Did You Know the Smithsonian Has an Extremely Rare Bejeweled Book Covered in Amethysts?

The item, which was fashioned by two London artisans, reflects the interests of the upper echelons of society at the turn of the 20th century

In the 1880s, it was trendy to harbor a fascination with the art and design of medieval Europe. A stunning and rare book in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library, reflects that obsession—inside and out. But most people couldn't have a jeweled copy of Wine, Women, and Song translated by John Addington Symonds like this one, published in 1884.

Here at Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, rare book curators, librarians, catalogers, and conservators work to preserve, describe, and interpret not only the content of a book, but also its physical container. And Wine, Women, and Song is one example where the inside and outside of a book are rewarding to explore in detail.

Rare Bejeweled Bookbinding 🍇📚

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Held by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library, the 1907 binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe was originally commissioned by John Harrison Stonehouse, director of Sotheran's of London, a historic bookshop and book dealer. It features green Morocco leather with grapevines set against a gold stippled background. Bunches of grapes, each formed from smooth-cut amethyst cabochons mounted in gold, hang from the hand-tooled vines. Across the front and back covers sparkle 190 amethysts.

This binding exemplifies the revival of jeweled bookbinding techniques championed by Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe. The two met in 1896 while attending a bookbinding evening class, taught by Douglas Cockerell at the London County Council's Central School of Arts and Crafts. They founded their firm in 1901 and made about 150 jeweled bindings in the first decade of their business. Today these rare bindings are primarily held in institutional libraries and private collections.

Beyond its sparkling exterior, the volume features doublures, or linings, made of a luxurious cream levant Morocco leather with richly gilded and inlaid decoration, rose levant Morocco leather flyleaves, and its original moiré silk-lined Morocco leather case. Stonehouse sold the book almost immediately upon completion (to an unnamed buyer). The commission's success led him to order the even more elaborate Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (the Great Omar) from Sangorski & Sutcliffe, a masterpiece adorned with peacocks, gold, and precious gemstones, that was famously lost aboard the Titanic.

The stylized grapevine cover design echoes the Gothic Revival aesthetic of William Morris's page decorations and engravings for his publishing company, the Kelmscott Press (for example, a copy of Morris’s News From Nowhere, also held in Cooper Hewitt Library’s rare books collection). Though not an illuminated manuscript, Wine, Women, and Song, demonstrates the period's renewed fascination with the artistry of medieval illumination and elaborately decorated bindings.

Although the dazzling binding may first capture attention, the book's contents are also significant. John Addington Symonds's 1884 publication includes 60 poems translated from Latin to English verse from the Carmina Burana, a medieval manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts composed primarily by anonymous students and clergy in the 11th and 12th centuries, known as the Goliards. Rediscovered at Benediktbeuern, Bavaria, in 1803 and first published in a collected edition by Johann Andreas Schmeller in 1847, the manuscript offers a vivid window into medieval European culture, Epicurean pleasure and satire.

The works of the Goliards revolve around two broad themes: celebrations of a pleasure-seeking wandering life and satirical critiques of society and the Catholic Church. As one reviewer observed, Symonds’s translations helped dispel the misguided assumption that the Middle Ages were a time of exceptional misery. Symonds’s publisher, Chatto & Windus, was a respected London firm known for issuing works by Mark Twain, Marcel Proust and Robert Louis Stevenson, among many others.

The Cooper Hewitt library's copy also preserves traces of provenance history. A letter from the Priscilla Guthrie Bookshop records its 1925 purchase by Edwin C. May as a gift for his wife, Gertrude Brilles May. A pharmaceutical executive, civic leader, philanthropist, and collector, May was an active member of Pittsburgh's Jewish community.

As an object of aesthetic achievement and textual evidence, this book tells intertwined stories of craftsmanship, provenance, medieval culture, poetry, and song. Wine, Women, and Song is an age-old expression, yet its spirit remains recognizable today in a more modern formulation: sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Further Reading:
Rob Shepherd. The Cinderella of the Arts a Short History of Sangorski & Sutcliffe, a London Bookbinding Firm Established in 1901 Including the Story of the Great Omar a Jewelled Binding of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám Lost on the RMS Titanic in 1912. Shepherds, 2015.

Stephen Ratcliffe. Hidden Treasures: Jewelled Bookbindings and Illuminated Manuscripts in England, 1900-1939. United Kingdom: Self-published, 2008.

Michelle Jackson-Beckett, PhD., is a curator of rare books and special collections at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Library.