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These two roulettes are a very important way of determining the attribution of some of the most famous 18th century French bookbindings. So many attributions, up until now, have been incorrect, hundreds of bindings have been attributed to Derome without real proof. Here we have at last irrefutable truth. I was very lucky to be able to buy bindings that contained these roulette examples and I have scanned them mercilessly at high resolutions. You can buy books that show these roulettes but the reproduction in them will never be as accurate or as useful as these that I am presenting here. Fortunately we have Giles Barber's examples to confirm that these are indeed what I claim they are. Barber makes a reference to Paleloup in his description of Roll 74 by noting the presence of a Padeloup ticket, this is very disconcerting considering the fact that this roulette has very little to do with Padeloup. This roulette is found everywhere on Dubuisson bindings, if Barber did not know this, I am totally surprised. Here is where I become a conspiracy theorist… why does Barber refuse to admit the obvious while at the same time attributing everything to the Deromes, this is a great mystery. In the end the truth must prevail and the just deserts will go to those who merit them. |
| I have to thank again Erick Aguirre for sending me these photos of Spaccio de la bestia trionfante 1584 (Musée du Petit Palais cote 85) This famous mosaic binding has a Jacques-Antoine Derome ticket inside, however how does Jacques explain this Dubuisson roulette inner dentelle? Erick has done an amazing job researching a number of mosaic bindings with Derome tickets inside. It appears that most of these mysterious bindings were executed by the same person. Erick has affirmed that this Spaccio was made sometime between 1755 and 1756. Fortunately I have thoroughly researched the mosaic bindings of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson in the same period (see this) and can show that the small imprints found on the Spaccio binding derive in fact from some of Dubuisson's favorite tools. |
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In Comparative Diagram 4, I show a pair of Dubuisson imprints greatly enlarged, these appear in many of Dubuisson's early mosaic bindings (see Comparative Diagram 7 on this page). This very small pair of imprints are hard to see without magnification however have some distinct characteristics that make them easy to recognize. the head of pd-49a is much larger than its mirror double. We can see them clearly in the spine panels of the Spaccio and this leaves no doubt this is the work of Dubuisson. Today I was searching the internet for information about this Spaccio de la bestia trionfante 1584 binding and came across the web site of Paris Musées, les musées de la Ville de Paris, a very modern nightmare where you will not see anything unless you are a member of some sort, gone are the days when information was easy to access and free. However on a page supposedly about Spaccio. we see Etiquette - Etiquette portant le nom du relieur: Jacques-Antoine Derome (Label - Label bearing the name of the bookbinder: Jacques-Antoine Derome). I did not manage to see anything all, the images are all hidden (why?) but you can be sure that all the top authorities in France are unanimous that this mosaic binding was made by Jacques-Antoine Derome… unfortunately they don't know what they are talking about. |
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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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