Sangorski & Sutcliffe--Omar Khayyam.

folio, first edition thus, 53 plates by Elihu Vedder, full dark maroon Levant goatskin over cushioned boards by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (November 2005-April 2006)



each cover has a central recessed panel containing a moulded image, that on the upper cover a wine goblet, that on the lower cover an hour glass; 



on the upper cover the goblet is onlaid with pale blue-grey goatskin, highlighted with pink and tan onlays, further inlaid with mother-of-pearl, elaborately tooled in gilt, seven diamonds inset above the goblet and five diamonds, nine pink sapphires and six rubies set into the goblet itself,  set against an overall design of curved lines tooled in blind and gilt with vine leaves in light maroon and blue-grey goatskin onlays;



on the lower cover the hour glass is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and onlaid with pink, blue-grey and tan goatskin, elaborately tooled in gilt, inset with ten diamonds, ten pink sapphires and six rubies, set against an overall design of curved lines tooled in blind and gilt with vine leaves in light maroon and blue-grey goatskin;  



the spine has two  pairs of double raised bands with blue-grey goatskin onlaid at either side, lettered with ‘OMAR’ in onlaid red goatskin shadow-outlined with blue-grey goatskin, vertical lines tooled in blind and gilt;



doublures and endleaves of dark maroon Levant goatskin each inlaid with a recessed pictorial panel depicting male and female figures, the panels are composed of numerous coloured goatskin onlays including blue-grey, burgundy, red and yellow, with onlaid pale calfskin for the flesh, each panel has been elaborately and densely tooled in gilt, all but one heightened with silver powder, each witi=hin scrolled gilt border;



decorative edges have been dyed and tooled with intertwined vine leaves;



preserved within an English oak casket by David Linley (2006), walnut stringings and a marquetry design of the goblet and intertwined vine leaves inlaid into the top of the lid, the goblet at the centre and the vine stems all composed of inlaid mother-of-pearl, contrasting with inlaid Macassar ebony grapes,  the vine leaves of inlaid burr elm and burr oak, the inside of the goblet is American walnut; the box lined with an acid-free barrier board padded and covered in leather

Sangorski & Sutcliffe

Lost on the Titanic pp. 1-59

Francis Sangorski wrote of the Great Omar, "A volume such as has never been dreamed of before. “ The same could be said of this New Omar bound one hundred years after Francis Sangorski exhibited and sold his first peacock binding for The Ruba'iyat at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1906.

It was in 1908 that Francis Sangorski set out to make the most dazzling example of creative bookbinding ever seen. Fascinated by all things Oriental Sangorski had dreamt of such a work long before he received the commission. He had used the designs of the peacock and the grapevine on several books, including Wine, Women and Song commissioned by John Stonehouse of the booksellers Henry Sotheran in 1907. Constantly dissatisfied with his achievements, Sangorski longed to create a binding for the 1884 Vedder illustrated Ruba’iyat and finally in 1908 Stonehouse, without the permission of Henry Sotheran, took an enormous risk and commissioned the work, “Do it and do it well; there is no limit, put what you like into the binding, charge what you like for it; the greater the price, the more I shall be pleased; provided only that it is understood, that what you do, and what you charge for, will be justified by the result; and the book when finished is to be the greatest modern binding in the world; these are the only instructions.”

The binding took two full years to complete, and the elaborate design of peacocks on the covers, entwined serpents and a skull on the doublures, boasted over a thousand precious and semi-precious stones,  thousands of separate leather onlays and huge quantities of gold leaf. It was undoubtedly the greatest work ever produced by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, however it proved a complex work to price and sell, causing a rift between Sotheran and Sangorski over payment. Eventually it was offered by Sotheran for sale at auction at Sotheby’s, London in 1912 where it was purchased by the New York dealer Gabriel Weis. The Great Omar’was placed on the great ship the S.S. Titanic and with her went to the bottom of the ocean on April 14 1912. Ten weeks later Francis Sangorski drowned while swimming in Sussex.

Stanley Bray, nephew of George Sutcliffe, who had joined Sangorski & Sutcliffe in 1924, many years later in his own spare time, completed another version from the original drawings and tooling patterns. Placed in a vault during the Second World War, the vault was bombed and the second Great Omar melted into a congealed mess. Shortly before his death he finally completed a third, scaled-down copy which was placed with the British Library.

Today Sangorski & Sutcliffe remains a thriving bindery, having merged with Zaehnsdorf in 1988 to form SSZ and in 1998 with Shepherds. It was decided to create a New Omar as a tribute to the company’s heritage and as a statement about the future of craft bookbinding and its place in today’s applied arts. Rob Shepherd writes, “There can be no other craft which puts so many demands on its maker. A well-made book must function perfectly and its design must be in perfect harmony with the content of the book. The importance of excellent workmanship and the use of the finest materials are the first requirements of a good bookbinding.” This new Ruba’iyat  displays the fine craftsmanship still found at Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

In order to create the New Omar, Sangorski & Sutcliffe naturally looked back at the Great Omar and its themes of death and the perils of Earthly pleasures as epitomised by the serpents and the skull set amongst poppy heads, and decided while they too should look at themes central to the book, they would take a more positive view: the pleasures and mysteries of life, romance and intimacy. The binding becomes a celebration of life, as much as a celebration of the binders’ skills.

The goblet on the upper cover represents the cup of life out of which flow the pleasures and mysteries of life, and the hour-glass the relentless march of time. The recessed panels on the doublures depict ‘The Two Lovers’, ‘Woman dressing’, ‘Musician’ and ‘Temptation’. The colour scheme is restrained and elegant, not bright and showy as was the Great Omar, yet the coloured onlays and jewels hint at a hidden richness. The fine and skilled gold tooling is the crowning glory and was achieved using a selection of Sangorski & Sutcliffe tools, including some from the nineteenth century, the ‘Gascon’ tools. Few binders today are able to achieve such a degree of delicacy and accuracy in tooling.

The Great Omar was housed in a wooden casket, and to complete this New Omar it was decided to approach David Linley for a fitting contemporary box. As with Sangorski & Sutcliffe, David Linley displays skills and craftsmanship second to none. David Linley wrote, “We are delighted to collaborate with a company that shares so many values with us, namely the adherence to the preservation of traditional techniques and British craftsmanship to produce items of the highest quality. The box we have made to house the Omar is made in oak with marquetry inlay which mirrors the manner in which the leather inlay forms the pattern on the book binding … The book and the box are utterly unique and therefore eminently collectable.” It is an honour to create an item to house such an auspicious piece of work, particularly on the anniversary of the tragedy of the Titanic,and I hope that in some small way this is a be-fitting tribute.”