Jewelled Binding.- Spenser (Edmund) Epithalamion and Amoretti, number 2 of 14 copies on vellum (limitation amended in manuscript from 12 copies to 14), etched portrait, engraved title-vignette, head & tail-piece, magnificently bound in tooled green morocco with onlays and opals, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, covers with onlaid central Tudor rose in white and red morocco set with 6 small opals in bezel cups and ringed by 10 smaller Tudor roses in white and red all tooled in gilt, surrounded by swirling floral and leafy tendrils in gilt with small onlays of flowers in red and white, the whole within an intricately tooled border of flowers and leaves with dense pointillé background, spine in six compartments with five raised bands, one with title & author in gilt and date at foot, the rest with gilt leafy sprays around small onlaid rose in red or white, red morocco doublures and endpapers with gilt border, doublures with panel formed by gilt rule and 10 small white rose onlays, signed at foot of rear doublure, g.e., preserved in velvet-lined green morocco drop-back box, 8vo (c.245 x 155mm.), John & E.Bumpus, 1903.

⁂ A superb binding recreating one of the first Sangorski & Sutcliffe jewelled bindings. The design is based on a 1903 photograph of George Sangorski's original binding and tooling pattern and was carried out by members of the present day firm using a 40-year old dark green Levant goatskin no longer available and new brass tools cut specifically for this piece. Dan Wray, Head of Restoration and Conservation at Sangorski & Sutcliffe, executed the gold tooling, which took five weeks and used 25 books of 22 carat gold leaf.