Kay Nielsen: A Thousand and One Nights (Deluxe Limited Edition)

Limited Edition of 5,000 copies. Giant hardcover, extra-large format, in designer box. Fine, as new. This XXL fine art portfolio revives Kay Nielsen’s illustrations for a world heritage classic. This is a rare chance to own exceptional reproductions of this highly influential artist’s only surviving complete set of watercolors. Large folio. 16.5 x 16.5 inches, 10lbs, 144 pages. Simply stunning.

Published for the first time ever in five colors including gold, this unique presentation of fine art prints revives all 21 strikingly beautiful illustrations reproduced directly from Nielsen’s original watercolors—the only complete set of his beloved illustrations to have survived. A companion book features image descriptions, essays, and other rarely seen artworks. Each illustration is presented individually in an extra-large format and on fine art paper, allowing Nielsen’s graphic mastery and rich array of influences, from Art Nouveau to Japanese woodcuts to Indian painting, to dazzle.

The set includes a 144-page hardcover book also printed in five colors, featuring descriptions of all of the images, and three generously illustrated essays on the making of this series, the origin of Nielsen’s unique imagery, and a history of the tales. In addition, the accompanying book features many unpublished or rarely seen artworks by Nielsen, as well as all 23 of the incredibly intricate black-and-white drawings Nielsen also created for the original publication. “This stunning collector’s item unfolds like Scheherazade’s tales: a blue velvet box opens on to a giant crimson envelope with watercolor prints and a black-gold volume of stories set in Byzantine palaces beneath starlit skies.” (The Financial Times)