| The reproduction of the binding shown above is found in the 1935 publication: French signed bindings in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection. With: British and miscellaneous signed bindings in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection. By Seymour de Ricci. In 4 volumes. Published by New York, MCMXXXV (privately printed), (Printed in France by Lecram-Servant, Paris), 1935. This very expensive set of reference tombs lacks an alphabetical index and thats only the beginning. Still it is about the only place that you will find a reproduction of two of Pierre Ventes dentelle bindings. I did not find one in the Bibliotheque nationale de France and you can search for hours on the internet and never find one. Only De Ricci has this one and another that is a poor reproduction. however that reproduction, that we will examine on the next page, allowed me to finally identify a binding that I had often wondered about. One thing is certain, Vente was a skilled artist with great sense of design, he created luxurious dentelles that are amoungst some of the best that were made in the latter half of the 18th century. He is another great artist and master craftsman who history has forgotten. |
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I have reproduced above, what Leon Gruel wrote about Pierre Vente in his famous work called Manuel Historique et Bibliographique de l'Amateur de Reliures, Paris, Gruel & Engelmann éditeurs, MDCCCLXXXVII, 1887, 1887. gr. in-4to, 4 ff. 186 p. + 1 f. de table, avec 66 planches en noir (héliogravure) et en couleurs (chromolithographie) h.-t., Un des 700 ex. Gruel left us only one example of Vente's work and its not one that will help us to find the more elaborate dentelle bindings
such as the Almanach shown at the top of the page. Gruel does mention that Vente aquired a licence to sell books in 1764 and probably there was more money to be made in selling them than in decorating them however we can see by the date of the Almanach that Vente was still doing this kind of work in 1768. Thoinan tells us a part of the story about Pierre Vente that Gruel left out and also we can confirm some of what he reported from a small catalogue item about Vente found in the BnF (click here to see it). If you just enter "Pierre Vente" in the main catalogue of the Bibliotheque nationale de France you will not find this. You have to know all the tricks of the internet to get information from the BnF. Anyway the story goes like this, Vente received his papers as a binder in 1748, and in the same year he was arrested for selling pornographic material and thrown in the Bastille for nearly 2 years. Voltaire was impressed with a binding that Vente had made for him, (I suppose before he went to prison) and recommended Vente to one of Louis XV's best friends, maréchal-duc de Richelieu, and a few short years after he was released from prison Vente landed a great job, Nommé relieur des Menus-Plaisirs du Roi par brevet de déc. 1753, according to Thoinan, Vente was awarded this post without having to go through the normal proceedures, at least 4 ducs signed the paper to authorize it... Ce brevet, daté de Versailles du 20 décembre 1753, était signé par les ducs de Richelieu, d'Aumont, de Gesvres et de Fleury, qui mirent en marge leurs armes en cire d' Espagne. This patent, dated December 20, 1753, in Versailles ,was signed by the dukes of Richelieu, Aumont, Gesvres and Fleury, who stamped the side of the document with their seals in wax. Somehow Vente acquired some powerful friends... on reflection we see that Voltaire as well as Richelieu both wound up in the Bastille in their youth so perhaps they had this in common, that lead to a camaraderie with Vente. From this time onward Vente made money, moved in Royal circles and had business arrangements that were the envy of his peers. |
| The first thing I noticed about this 1768 binding by Pierre Vente is the imprint shown in Comparative Diagram 1, it appears to be identical to Gosselins imprint gos-14. A tool of this shape was perhaps first used by Dubuisson however in a much larger size Derome le jeune had an identical copy of Dubuisson's tool as well as a smaller model, which is similar to the Gosselin tool but far from identical. Now we see Vente with this tool, but Vente could have been the originator of this tool, I think that Gosselin started his career a good many years after Vente so we don't know at this point who copied who, however these imprints although looking identical are probably not. |
| You will notice in the enlargement of the top of this imprint in Comparative Diagram 2 certain differences that could not be due simply to differences in the reproduction, or lighting, or application strength. It is strange that both binders should possess tools that are so nearly identical that no one could tell the difference (without magnification). One has to be a clever copy or a double made by the same craftsman who fashioned the first. |
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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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