Lost on the Titanic: The Making of the Great Omar Binding
Dominic Riley, bookbinder, author and lecturer, gave an illustrated lecture to the Limpsfield Decorative & Fine Arts Society entitled 'Lost on the Titanic: The Making of the Great Omar Binding'.
Sangorski and Sutcliffe trained in bookbinding and in 1901 set up a bookbinding company. Employing fine craftsmen, within 10 years the company was one of the top binders. They moved into jewelled bindings for super-rich clients. In 1909 they received a commission for binding a large edition of Omar Khayyam's 'Rubaiyat'. They took just over 2 years to produce the binding with 1050 precious and semi-precious stones. The design drew heavily on Islamic art, with 3 peacocks on the front and a Persian mandolin on the back. The book was priced at £1000, nearly £100,000 in today's values.
There was some difficulty in finding a buyer and eventually the book was auctioned for £405 to a New York dealer. The book was shipped on the Titanic and went down with it when it hit an iceberg. Sutcliffe's nephew, Stanley Bray, produced a second version of the binding, finished in July 1939. Put in a bank vault for safekeeping, this book was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War. A third binding for the book was produced by Bray in retirement but was not up to the quality of the earlier versions.
Details of the Limpsfield Decorative & Fine Arts Society may be obtained on www.limpsfield.net and those interested in joining and attending lectures should contact the Chairman, Rosemary Buchan on 01883-722294.
Member Society of NADFAS