I was introduced to the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám as a child in a small boat bobbing about in the fog on the Pacific Ocean. My step-grandfather, at the helm, recited

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,
Lift not thy hands to it for help – for It
Rolls impotently on as Thou or I.

It stuck with me.

So I was delighted when this was brought to me for repair. The book had been bound and tooled by my client’s mother. The book itself was in excellent condition, but it’s protective box less so. That indicates not only that the box had done it’s job well but also that the book has clearly been well loved through the years.

The box was cleaned up and repaired with Tyvek toned to complement the colours of the original leather, which was treated and consolidated.