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Poesies Paris, Didot l'aine, 1781. 12mo (134x176mm), pp. [ii] 180, 192. Two vols. in one, contemporary blue-black morocco gilt, covers with border of small leaf, double fillet and fleurs-de-lys rool tools, smooth spine divided into six compartments, gilt-lettered in one, a repeated gilt panel of small tools in the rest, broad edges and turn-ins gilt with circles, small flowers and other rolls, pink silk linings and page markers, a.e.g., by Derome le Jeune, with his ticket, slight wear to upper corners and headcap, modern half morocco chemise and morocco-edged slipcase, half-titles, ornamental woodcut head- and tailpiece decorations. Provenance 1) Mortimer L. Schiff, bookplate (sale, Sotheby's, 5 July 1938, lot 660) 2) P. Desq, bookplate. Seymour de Ricci, French Bindings in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection (New York and Paris 1935), I. 58. (PL) |
| The reproduction shown at the top of this page comes from SYMONDS RARE BOOKS (click here to see it) we are going to examine this binding by Derome le jeune very carefully as we have the luxury of a full complement of color photos. Added to this we have Seymour De Ricci's description of the same binding, now we will know what he means when he is describing... "Edges - A roll-tool of double zig-zag lines and small circles," ... a picture is worth a thousand words. |
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Seymour De Ricci, was a well respected expert in many domains, however he has failed us a few too many times in this book French Signed Bindings in Mortimer .Schiff Collection. When you are a highly respected expert your errors are going to be perpetuated a long time by minor experts who have not yet grasped the situation. The endless references to your Padeloup example that is actually a Dubuisson, or your Derome example that is actually a Dubuisson, and it's all very neat and tidy your facsimilies of Derome's etiquettes within the text, however a day will come when someone actually decides to verify these things. Below I show De Ricci's No. 58 Derome etiquette example extracted from his text and enlarged to 600dpi and below it I show what should be the same etiquette extracted from the Symonds photo of the actual etiquette. Even if my reproduction is not completely accurate as far as size is concerned, nor as sharply detailed, we can still see that the De Ricci example is NOT the same etiquette. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see the Ract-Madoux Group 'E' etiquettes. The size of the etiquettes can be ignored to a certain extent as the Ract-Madoux examples were printed larger than actual size. What we can see is that the De Ricci 58 example, as shown, is perhaps an E 3 specimen where as the actual etiquette is perhaps a E 1 or E 2 or maybe neither, perhaps an unrecorded type. The termination of the letters seems like the easiest way to identify each type. If there are in each type 4 similar but not identical models, then its going to be a field day for imitation etiquettes, a well made fake will be virtually impossible to identify. In the Ract-Madoux theory on multiple copies of the same etiquette, an identical etiquette is likely to be a fake one. |
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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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