Bookbinding, Sangorski and Sutcliffe, London, 1879

(Sangorski & Sutcliffe) — Omar Khayyam — Edward Fitzgerald (trans.) Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and the Salaman and Asbal of Jami; Rendered into English Verse. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1879 Small 8vo (174 x 127 mm). Frontispiece illustration, printed decorative borders.

In a jeweled binding by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, crushed blue morocco, elaborately gilt, incorporating varicolored morocco onlays, lizard skin, and semiprecious stones (likely turquoise, moonstone, and jade), the upper board with a central panel featuring an image of a peacock in a landscape with a palace in the background, the lower board with a central panel featuring an image of a snake in a garden with a silver moon in the night sky above, both panels surrounded by geometric and floral motif borders, the spine in six compartments with two dark green morocco labels, dark blue morocco doublures with red and green onlays and gilt floral designs, dark green morocco endpapers with gilt-stamped sun and moon designs and stanzas from the Rubaiyat.

Housed in a velvet lined dark blue Morocco clamshell case; worn. A sumptuously bound copy of the fourth edition of Edward Fitzgerald’s lyrical translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Fitzgerald’s translation was, in the late-nineteenth century, among the most popular books of poetry in the English-speaking world. Sangorski & Sutcliffe’s intricate jeweled bindings, which harken back to medieval bookbinding traditions, were among the firm’s most lavish productions. This mosaicked design binding features the symbols of a peacock and a snake, rendered in lizard skin, representatives of the spiritual soul and worldly ego.