| The reproduction shown above is from the 1935 catalogue La bibliothèque de feu Édouard Rahir, troisième partie. I had been wondering about this binding for years, I could not identify any of the imprints with certainty, now in a lul between Douceur and Plumet, I chanced to look again at this binding, and bingo for the first time I could see something that I recognized, Plumet's tools! |
| This seemed to me like an amazing coincidence to stumble onto this binding, where we find together Plumet tools from the last three bindings that we have been looking at, almost as though Plumet himself was guiding the way. Here at last was the answer to my mystery binding, that I had been stymied by for so long. But the mystery is far from over. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we can identify the 114 imprints as being the same as those found on the Rahir 834 binding, however I have not found any other Plumet copies of the 834 imprints shown in Comparative Diagram 3. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, I show some imprints that are approximately similar to the Rahir 834 imprints, now known as pl-34a and pl-34b. I do not see these imprints in the Douceur collection although they seem very familiar somehow, I did not find them in Dubuisson's tools or Juberts although the Barber FR 59 might be a Jubert tool, I do not remember it being in the Derome collection. This then will be an important imprint to find in another binding. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we see the Plumet birds compared with Douceur birds, these are not the same. As far as these birds are concerned we do not see a mixture of Plumet tools and Douceur tools. |
| I found at last this same binding reproduced in Rahir's earlier catalogue, Livres dans de Riches Reliures des Seizième, Dix-Septième, Dix-Huitième et Dix-Neuvième Siècles. RAHIR (Édouard) Published by Paris: Damascène Morgand Rahir Successeur, 1910. Here the reproductions have been made with a photogravure process, and are far better than those you will any modern catalogue, the full sized reproductions can be enlarged to 1200 dpi with a significan loss of detail. I show an example in Comparative Diagram 5, click to see this enlarged to 1200dpi. In this 1910 catalogue this binding is No. 171a and is described with the same text. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, I have extracted a pair of Plumet imprints that he has used repeatedly in a number of bindings, this an important imprint to know and study. These enlargements give us an invaluable tool to identify Plumet imprints, and also enable us to begin our high resolution catalogue of Plumet imprints. |
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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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