| On a previous page I referred to high resolution images providing irrefutable proof and on another page I was speaking of the need for another signed binding by Pierre Delorme to be able to link him to the Etat bindings. Now as if by a miracle, divine providence has guided me to just what was needed the missing link. I show it above, it is found online at the Belgian Art Links and Tools, website, and although it doesn't look so impressive now with its golden foils worn off and being the worse for wear, the important thing is that BALaT provides us with a powerful zoom tool with which we can inspect this binding and all its detail. Their higher resolution zoom is one of the most powerful zooms anywhere, here we find at last, high resolution images. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see that all these imprints derive from the same tool, where as before with poorer quality images you could have questioned this, but here we have irrefutable proof and we can now definitely say that Delorme and the Etat bindings are undeniably linked. Below I show another 1777 BALaT imprint that I have not seen on any bindings by Dubuisson or any Etat bindings yet it leads us to another highly interesting Almanach Royal. |
| We see in Comparative Diagram 2, that these imprints are identical, even though the British Library example is from a relatively low resolution photograph, the match is undeniable. We can see also, what probably is the same imprint that can be seen in Comparative Diagram 1, however here is where high resolution imprints make a clear difference, where as with the lower resolution images we often can only speculate, I suspect that there are a number of other imprints that derive from the tools of Dubuisson, such as the trident pd-7 that we have examined in connection with the Etat bindings (see this page) |
| Below in Comparative Diagram 2, I show an Etat signature imprint that was kept in use right up to 1789 or later and appeared on bindings for perhaps 30 years, similarly the Dubuisson plaques were kept in service decorating certain Almanach Royals for those who could pay for such luxuries. Was this the work of Pierre Delorme working in the Dubuisson workshops? Everything seems to point to this conclusion, we see in his mosaic bindings of the 70's the same tools that were being applied when Pierre-Paul Dubuisson was still alive in the 50's. Especially here in this 1777 BALaT example we see Dubuissons original pd-21 pair, the high resolution images allowing us to confirm this strange fact. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5 we see 4 sets of identical imprints, they all derive from Almanach Royal delux mosaic bindings that range in dates from 1769 to 1778. Delorme signed the 1776 binding, and he declaired himself Dubuisson's successor in 1769 (see this page) and I see little reason to doubt this, and further more if we take into account the Etat bindings as also coming from this same workshop, we begin to realize that Delorme was also a binder and decorator of talent who's name ought to be as well known as that of Derome le jeune. Perhaps one day it will be and the Etat bindings fetching the high prices that they deserve. Who sent the Temple of the Gnide to Queen Charlotte? Who paid Delorme to bind it? No one will be surprised it it turns out to be Marie Antoinette herself! |
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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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