets, like new (lacks the plain blue slip case); Illustrated throughout in black-and-white and color, with 516 plates and 16 figures; vol. I, 288pp; vol. II, 281pp. (569 total pp.); ISBN 0-85667-176-2; Fully indexed, bibliography, out of print.
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