The First Part and the Second Part of the History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha

[Chelsea]: [The Ashendene Press], 1927. First Ashendene edition. Fine. One of 225 copies on Batchelor paper, out of a total edition of 245 copies. A bright, Fine set. Two large folio vols (430 x 308 mm). Beautifully bound in original full white pigskin. Printed in red and black in Ptolemy type; text in double columns; border and initials designed by Louise Powell and cut on wood by W. M. Quick and Geo. H. Ford. Bookplates of Don Cameron Allen to upper pastedowns. A bit of smuging to binding, and small scuffs to leather at head of spine, still an excellent set.

"First appearance of Ptolemy type. Ashendene knight-in-armour paper...taken as a single work Don-Quixote is the largest of the Ashendene books. It has an interesting alternative to Hewitt's drawn or printed initials, the successful but unrepeatable device of neo-Kelmscott initials, borders and opening words cut on wood from designs by Louise Powell. The new Ashendene type was imitated and adapted from the Geographia of Ptolemaeus, printed by Leonard Holle at Ulm in 1482. In two columns, with red used chiefly for headings and shoulder notes, decorated but not illustrated, this link with the Kelmscott past was an entirely successful venture" (Franklin).

"One of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times" (PMM 111, first edition). Originally published in two volumes a decade apart (in 1605 and 1615), Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of Western literature, it is often cited as the first modern novel.

Ashendene Bibliography XXXVI. Fine.