| The binding shown above is found in the 1997 Librairie SOURGET - CATALOGUE N° XVI MANUSCRITS et LIVRES Précieux, lot No. 91. I have included below part of the lot description. This huge folio binding covers a very rare publication of which only 30 examples were made. In the lot description we read that there are a number of different publications included with this volume, some of these also date to 1787. My first question is whether this binding was made possibly in 1788 or later. They also state that this binding was made by Derome le jeune and that his ticket is found inside. We know now that Derome died on the 28 of February 1790, and observe that in the later part of his career he was not making dentelle bindings, and perhaps by the time this binding was made, not making any more bindings at all. Whatever the case, the elaborate gold tooled dentelle that we see on this binding was not made by Derome le jeune. |
| Some years ago while researching the bindings of Jean-Pierre Jubert, I made a page that describes a binding that is very similar to this one (see this page) It is another binding said to have a Derome le jeune ticket inside, and I went to great lengths to show that the gold tooling was not that of Derome but rather it was the work of Jubert with the tools of Jubert. Below in Comparative Diagram 1. I show a corner of that dentelle (Planche XXXIX) compared with a corner from this Sourget example. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we can see that these two dentelles were executed in an identical fashion with many of the same tools, this is the work of Jean-Pierre Jubert. Nothing annoys me more than to read the continuous flattery heaped upon Derome le jeune and the claims that he was the most talented binder of the 18th century, when the authors of these statements do not even know that the elaborate dentelle they are raving about, WAS NOT the work of Derome! |
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In Comparative Diagram 2, I provide proof of my claims, here we see the very important corner tools of not only Jubert and Derome but also of Dubuisson who was probably the inventor/designer of the tool to start with. This was Dubuisson's signature tool, it was copied by Derome (possibly J A Derome) in an attempt to imitate the work of Dubuisson. There is an easy way to know the difference between the tools of these binders, the central dot immediately below the palmette is simply a dot in the case of Jubert (Barber DCR 8), Derome has a simple ring instead (Barber DCR 6), and Dubuisson has a dot inside a ring. As pointed out with a small arrow in example 'C', Barber does not have a Dubuisson pd-12 example in his DCR imprints, he does show the smaller pd-12-2 as DCR 4 and Deromes dj-12-2 as DCR 3. However I must not fail to mention that Jubert obviously worked as a doreur for Derome, we can see in his early works that he incorporated some of Derome's tools in his dentelles. In 1788 Derome would have been in his late 50's and already good few years older than men might expect to live in the 18th century, he had spent his whole life in the binding industry, and worked already 27 years as a professional binder, running his father's shop. He had clients at the top of the social ladder, Kings, Queens and the ultra-rich. Small wonder then that he would pay Jubert to do this huge binding rather than slave over it himself. However by this point in time Jubert had also made bindings for rich clients such as the Queen, Marie-Antoinette, I suspect that he would have charged Derome a handsome price for such a binding. On the other hand Derome would have probably asked a fortune for this binding and made money on the deal... this is only speculation and may not even be close to what actually happened, I am only trying to point out that, it may be entirely possible that a real Derome ticket is inside this binding and that Jubert made this dentelle knowing full well that the binding would be offered to the client with Derome's ticket inside. |
| Now as if by a wonderful coincidence I have noticed the very imprints we were looking at on the previous page (click here to see this page). I have placed these in Comparative Diagram 3, and although we are at the limit of enlarging these imprints to anything that could be called accurate, we can still see that these imprints are probably the same and even though they are found in this dentelle with Juberts tools, we have found these tools in Deromes early bindings and speculate that they might actually be tools that were passed on to him by his father Jacques-Antoine Derome this remains however to be proven. |
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click here to return to the INDEX of the Etiquette pages. click here to see more Jean-Pierre Jubert pages. click here to see the INDEX of the 2017 pages. click here to return to the HOME page. see below links to previous work |
| 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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