| I discovered this set of books in a 1999 Librairie Sourget catalogue N°XIX Manuscrits et Livres Précieux. The tomb label is strikingly similar, I have reproduced it below in Comparative Diagram 1, along with our 1744 eBay example both shown at the same scale. In as much as this Sourget example may be from 1734 it is perhaps no surprise that this is the only matching element that can be shown between these two bindings. However there is more to this story, I found this Sourget example after finding an almost identical binding in another Sourget Catelogue. |
| The reproduction shown above is from Librairie Sourget catalogue N°XXI Manuscrits et Livres Précieux published in 2000. In Comparative Diagram 3, we can see that these two sets of bindings have been decorated with the same tools, they obviously derive from the same workshop. Here however we see that there is a another striking similarity with our 1744 eBay binding, shown in Comparative Diagram 4. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see that the saw tooth (sharks tooth) palette is very similar if not identical with our 1744 binding. The design layout of the spine compartments is also remarkably similar although it is only the sharks tooth palette that can be linked to the Dubuisson workshop thus far. It may be a coincidence that the arms of this 1729 Fontenelle are the same as those of our 1744 binding, belonging to the duc d'Aumont. I show them reproduced below in Comparative Diagram 5, they are shown at the same scale, the 1729 example is somewhat larger however almost identical. |
| We have now dropped back in history to 1729 with this last example, the question is whether or not these bindings were executed by René Dubuisson. The Fontenelle binding is said to contain Padeloup's ticket and is thus naturally attributed by the Sourget experts to Antoine-Michel Padeloup (1685-1758). However Ernest Thoinan tells us in his famous work Les Relieurs français (1500-1800). Paris 1893, something incredible about René Dubuisson who recieved his papers as a master binder on the 6th of October 1710. Thoinan states that René was mainly a dorer "he only applied the gold" and worked "mainly on Colombats, and Almamachs" he worked for other binders who could not do it themselves. René had an admirable set of guilding tools and we are led to believe that Antoine-Michel Padeloup didn't have enough material or time, and asked Rene to decorate the large and necessarily sumptuous bindings, bindings in which Padeloup afterwards, glued his ticket. When Padeloup died in 1758 he still owed Rene 3519 livres 13 sols from a court case brought against him by René in 1752. |
| "Il est dit dans un mémoire imprimé à propos de ce procès que René Dubuisson ne s'appliquait qu'à la dorure et était un des relieurs « qui tenoit le plus des Colombats, Almanachs, etc. ». Pour cette raison et parce qu'il entreprenait pour le compte de ses confrères certains travaux qu'ils n'auraient pu faire chez eux, il était admirablement outillé. On doit croire qu'Antoine-Michel Padeloup, n'ayant pas les presses ou balanciers suffisants, s'adressait à lui pour l'exécution de ces grandes publications somptuaires dont la reliure porte son étiquette, car, à sa mort, il redevait à René Dubuisson 3519 liv. 13 sols, à la suite d'une sentence prononcée contre lui par les juges-consuls statuant commercialement en 1752." |
| This is a huge amount of money, considering that René was doing other work as well. On another page we have seen that the average tradesman might have made about 500 livres a year in the mid 18th century, and that bindings might have cost from 4 to 10 Livres, for Padeloup to have owed this amount suggests that René probably decorated most (hundreds) of the large bindings that have been so long attributed to Padeloup, I suspect that Pierre-Paul Dubuisson is included here in this work for Padeloup, as I have pointed out a number of cases where we find the ticket of Padeloup in bindings that have been decorated with Dubuisson tools. Therefore all of these facts now seem to point to the strong possibility that the bindings shown above were decorated not by Padeloup but by René Dubuisson! |
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| 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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