Company history
Two of London’s oldest binderies under one roof
In 1998 we opened a hand bookbinding company in Rochester Row, Victoria. Over the years the company has expanded, firstly by buying two of the oldest and most famous of London’s ‘West End’ binderies: Zaehnsdorf, founded in 1842, and Sangorski & Sutcliffe, established in 1901. In 2003 we also acquired the well-known paper retailer Falkiner Fine Papers.
Our aim is to cover all aspects of the book arts. Our shops and websites offer a broad choice of book related services and materials. We also have an active education programme, running courses in bookbinding and associated paper crafts such as hand printing.
Two premises in Central London
The bindery in Rochester Row and a shop in Gillingham Street, both in Victoria and only five minutes’ walk apart. Locations and directions.
A thatched barn in Wiltshire
In Wiltshire we have a thatched barn where we make many of the products we sell in our Victoria store. The barn is also home to the Wiltshire Barn Project, which helps wounded and sick veterans learn a new trade in craft bookbinding.
An approved City & Guilds Centre
Shepherds Centre for Book Arts is an approved City & Guilds Centre, offering qualifications in Level 1 and Level 2 Bookbinding Courses.
Timeline
From 1842 to Rochester Row
Dates from the histories of Zaehnsdorf, Sangorski & Sutcliffe and Shepherds.
c.1842
Joseph Zaehnsdorf, an immigrant binder, founds the Zaehnsdorf bindery.
1897
Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe meet at a bookbinding evening class at the London County Council School of Arts and Crafts.
1 October 1901
The partnership of Sangorski & Sutcliffe is founded in a small attic room in Bloomsbury.
1905
Sangorski & Sutcliffe move to 11 Southampton Row, the birthplace of so many of their greatest works.
1988
Asprey takes ownership of Zaehnsdorf and amalgamates it with Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Our Conservation Department begins its work.
1998
Shepherds opens a hand bookbinding company in Rochester Row, Victoria.
2003
Shepherds acquires the paper retailer Falkiner Fine Papers.
2023
The bindery binds the bibles for the coronation of King Charles III, 70 years after binding the bible for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Sangorski & Sutcliffe est. 1901
The early years
Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe first met in 1897 at a bookbinding evening class at the London County Council School of Arts and Crafts in Regent Street, London.
Bookbinding was an important trade in London at that time and there would have been many apprentice journeymen wanting to improve their skills in a competitive job market.
Thirty students had applied to the Central School for the first course, making it necessary to offer a second class. Francis and George were chosen on merit and they soon became friends; their abilities must have made an impression on their teacher, because when Douglas Cockerell set up his own business in London’s Denmark Street, he engaged both of them to work in his bindery, Francis as a forwarder and George as a gold finisher.
The Cockerell bindery however was experiencing a downturn in work and the two young men were laid off. Undeterred by the poor economic climate, they decided to set up business together in a small attic room in Bloomsbury. The partnership of Sangorski & Sutcliffe, or S&S in its abbreviated form, was founded on the 1st October 1901.
Sangorski was an artist by temperament and for him the craft of fine leather binding and exquisite gold tooling was primarily a means of artistic expression.
George Sutcliffe was a very fine designer and craftsman, but he also had the business acumen and steady temperament needed to run a successful company.
By 1905, the rapid growth of trade forced them to move again, this time to 11 Southampton Row, which was to be the birthplace of so many of their greatest works. Within ten years Sangorski & Sutcliffe had grown into the most important hand bindery of the Edwardian era.
The Great Omar
Lost on the Titanic
John Stonehouse’s instructions were clear and unambiguous: ‘It has to be the greatest example of bookbinding in the world.’
Francis Sangorski’s task was to make the most remarkable specimen of artistic bookbinding the world had ever seen, and it was to take two years of continuous work before the book was finished.
Stonehouse was the manager of Henry Sotheran’s bookshop in London and his belief in Sangorski’s abilities gave him the confidence to back the project with these words:
‘Do it and do it well; there is no limit, put what you like into the binding, charge what you like for it, the greater the price, the more I shall be pleased; provided only that it is understood, that what you do, and what you charge for, will be justified by the result; and the book when finished is to be the greatest modern binding in the world; these are the only instructions.’
The book took two and a half years to complete and contained over a thousand precious and semi-precious jewels. The story of the book’s creation and its tragic loss on the Titanic has all the drama and intrigue of a romantic melodrama.
Sangorski’s masterpiece
Sangorski approached the project with his customary passion and enthusiasm and made many preliminary drawings. In total, he made six designs for the book: two to be used on the front and back boards, two for the endleaves and two for the doublures.
A frequent visitor to the Victoria and Albert Museum, he sought inspiration from the galleries of Oriental art. He visited London Zoo to make an accurate representation of a snake’s bite and, anxious to see for himself the precise manner in which the snake’s jaws open, he bribed the keeper to let him watch a snake feed on a live rat.
Borrowing a human skull from a friend in the medical profession, he made an accurate pencil drawing of the skull which formed the central motif of the back doublure.
