| The reproduction shown above is from Seymour De Ricci's French Signed Bindings.... Louis-Francois Lemonnier, perhaps better known as Le Monnier, signed a good number of his bindings, stamping the bindings in gold with his specially made MONNIIER and FECIT stamps as can be seen in this example, (see the enlargement below.) |
| Le Monnier must have decided to make these covers without using a single recognizable traditional fleuron type of tool, this is an intensely creative exercise, that might not be to the taste of everyone. I have a feeling that Le Monnier was not too concerned with how the world would receive this tour de force. The doublure found inside is of a more recognizable style and here we find some imprints that will allow us to trace the Monnier bindings. |
| The first thing that strikes me about this doublure is how much it resembles the work of Padeloup. We know Monnier received his papers as a binder in 1737, we can imagine then that he was an apprentice for quite a few years before that. so he was in the thick of the Padeloup era, and possibly a great fan of Padeloup. This binding by Monnier reflects the school of Padeloup with its geometric patterns, comparable to the Padeloup binding shown below, from the British Library Davis749. Monnier's work lacks the perfection achieved by Padeloup as fars as geometric pattern is concerned. |
| The binding shown above and below are from Manuel historique et bibliographique de l'amateur de reliures by Leon Gruel 1887. The first is a Le Monnier mosaic dated to 1757. Here we see some similarities with Dubuissons mosaics of the same period, such as the all over backgound of pointille dots on a cream colored leather and geometric mosaics in the spine compartments. |
| Below I have included Gruel's notes concerning these two bindings that he considered some of the most wonderful bindings to have been made in the 18th century. He was a huge fan of la reliure d'art. in the late 19th century and perhaps saw Le Monnier as being ahead of his time. |
| In this second part of the text, he continues to describe the PLANCHE B binding, inside of which is found Le Monnier's ticket that proclaims himself to be the official and only relieur and doreur of the Duc d'Orleans. I am fairly certain that he would rather we call him Le Monnier instead of Lemonnier. |
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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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