Lecture on the Great Omar

GBW Potomac Chapter Lecture

"Lost on the Titanic"
The Making of the Great Omar
A lecture by Dominic Riley

The Great Omar was the most fabulous, elaborate and opulent binding
ever created. It was embellished with over one thousand jewels, five
thousand leather onlays and a hundred square feet of gold leaf, and
took a team of craftsmen over two and a half years to make. It went
down with the Titanic. This lecture tells the story of the making of
the fabulous Great Omar. It is also the story of the renowned
bookbinding firm of Sangorski and Sutcliffe--who were known for
their elaborate jeweled bindings--and the men that made this
extraordinary book. It also tells the moving story of life after the
tragedy, and of one young man in particular, who decided against the
odds to recreate the binding, a venture which itself is mired in
tragedy and which occupied him for the rest of his life.

Folger Shakespeare Library
Board Room
210 E Capitol St
SE, Washington DC 20003
November 5, 20105

Wine and snacks at 5:30pm
talk will start at 6pm
Fee: $ 5.00

Please rsvp to gbwpotomacchapter<-at->gmail<.>com

Dominic Riley

    Dominic is a bookbinder, teacher and filmmaker. He first learned
    bookbinding at age 16 from Benedictine Monks and later at the
    London College of Printing. He has worked at the Victoria and
    Albert Museum, and for various binderies in London, New York and
    San Francisco, and spends part of the year teaching across the
    USA. He has his bindery in the Lake District, from where he
    travels across the UK teaching master classes and lecturing.

    Dominic is an accredited lecturer with the National Association
    of Decorative and Fine Art Societies.  Dominic is Vice Chairman
    of the Society of Bookbinders and was elected a Fellow of
    Designer Bookbinders in 2008. His binding work is mostly the
    restoration of antiquarian books, and Design Bindings. He has
    won many prizes in the Designer Bookbinders competition,
    including both first prizes and the Mansfield Medal in 2007. His
    bindings are in many private and public collections, including
    the British Library, the University of Wales and the John
    Rylands Library in Manchester.

    His first full length film, Seventy Years In Bookbinding, about
    Bernard Middleton, was released in 2008; his latest film is
    about the life and work of Maureen Duke, a well loved teacher
    and pioneer of restoration.


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