Great Omar
A binding of Vedder's illustrated edition of the
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, measuring 16 by 13
inches, and decorated according to the designs of
the English bookbinder Francis Sangorski. The
Great Omar was covered in green levant morocco,
and had the same green leather doublures. while
brown leather was used for the flyleaves. All were
decorated in a most lavish manner, each to a
different design, making a total of six designs.
In addition to the extremely elaborate gold
tooling, there were numerous sunken panels,
thousands of colored inlays, as well as some 1,050
jewels, including garnets, olivines, rubies,
topazes, and turquoises. The decoration of the
lower cover had as its central feature a model of
a Persian mandolin made of mahogany, inlaid with
silver, satinwood, and ebony.
The magnificent binding, which took nearly 2 years
to complete, was probably the most lavishly
decorated bookbinding ever produced. The Great
Omar was the last of a series of Omars executed by
the firm of Sangorski and Sutcliffe, of London.
Unfortunately, only reproductions of the binding,
also produced by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, now
exist, the original having been lost in the
sinking of the Titanic, and a later copy being
destroyed in the Second World War. (236 , 319 )
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