Forum Auctions
Lot 379
Binding & Calligraphic Manuscript.- Sangorski (Alberto).- Spenser (Edmund) Una and the Redcross Knight, from "The Faerie Queene", illuminated manuscript in red, black and colours on vellum, 14 leaves including blanks, title in red with large illuminated initial, full-page oval watercolour of the Redcrosse Knight and Una on horseback within illuminated floral frame in gold & colours, 7 large illuminated initials in gold & colours and 3 smaller initials in red, first leaf with decorative floral border incorporating coat-of-arms in red and silver, text written in black ink with leaf of biography and colophon at end stating "...designed, written out, and illuminated by Alberto Sangorski...with miniature...painted from an original design expressly for this work and will not be duplicated" and signed by him at end, ivory silk guard to watercolour, superbly bound in turquoise morocco elaborately tooled in gilt, by Rivière & Son, both covers with intricate design of trees, intertwining branches, leaves & flowers, 2 owls in upper branches in corners and shields with a red cross on trunks of trees at either side, all formed by onlays of green, brown, purple, fawn & burgundy morocco and outlined & elaborately tooled in gilt with leafy sprays against a background of dense pointillé, the whole within a gilt-tooled border edged by onlaid strips of black morocco, spine in six compartments with five raised bands, title and author in gilt in two compartments and date at foot, the others with leafy spray against pointillé in gilt, turn-ins repeating borders of gilt tooling edged by black morocco strips, doublures and endpapers of ivory watered silk, signed at foot of front turn-in, g.e., preserved in modern suede-lined turquoise morocco drop-back box with borders imitating those on the book, spine gilt in compartments, 8vo (c.200 x 150mm.), for Rivière & Son, [1916].⁂ A stunning binding with rich decoration covering the entire book. Alberto Sangorksi was the elder brother of Francis Sangorksi who established the famous bookbinding firm with partner George Sutcliffe. He worked for Sangorksi & Sutcliffe, who became known for their jewelled bindings, and also for Rivière & Son from 1910. He produced for both many such highly-decorated illuminated manuscripts, the most famous of which, "the Great Omar", was lost when the Titanic sank in 1912.
