| On the previous page we were looking for imprints that might proove that this 1768 Office was in fact decorated by the MM Binder. At first I wasn't so sure but now after a more thorough search I have managed to dig up some proofs even before this book arrives in the mail, mainly due to the high quality of some of the sellers photos. Below in Comparative Diagram 1, we see some great examples of an imprint that I had previously catalogued as mm34a-4 and mm34b-4. In all of these examples we see that the imprints are found in the center left and center right of the dentelle. They serve as the base of floral bouquet compositions, that are further embelished with large gold dots. These mm34-4 examples are also capable of being in an inverted position as can be seen by the example on the left, click on this image to see a 600dpi enlargement. |
| The next imprint that made me wonder, one that I didn't remember seeing and did not catalogue when I was doing the MM Binder pages early 2010, but have now found, and named mm-9-2 due to the fact that it has some affinity with mm-9. Below I show a corner of a large binding where it can be seen. The catalogue notes state that this book was printed without a date, however further states that the armorials covered by the author BEAUMONT (Pierre-François) were up to date as of 1783. When we compare the corner tools used (see comparative Diagram 2 on the previous page) we see some of the same tools and arrangements as found on the Marius Michel Planche XXII, Instructions données à Lapeyrouse pour son voyage de découvertes autour du monde, Louis XVI, 1785. The imprint mm-9-2 is only found so far on this 1783 example, suggesting perhaps that it was only used in this time period. |
| Below in Comparative Diagram 3, I have added the MM Binder imprint catalogue numbers (see the 2010 catalogue), to both the eBay and the 1774 Almanach Royal. This was an interesting exercise in as much as I found all the 1774 imprints already in the 2010 catalogue, however there are a few on this eBay example that I have not seen or catalogued. When I first saw the binding on eBay the imprint that I now show as mm-1 really bothered me, I know I have seen it before and more than once, yet now without all my catalogues close at hand I am not sure where, anyway it will be okay to call it mm-1 for the moment, as I left that open. Also mm-5, I have never seen it before but imagined it was likely to turn up. I made this diagram originally to point out mm-10-2. This "corner" imprint is shared only with the 1774 Almanach. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5 we see mm imprints verses the same sort of Dubuisson imprints which were then later found in the Etat bindings. The green letter "a" indicating differences in this claw shape, "b" showing the difference in stem length in this part of the imprint, "c" indicating a difference in the gap, between the small stem leaf and the ball shaped ending of the stem, "d" also pointing out a difference in this claw. It seems that the MM Binder had tools that copied Dubuisson's tools, and these were employed in the same way, so that the MM binder's work resembled that of Dubuisson or were in the style of Dubuisson. In as much as Derome also imitated Dubuisson with nearly identical tools and design arrangements, the bindings of the MM Binder have often been attributed to Derome, as indeed the French Bibliotheque Nationale today continues in this error. I have not however discovered this pd37 tool model in the Derome collection. It may be that this tool is a way of quickly showing that a binding is or isn't a Derome. There are a number of other tools used by both Jubert and the MM Binder, that are not part of the Derome or Dubuisson tool kits, There is a strange parallel in the fact that Derome had a set of tools nearly identical to those of Dubuisson, and the MM Binder had a set of tools nearly identical to those of Jubert. On the next page we are going to look at high resolution scans of the MM Binder tools. |
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click here to return to the INDEX of new (2017) pages. click here to return to the HOME page. see below links to previous work |
| 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. |
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