''Pride and Prejudice'' one of the Maggs ''Christmas'' bindings

The exhibition, at St Bride's Printing Library, London, offers a breathtaking chronological display in which history and design intertwine. A number of the bindings are on loan from private collections including those of Maggs Bros. and Sir Paul Getty. It is a precious opportunity to see some of the seminal bindings of the twentieth century; and you would be mad to miss it.
 
Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe met in 1896 at a bookbinding evening class at the London Country Council Central School of Arts and Crafts. They were working in the direct line of descent of an unrivalled excellence. Their teacher, the eminent bookbinder Douglas Cockerell, was the first apprentice to Thomas Cobden-Sanderson, who established the Doves Bindery in 1893, specifically for binding the publications of William Morris' Kelmscott Press.
 
 

''The French Revolution'' - foreground, ''The Gospel According to Matthew, Mark and Luke'' - background

In 1898, both Sangorski and Sutcliffe won scholarship awards, unheard of because there were only ten such awards for all the crafts in London, they both began to work in Douglas Cockerell's bindery and became great friends. In the first cabinet an early George Sutcliffe piece is displayed, a binding for Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution. Behind it is a Doves binding from 1893, of The Gospel According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, the influence is clear.
 
Like all great artists, grounded in great tradition they were well equipped to explore their own style and in 1901 when the coal strike resulted in a slump in the economy Sangorski and Sutcliffe, the most junior in the firm, were unemployed. They set up business together and their art blossomed. In 1903 they produced the first of the jewelled bindings, for which they became famous. It was a deeply romantic period, reflected in their opulent creations.

''Prometheus Unbound''

On display was the beautiful 1820 edition of Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, bound in the early 1900's and two of the 'Christmas' bindings that Sangorski & Sutcliffe created for their friends and clients Maggs Bros. Each year the Maggs family would supply the books and they would be returned in a spectacular binding, such as the opal encrusted Pride and Prejudice they kindly lent for the exhibition.
 
Their history was to be as dramatic as their work. Their most famous achievement, in 1912, was a jewelled binding of the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyám, the epic Persian poem translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Though the work had been unpopular at first and the publisher, Bernard Quaritch, had ended up putting the unsold copies in the bargain box outside his shop on sale for a penny, it received a late surge of popularity. Sangorski & Sutcliffe's exquisitely bound copy, adorned with peacocks with golden feathers, which swept down the front cover, captured the heart of an American client. But it never made it to his collection, he shipped it on the Titanic and unlike the legendary Gospel Book of Queen Margaret which was rescued unharmed from a stream, the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyám was never found. Though the only surviving images of the binding are in black and white, a computer-generated colour version is on display at the exhibition.
 
Undeterred in the face of adversity and ever the great salesmen, Sutcliffe quickly dispatched a letter to the Daily Telegraph to say that they still had the tooling patterns and would readily bind another.
 
Within a week came an irrevocable loss. Francis Sangorski drowned in a bathing accident. One of the most moving exhibits is a black and white photograph of his tombstone, which was designed by George Sutcliffe and bears echoes of their book bindings.
 
After Sangorski's death the company moved to Poland Street. Sutcliffe continued to build the business. By the 1920s they were recognised as one of the top binderies in London and had a staff of eighty people. They even got the to bind another splendid edition of the Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyám. Stanley Gray, Sutcliffe's nephew, made one during World War II. But it too was fated. During the Blitz, the bindery at Poland Street had bombs falling all about it. To keep this precious new Omar Khayyám safe, they put it in a bank vault. While Poland Street escaped harm, the bank took a direct hit and the binding melted in the heat of the impact.
 
The death of Sangorski and the coming of World War I marked an end to the romantic period of the early 1900's. Sutcliffe continued and did a large amount of work on rolls of honour, pictured in the cabinet devoted to that era. But their diversity continued, they even created the miniature books for Queen Mary's dolls house.
 
 

"Poems 1923-1954" E.E. Cummings

In 1936 Stanley Bray, Sutcliffe's nephew took over the running of the company and in 1939 they merged with another bindery, HT Woods and Kenneth Hobson came to the firm. He brought with him a new style in binding, moving away from the traditional patterns towards striking, content driven motifs. Once again they were leaders in the field. The fifties saw this stylistic shift come into its own and a display is devoted to work from the period, including E.E. Cummings' "Poems 1923-1954".
 
The exhibition is also great for its documentary material, ephemera, and autograph letters, grounding you in the history and personality of the company amongst the otherworldly bindings. Amongst the items on display are: the air raid warnings book which brings life to the Poland Street bindery in World War II; a salesman's set of patterns showing binding styles; and photographs of the S&S Marketeers, of staff in 1947, and of Sangorski and Sutcliffe themselves.
 
Most remarkable is a letter from George Sutcliffe written in 1937:
 
'Dear Ladies and Gentleman,
 
We have not made a profit since 1930 . . .'
 
The reason? They did not charge as much for their work as it cost them.
 
You can imagine it, there is a strong sense of family about the firm and the bonds forged by a shared art, from the story of its origins, to the fact that two of the last apprentices at S&S still work there today. Sangorski's elder brother, Alberto, worked for the firm for a time, initially helping with the book keeping. But when the company needed a calligrapher and illuminator and Francis enrolled on a course to learn, Alberto was so impressed that aged 43, he also learned and made it his career. In 1910 he went to work for Rivière and on display is one of his illuminated manuscripts from 1912.
 
I was honoured to go to the company and family celebration of the actual centenary on October 1st. Although the company has changed hands several times over the hundred years the great legacy lives on. In 1998 SSZ (Sangorski & Sutcliffe and Zaehnsdorf) was bought by Shepherds Bookbinders from the jewellers Asprey. When Shepherds bought the firm, they changed the name back to Sangorski & Sutcliffe and their recent work is well worthy of the name and the prestige and spirit it carries. They feel like a family firm and emphasize that they are always looking back to past influence whether using original designs and adapting them or in their new ideas.
 
 

''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire''

The combination of tradition, modernity, and imagination is visible in the display of recent work. T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats has the two black cats from the older trade cloth cover transformed in leather, you can positively hear those Jellicle cats purr. The stunning binding for 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' is touched with magic and has a slipcase which is an objet d'art in itself.
 
Rob Shepherd, combined the celebration of past, present, and future in his speech and looked forward to the next 100 years, ending with a toast to his staff that we should all appreciate, 'You create fantastic objects, which is very precious in this world.'