No description of the Omar can avoid the statistics: 1051 precious and semi-precious stones, comprising rubies, turquoises, amethysts, topazes, olivines, garnets and an emerald, each in a gold setting.
It is recorded that the finishing alone occupied 2500 hours and incorporated 4967 leather inlays and 100 square feet of gold leaf.
Creating the digital Great Omar
Preserved in the archives are records of the binding in the form of detailed black and white photographs and glass-plate negatives, including detailed images of the doublures and endleaves.
Using the glass plate negatives of the front and back covers, a coloured digital image of the binding was produced in 2001 to celebrate Sangorski & Sutcliffe’s centenary, and this extraordinary image brought his achievement to the notice of bookbinders and collectors everywhere.
The resulting colour print of the Great Omar now hangs in binderies all over the world and serves as a potent reminder of the spirit of enterprise and innovation on which the company was founded. Copies of the print can be obtained from Shepherds in Victoria.
Zaehnsdorf est. 1842
The Zaehnsdorf bindery
The Zaehnsdorf bindery was founded around 1842 by the skill and perseverance of an immigrant binder, Joseph Zaehnsdorf, and remained in the control of the same family till 1947.
By the time of Joseph’s death in 1886, he was able to pass on a thriving concern to his son Joseph William Zaehnsdorf, who by then was also an accomplished bookbinder in his own right.
The bindery eventually settled in specially built premises on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Cambridge Circus. Zaehnsdorf occupied four floors of the building and along with the firm of Robert Rivière became one of the top two bookbinding companies in London.
The Cambridge Works, 144–6 Shaftesbury Avenue, continued as the Zaehnsdorf bindery till 1958. The building still exists and the ground floor is now a popular music store.
Joseph William Zaehnsdorf
Joseph William had already been involved with running the firm at the time of his father’s death and was establishing his reputation as a writer; his book the Art of Bookbinding was an innovative and forward looking book for its time.
Aided by his writing, Joseph William broadened the scope of the firm’s activities. He introduced classes in bookbinding, Sarah Prideaux being one of his most famous pupils. He opened a showroom to develop the bookselling side of the business and entered their finest work into international exhibitions. In 1893 he was elected to the Grolier Club of New York.
Alongside T.J. Cobden-Sanderson and Douglas Cockerell he was on the committee set up to examine the causes for the decay of leather bindings, a work of great importance in shaping new attitudes to book preservation.
Ernest Zaehnsdorf
By the turn of the nineteenth century, the firm was at its zenith and they gained the Royal Warrant of Appointment as bookbinders and booksellers to Edward VII and later, his son George V. Joseph William continued to run the company through the years of the First World War and retired in 1920, handing the business over to his son Ernest, the third generation of the Zaehnsdorf family to run the company.
In addition to fine binding, the firm established a reputation in the field of conservation, even employing a full time research chemist. In keeping with changing times, they published a brochure in 1932 titled A New Outlook on the Cleaning and Restoration of Books.
Ernest lectured on bookbinding and ran the company till 1947 when the firm was sold to a group of shareholders, including the booksellers Hatchards. After a number of ownership changes, the bindery was acquired by George Rainbird and it was under his ownership the bindery moved to Bermondsey in 1959. In 1965 George brought his son Tony into the business and when Colonel Bradfer-Lawrence bought the business in 1974 Tony became Managing Director and eventually sole owner of the company.
Asprey took ownership of the business in 1988 and amalgamated it with Sangorski & Sutcliffe. The Zaehnsdorf name now resides with Shepherds.
The book
The Cinderella of the Arts
A short history of Sangorski & Sutcliffe, charting the history of one of the most celebrated craft bookbinding workshops of the twentieth century.
The firm’s greatest achievement from the early years, a binding that was to become known as the Great Omar, was decorated with over a thousand jewels; the story of its creation and subsequent loss on the Titanic has all the mystery and intrigue of a romantic melodrama. The book also tells the story of the second Great Omar, created during the turbulent years preceding the Second World War.
Sangorski & Sutcliffe achieved many successes, but this is also the story of how a small manufacturing business adapted to economic pressures in testing times. The book examines the monetary and social conditions which led eventually to the closure of many of the larger firms.
A good deal of material has been published about the practical aspects of craft bookbinding. There are also plenty of books on the history of the craft, particularly from a design perspective, but very little has been written about the commercial binderies that flourished in the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries and the contribution they made to hand binding at its highest level. The story of one hand bindery highlights the significant role the professional trade has played in preserving this noble craft, a trade which Sangorski & Sutcliffe continues to this day.
- Published
- 2015, Shepherds (UK), Oak Knoll (USA)
- Format
- 275 × 210mm, cover 300gsm silk; 200pp + 8pp
- ISBN
- 978-0-9541072-1-5
- Price
- £38.00
Available in store at 30 Gillingham Street, or from the Shepherds online store.
Enquiries
Talk to the bindery
To enquire about our full range of services, please contact the Managing Director, Alison Strachan, or Daniel Wray, who is in charge of the Conservation & Restoration Department.