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  • Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of...
Stock# 104077
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Omar Khayyam / Edward Fitzgerald / Sangorski & Sutcliffe
Title
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia (Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe)
Publication Place / Date
London / 1868 (bound in 1921)
Image Dimensions
6.5 x 8 inches
Color
Uncolored
Condition
VG+
Stock# 104077
$ 85,000.00
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Description

The Apotheosis of Fine Binding.

An Exceptionally Fine Sangorski & Sutcliffe "Peacock" Binding. With Contemporary Documentation of the Binding and Binder.

"...the whole design symbolizing Life and Death." - Sangorski & Sutcliffe, 1921

A spectacularly-bound 1868 second edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which was first translated by Edward FitzGerald in 1859. The book is a collection of quatrains expressing the poet's reflections on life and the universe. Central to the poem is the theme of carpe diem, or "seize the day," urging readers to embrace the pleasures of the moment in the face of the inevitable passage of time and the impermanence of life. Khayyam philosophically contemplates the mysteries of existence, fate, and the cosmos, often expressing skepticism about the afterlife and disillusionment with the divine. The poet's lyrical embrace of life's joys—wine, nature, love—is tinged with melancholy about their fleeting nature, making the work a poignant meditation on the human condition. The imagery is rich and evocative, blending sensual pleasure with profound existential inquiry, all woven together by the inevitability of mortality.

The present example is accompanied by two letters on three sheets, both roughly contemporaneous with the binding of the book. The latter, from the bookseller Charles J. Sawyer, Ltd., aptly summarizes the importance of the Peacock Bindings to book collectors:

Owing to the complexity of the work and the great amount of time devoted to it, only a few of these "Peacock" bindings were executed and ever since the first one appeared [in 1906], competition among collectors to own one has been keen both in Britain and the United States.

A post-script states:

Mr. Bray (the Proprietor of S. & S.) has told us that this was tooled by Bill Finch in 1921 and would have taken him approximately two to three months. The forwarding was by Mr. Burns who, according to Mr. Bray, was the best forwarder in the business. In Mr. Bray's opinion the back-ground stopping was very good indeed.

Peacock Bindings

The Peacock Bindings of Sangorski & Sutcliffe have become the stuff of bibliophilic legend due not only to their extreme complexity, craftsmanship, and aesthetic appeal but also to the tragic loss of one of the most spectacular examples of its kind ("The Great Omar") upon the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. See Elkind's "Jewelled Bindings", in the Autumn 1975 issue of The Book Collector for a detailed treatment of this episode and the Peacock Bindings more generally.

A comparison of this binding with other Peacock Bindings, including The Great Omar, uncovers continuities and repeated motifs, as well as tiers of craftsmanship and complexity. While the appeal of any one of these bindings is inherently subjective, the present example is among the finest and most elaborate that has appeared on the market in several decades.

Provenance

Charles J. Sawyer, the London dealer - alongside Southern and Maggs, a major conduit for jeweled Sangorski & Sutcliffe bindings.
C.F.J. Beausire, his bookplate.
Christie's New York, 18 December 2003, lot 69; as "Property of a Texas Collector".
Heritage Book Shop, Inc.
Private collection, Beverly Hills, California.

Condition Description
Small quarto (205 x 167 mm). Superlative early-20th-century (dated 1921 in accompanying documentation) jeweled "Peacock" binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (stamp-signed in gilt on the front turn-in: "Designed & Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, London"), with tooling by Bill Finch and forwarding by Burns, in full crimson levant morocco, with 408 inlays. The spine in six compartments separated by raised bands, green morocco title piece in the second gilt-lettered "RUBAIYAT / OF / OMAR / KHAYYAM", the rest tooled with alternating designs of white rose and grapevine. The front cover with a central sunken oval panel of green morocco with a male peafowl with a fanned tail set with 21 topazes, the body in blue, brown, auburn, and white morocco inlays, the eye set with a small sapphire and the comb with five small pearls, the bird on a background of dot tools with flowers tooled at its feet; the central panel surrounded by rules in gilt mixed with oval morocco inlays giving way to a grapevine design with stems in dark green, leaves in olive green, and twelve grape bunches in purple morocco, the whole set on a background of dense gilt stipple; the front cover bordered with inlaid blue morocco and gilt rules, the border lettered in gilt with a quote from the Rubaiyat redolent of the binding's general theme of life and death: "For some we loved, the loveliest and the best That from his vintage rolling time has prest, have drunk their Cup a round or two before, And one by one crept silently to rest." The back cover with a central sunken circle panel with design of a serpent encircling a wine chalice, its skin rendered with snakeskin inlays, its eye set with a small ruby, the knotted animal on a background formed by a dense ground of gilt stipples set with three amethysts and three moonstones; the central panel surrounded by an elaborate pattern of vines with inlaid roses in white morocco (in the style of the White Rose of York) and leaves in green morocco, all of which outlined in gilt; the background dotted in gilt; the corners each set with a butterfly, the wings of which made from mother of pearl inlays (and the body in opal?); the cover bordered in a blue morocco inlay gilt-lettered with a further quote from the Rubaiyat: "Look to the blowing Rose about us—"Lo, Laughing,” she says, “into the world I blow: "At once the silken tassel of my Purse "Tear, and its Treasure on the Garden throw."" Doublures of green levant morocco field dotted with gilt stars and framed with turn-ins of red morocco decorated with stylized peacock feathers in gilt, with green morocco inlays, on a background of gilt stipple tooling, and green morocco endleaves bordered with a gilt triple fillet. Green silk flyleaves. Housed in a contemporary full straight-grain black morocco clamshell box lined with watered cream silk (minor fraying), inset bevel in maroon velvet. (The box, though unsigned, almost certainly also by Sangorski & Sutcliffe).
Pagination: xviii, 30 pages.
Reference
Pattinson, J.S. The Symbolism of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Elkind, Jewelled Bindings 1900-39, probably Check-list no. 16.
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