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257 - J.-P. Jubert. Reliure à la dentelle, aux armes du Comte d'Artois. Vers
1781. 8° B. 12011 Rés. Les deux plats de cette charmante reliure de maroquin rouge aux armes du comte d'Artois (Olivier, 2550, n° 6, mais d'après le fer du petit module) sont ornés d'une fine dentelle comportant, entre autres, le fer à l'oiseau, avec le bec tourné à gauche, semblable à celui de Derome. Dos plat, à faux nerfs ; compartiments ornés d'une fleurette au naturel et de petits fers. Dentelle intérieure. Gardes de tabis bleu au bas de chaque plat se lit, en lettres minuscules la signature : Jubert F. sans elle, cette reliure mériterait presque d'être attribuée à Derome le jeune ; quoique la dorure de ce maître soit d'une autre finesse, la présence ici du fer à l'oiseau, comme la petite dentelle à l'intérieur des plats, semblable à celle qui se trouve sur des reliures de Derome, risquerait de donner le change. Le décor, par sa composition et les fers employés, est très voisin de celui qui orne la reliure recouvrant le recueil de neuf pièces de thèâtre aux armes de Marie-Antoinette, reliure signée comme celle-ci et reproduite par Gruel. Jean-Pierre Jubert, reçu maître en 1771, passe pour avoir été le relieur de Marie Antoinette, mais il est surtout connu pour avoir relié quantité de petits almanachs souvent ornés de glaces. Il fut député de sa corporation en 1789 et, vers 1792, céda son atelier à son beau-frère Janet. |
| The photographs of the signed Jubert binding shown above were taken at la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, at my request by Erick Aguirre to whom I am greatly indebted. I discovered the existence of this binding in a BnF publication Trésors de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal : [exposition, Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 26 mars-22 juin 1980] / [préface de Georges Le Rider] (Click here to see it). This binding was in the exposition but is not illustrated in the catalogue, listed as No. 257, on page 124. |
| This is truly an important binding, from which we can collect high resolution imprints, with which we will be able to indentify with confidence other Jubert bindings. Below in Comparative Diagram 2, we see a high resolution example of one of Jubert's fer d'oiseau jj-4. This stylized bird is a sure sign of a Jubert binding, easily identified from the similar tools of Dubuisson or Derome. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we see a typical Jubert corner construction that employs as a crowning fleuron jj-6 (click here to see a catalogue of Jubert imprints) This fleuron became very popular in the last quarter of the 18th century with many binders employing similar tools, however such a tool was never used by Derome or Dubuisson. If you see this Imprint or anything similar you can be sure that the gold tooling was not the work of Derome le jeune. |
| In 2017, I wrote about a Jubert binding held in the Bibliotheque nationale de France (click here to see this), at that time I did not go too far in my analysis, and wrote to the BnF about the injustice of this binding not being recognized by them. Their page was never corrected or changed (click here to see it), Reliure en maroquin rouge à décor à la dentelle pour Marie-Antoinette, reine de France a beautiful dentelle binding by Jubert for the Queen of France, RES-V-3049. I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised that nothing has changed, the BnF has never heard of Jean-Pierre Jubert, as you will discover if you search their database of binders. However this lack of expertise on the part of the BnF goes even further as they have attributed two of his bindings to Derome le jeune! |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, I show the jj-4 imprint from this 1781 signed Jubert binding compared with the same imprint found on the BnF RES-V-3049, the overlay clearly showing that these imprints are identical. Below in Comparative Diagram 7, I have extracted the imprints from the two corner details side by side in Comparative Diagram 6. Interestingly not all the imprints are the same. Jubert has added new tools in both examples. |
| In Comparative Diagram 7, I have arranged imprints extracted from these two bindings, the Jubert 1781 signed binding and the BnF RES-V-3049 Queen Marie-Antoinette binding. Also included are imprints from the Jubert catalogue, we see two new pairs of imprints jj-33a-3 and jj-33b-3 along with jj-33a-4 and jj-33b-4. In the same diagram we see examples of Derome le jueune imprints of the same type that are similar yet different. Also an example of a J A Derome tool that appears occasionaly in Juberts dentelles (or he has had identical tools made) |
| Now we come to something unexpected and mysterious, something that I did not notice 2 years ago. We see in Comparative Diagram 8, details from the spines of 4 bindings, first our signed 1781 Jubert with his classic signature fleuron in the center of the panels, you will notice that the corner tools in these panels are the same as those that were employed in the corners of the BnF RES-V-3049. This to me suggests that Jubert decorated both of these spines, however next to these are the spines of bindings by Derome le jeune and J A Derome. Look carefully, the same palette that was used by J A derome in 1745 is found on the Derome le Jeune spine as well as Jubert's BnF Res-V-3049 Queen Marie-Antoinette binding. We can speculate here for hours about this, a binding made by Jubert around 1780 with the same J A Derome palette, how did it happen? Did Derome loan Jubert his father's favorite palette, family heirloom? Did Derome himself add this detail to Jubert's binding, if so why? Remembering that Juberts other signed binding was also made for the Queen and she wouldn't be fooled into thinking that Derome made these bindings simply on viewing this palette. Stranger than this is the palette itself, utterly primitive and ungainly, why would anyone want to use it? |
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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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