This book is titled "Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam, The Astronomer-Poet Of Persia, Rendered Into English Verse, Third Edition, London: Bernard Quaritch, Piccadilly 1872", and the book is bound by Riviere, one of the great bookbinders of the 1800's. The book has five raised bands, with six simple gilt-ruled compartments with gilt leathering in one panel and "1872" in gilt at the bottom of the spine. The covers are bound with beautiful geometric flames in green best French crushed Levant, beautiful marbled endpapers with two gilt fillet borders and heart designs in the corners on the front paste-down, and with "Bound By Riviere & Son" stamped in gilt in the lower right corner of the front paste-down, then the title page and a page with the printer's information - the book was printed by G. Norman and Son in London at Maiden Lane in Covent Garden - then a 22-page biography about Omar Khayyam (iii - xxiv), 36 pages of text in English, and the top edge is gilt. Bernard Quaritch (1819 - 1899) was a German-born British bookseller and collector who established a publishing company in London in 1847; the company dealt in rare books and manuscripts and moved to Piccadilly in 1860, and among the books he published was Edward Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyám's poetry collection "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam". He was also the agent for the publications of the British Museum and the Society of Antiquaries, and the business survives to this day. Riviere bindings may be dated approximately by the stamped signature inside the front covers: "Bound by R. Riviere, Bath" means it was bound between 1829 and 1832; "Bound by R. Riviere" means it was bound between 1832 and 1840; "Bound by Riviere" means it was bound between 1840 and circa 1860, and "Bound by Riviere & Son" means it was bound after 1880. The heirs of George Bayntun of Bath bought out Riviere & Sons and the two companies merged as the Bayntun-Rivière Bindery in 1939. The book is 8vo. and measures 8 5/8 x 6 3/8 in. wide, with a tight binding and clean pages and text. There are a couple of faint brown spots on the blank endpapers in front, and specks of rubbing at the heel and crown, and one tip is slightly turned in at the bottom, and that's it. The covers are exquisite, with an Asian or Middle Eastern motif, and a book that deserves to be in a collection with other fine bindings. #86 #1682