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French Decorative Bookbinding - Eighteenth Century

imitation Douceur 1765


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I found this Almanach Royal by searching through all the old Auctions at Sotheby's. One line of thinking is that an Almanach is very likely to have been bound in the year it was printed, this gives us a strong chronological grasp on the imprints. The corner tool is very important on these later and or post Douceur bindings as we have seen on page 10. As soon as I started to compare this corner tool with one on a 1764 binding that is sure to be a Douceur (due to possessing d-13 imprints), I ran into a huge can of worms.




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Comparative Diagram 1 - 1764 Douceur binding vs 1765 binding
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Comparative Diagram 2 - 1764 imprint d-11-3 vs 1765 corner imprint
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In Comparative Diagram 2, we see that the corner tools are not the same, the look similar however the 1765 imprint has been reversed from the usual positioning of this imprint. we do not need an overlay to see that these are not the same, just in size they are different, now this presents us with a problem. Next we try to look at a tool that Barber has cataloged as FR 43.


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Comparative Diagram 3 - FR 43 vs 1765 imprint
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Comparative Diagram 4 - FR 43 overlay 1765 imprint
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When you look at these FR 43 imprints you can see right away that the 1765 imprints look like the same imprint, however when I did the overlay, Barber's type model was fully 10 percent larger, when I enlarged the 1765 binding 10% , the imprints matched so well, I was really baffled The 1765 binding on a Royal Almanach was stated to have a height of 19.4 cm, this is the standard height of many of the Royal Almanachs so we can be reasonably sure it is correct, how can we explain that Barber's model is 10% out? In Comparative Diagram 4, I have resized the 1765 binding to see just how closely they match up.




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Comparative Diagram 5 - 1765 imprint vs BnF, RLR, RES-V-724 imprint
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I was really starting to get worried, something was wrong if this 1765 was authentic... then I had a brainwave, I decided to test an imprint from a Doucer binding in the BnF. This would proove one way or another if Barber's type model was the right size, and if there was a size discrepency, the BnF imprint would show it, sure enough there was a size difference as you can see in Comparative Diagram 5, however this is an amazing copy of Douceurs tool, even at high resolutions you can be fooled, overlays did not reveal anything particular. When you know they are different you can start to search for something telltale. I have marked it with a green arrow, it is in the termination of the outermost leaf where you can see something is a little bit different. If anything the shape of the copy is better than the original. This points out again, how size and measurement are critical comparative elements. When you know the exact size of a single imprint you can use it as a way to resize a binding of unknown dimensions, and very accurately, therefore just the reverse is true if an imprint is 10% smaller than it should be the binding must be proportionately scaled.


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Comparative Diagram 6 - imprints d-31a-3 and d-13b-3 vs 1765 imprints.
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In Comparative Diagram 6, we see again that the 1765 imprints only look similar but are not exactly the same. This is satistfying in a way because it partially confirms that the imprints that we were looking at on the previous page are in fact from Douceur's tools.





click here to return to the INDEX of the 1749 Henault pages.




click here to see the INDEX of the 2017 pages.


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see below links to previous work






Atelier I B 31/10/2014





Icons of the Renaissance 06/02/2014





Atelier au trefle 22/12/2014




Atelier Royal 1518 - 1524 09/11/2014





Unraveling G. D. Hobson's book on fanfares 27/11/2014





16c fanfare on eBay 23/11/2014




another Padeloup binding on eBay 07/12/2014


the last Padeloup fanfare?


Rare Padeloup binding on eBay 15/11/2014



Pierre-Paul Dubuisson's work attributed to Derone le jeune 23/10/2014 (unfinished work now finished)


Pierre-Paul Dubuisson's work attributed to Douceur 22/10/2014 (an under contruction page finished at last)


Louis-Marie Michon - the 1956 Disaster 19/10/2014 (an unfinished page finished at last)


Louis XII Dolphins motif 03/02/2014


Aristophanes Binder 1543 02/02/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - Atlas Catalan 12/01/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier - Linacre bindings 05/01/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier c. 1500-1520


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier - Chronology 16/01/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier - Inventory - binding No. 29 19/01/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier - Inventory - binding No. 39 19/01/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier - The mysterious disappearance of François Tissard d'Amboise 23/01/2014


Atelier des reliures LOUIS XII - FRANÇOIS Ier - The Simon Vostre fiasco 18/01/2014


L'Atelier Simon Vostre 1486-1521 01/01/2014


L'Atelier de Pierre Roffet 1511-1533 - TOOL CATALOGUE 26/01/2014


L'Atelier de Pierre Roffet 1511-1533 27/12/2013


Pierre Roffet - fleur-de-lis binder 28/12/2013


Fleur-de-lis Binder 1525-1540 27/11/2013


Du Saix Master 02/12/2013


Atelier Étienne Roffet 1538-1549 12/12/2013


Atelier Jean Picard 1538-1547


Imitative Binder c.1540 15/12/2013


Salel Binder 1540 17/11/2013


Atelier Ruette 1606-1669 INVENTORY


Atelier Macé Ruette 1606-1644


Atelier du Maitre Doreur 1622-1638


Atelier Antoine Ruette 1638-1669


Atelier des Caumartin 1652-1715


Atelier de Charenton 1670-1685


Atelier Luc-Antoine Boyet 1685-1733


Atelier Antoine-Michel Padeloup. dit Le Jeune 1685-1758


Atelier Louis Douceur 1721-1769


Atelier Pierre-Paul Dubuisson 1746-1762


Atelier Nicolas-Denis Derome, dit Derome le Jeune 1761-1788


Atelier Jean-Pierre Jubert, 1771-1793?


Atelier MM binder, 1770-179-?





A word of Caution

Even experts are sometimes wrong, before you spend thousands on a book, please do your own research! Just because I say a certain binding can be attributed to le Maitre isn't any kind of guarantee, don't take my word for it, go a step further and get your own proof. In these pages I have provided you with a way of doing just that.

Virtual Bookings, created by L. A. Miller return to the Home page of VIRTUAL BOOKBINDINGS

l.a.miller@mail.pf