The Rolling Stones — TASCHEN SUMO Edition (2019)

Produced in collaboration with the Rolling Stones, this monumental TASCHEN volume is an editorial object conceived at the scale of the band it celebrates: a SUMO format book of 50 by 50 centimetres, published in 2019, designed to hold a place of honour in a collection of art, music and photography books rather than on a shelf.

The edition is strictly limited to 1,150 copies, each numbered and signed by the members of the band, which places every example in a closed set that will not be extended. Still sealed in its original wrapping, the copy offered here has never been opened: the 518 pages of rare and unpublished images, illustrations and archival documents remain untouched, as does the preface written by former United States President Bill Clinton. Three fold-outs and chapter introductions accompanied by artist screenprints complete the volume, and the whole is presented in a large-format hardcover with a clamshell box built to protect it over time.

For collectors, the equation is simple and unusually concrete: a signed, numbered edition of 1,150, dedicated to one of the most influential bands in the history of popular music, produced by a publisher whose limited editions have become a collecting category in their own right. Sealed examples are the scarcest configuration of an already finite object.