Thank you for taking an interest in this Book Arts E-book.

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1 Thank you for taking an interest in this Book Arts E-book. Other e-books and manuals on the subject of the Book Arts and Gilding in particular are available for free download from the Eden Workshops website. If you are interested in gilding in particular please do check out our website at: For nearly 20 years my wife Margaret & I ran a system of craft workshops devoted to the exploration of the Book Arts. During that time we worked in almost total isolation and seclusion in the grounds of a very private monastery in rural England. We developed four book related skills; hand book binding, paper marbling and book edge marbling, printing & box making and took those skills to high levels of excellence. In 1997 after nearly 20 years running the Eden Workshops we were voted a National Living Treasure by Country Life magazine for our contribution to the Book Arts. In 2004 we decided to close our workshops and move out here to Southern France, I now concern myself with teaching and have the time to concentrate on aspects of the arts that interest me. Incidentally the Eden Workshops were named after our daughter Eden who is now 22 years old. You can me at home norman.richard@orange.fr Or telephone me (0)

2 The Bookbinding firm of Sangorski & Sutclife Sangorski & Sutcliffe is a firm of bookbinders established in London in It is considered to be one of the most important bookbinding companies of the 20th century, famous for its luxurious jeweled bindings that used real gold and precious stones in their book covers. Sangorski & Sutcliffe was established by Francis Sangorski ( ) and George Sutcliffe ( ). They had met in 1896 at a bookbinding evening classes taught by Douglas Cockerell at the London County Council's Central School of Arts and Crafts. In 1898, Sangorski and Sutcliffe each won one of the ten annual craft scholarship awards, giving them 20 a year for three years to continue their training as apprentice bookbinders. They were employed at Cockerell's own bindery, and began to teach bookbinding at Camberwell College of Art. They were laid off in 1901 after a coal strike caused an economic slump, and they decided to set up on their own in a rented attic in Bloomsbury, starting on 1 October They soon moved to Vernon Place, and then, in 1905, to Southampton Row. Sangorski's elder brother, Alberto Sangorski, worked for the firm. He became an accomplished calligrapher and illuminator, working for Rivière from They quickly revived the art of jewelled bookbindings, decorating their sumptuous multi-colour leather book bindings with gold inlay and precious and semi-precious jewels. They were commissioned to create a most luxurious binding of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the front cover of which was adorned with three golden peacocks with jewelled tails and surrounded by heavily tooled and gilded vines, that was sent on the ill-fated RMS Titanic in The book, known as the Great Omar, sank with the ship and has not been recovered. Shortly afterwards, Sangorski drowned. Cover of Oliver Goldsmith s The Hermit. Bound by Sangorski The text is Alberto Sangorski s calligraphy on parchment, with decorative borders and illuminated miniatures.

3 Front & back cover of Thomas Moore s Lalla Rookh 1933 with a jeweled binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Inside front doublure of Thomas Moore s Lalla Rookh 1933 a jeweled binding by Sangorski.

4 Lalla Rookh by Thomas Moore Jewelled Binding by Sangorski 1922 The cover of James Russell Lowell s The Vision of Sir Launfal bound by Sangorski 1954.

5 Sangorski & Sutcliffe's love of jewelled bindings is well demonstrated here. The navy goatskin has been gold-tooled and inlaid with green, brown, and light blue goatskin in an almost cloisonné-like style. The central nautical theme with fish and anchor, and the clamshell motif on the spine are apt reflections of the tale within, Voyage to the Spice Islands.

6 Cover and inside dubloure of Percy Shelley s poem The Sensitive Plant 1949 bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. The text is handwritten on parchment by Alberto Sangorski, with decorative borders and illuminated miniatures.

7 The Hunting of the Snark Bound by Sangorski 1926 inside front and rear dublure showing leather end sheet.

8 The Hunting of the Snark Bound by Sangorski 1926 inside front and rear dublure showing leather endsheet. I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the fine bindings by Sangorski. If you ever feel the need to ask a question about the book arts, or the arts in general for that matter, don't hesitate to drop me a line, I am very friendly, you can contact me at edenworkshops@orange.fr