| Just when you think you have seen all of Delormes treasures I find another, this reproduction is from a 2010 Alde auction catalogue BIBLIOTHÈQUE VINCENT LABOURET that you can see online (click here to see it). Delorme has placed one of his signature fleurons, pd-63 in the centers of the plaques decorating the corners. This ornament appeared as a permanent fixture in the interior corner of most of his two plaque oversized Almanach Royals from around 1769 to 1774. We have enough examples to indicate that he made dozens if not hundreds of these over that five year period, and should be famous for these bindings alone. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, and 4, we see that the spines of this Fables set share many common features with a binding featured in the British Library Database of Bookbindings Maps 7 Tab 118, that we have studied carefully on page 25. Our research on the plaques used by Delorme on that binding indicates that it could not have been made earlier than 1773/1774. The close correspondence of the Fables spines would then also suggest that these bindings were decorated by Delorme c.1770 despite the fact that the Fables themselves were printed at least a decade earlier. This famous set of books has become one of the most sought after and valued of the18th century publications, sets as beautifuly decorated as these easily fetch over one hundred thousand euros even though the identity of the artist who decorated this set has eluded all the experts until now. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, I have managed to find the length of this large roulette flanked with drawer handle roulettes. This roulette resembles in some ways dentelle border du louvre that is created with single units, defined by Barber in his WRE category (Tools List 18, page 465) he references Jeanne-Marie Métivier who has illustrated a number of examples in her paper entitled , ''La reliure à la Bibliothèque du roi de 1672 à 1786'', dans Mélanges autour de l'histoire des livres imprimés et périodiques, sous la direction Bruno Blasselle et Laurent Portes, Paris, 1998, p. 139, Figure 4. However Delorme's roulette here is an actual roulette that only looks as though it might be composed as are the dentelles du louvre. |
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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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