| The binding shown above can be found in a 2019 Sotheby's online auction catalogue BIBLIOTHÈQUE JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHAPONNIÈRE : UNE COLLECTION GENEVOISE (click here to see it). This is quite a recent auction and Sotheby's offer a stunning high resolution image of this binding. My first impression was that this is an early Dubuisson dentelle, now after a closer examination I am not so sure. |
|
In Comparative Diagram I, we see the complete collection of tools that went into the decoration of this small binding. There are some tools here that I have never seen, which is a surprise as I have seen so many Dubusson dentelles and mosaics, I have given these new imprints, provisional catalogue numbers. I cannot remember seeing a Dubusson dentelle that has been based on this imprint, pd-17-2, and it is here for the first time that I study carefully this important corner tool. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see the true purpose of the design, this imprint is meant to form a complete unit. Before seeing this dentelle I thought the shoulders of this tool were a bit excentric but it never dawned on me that when it is matched up as shown in this diagram the shoulders fit together to form a miniture fleur-de-lis at the join. Rarely if ever do you see this imprint used in this double arrangement, however I learned quickly while making this diagram that these small imprints must be perfectly aligned back to back to fit well enough so as to form the fleur-de-lis shape. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3 you can see the mastery involved in this corner that resides upon precision in the order of tenths of a millimeter i.e. the thickness of a human hair. I would like to remind the reader that when this was made, centuries ago, the artist did not have the luxury of retouching a mistake with photoshop, here he was working with red hot irons and molten gold, any mistake would be impossible to fix, in short there was no room for mistakes, an absolutely steady hand was needed as well as total confidence in one's abilities. |
| I have made Comparative Diagram 4 very carefully to show something that is beyond what we would think of as being humanly possible. If it is you or I, we start at one end and by the time we reach the other there is a gap or overlap, nothing would fit this perfectly and how could you know exactly how much to adjust for in overlap. A mathematical person would measure everything very precisely and mark out the exact location where each of these imprints should be placed. I suspect however that this is not the way it was done... the first thing to know is that the size of the tool, pd-17-2, is perfect to cover this exact surface in the way that it has been done. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, I show the imprint pd-15, we have studied this imprint before, and thanks to a high resolution photo from Isaiah Cox we know that there was a significant hole in this imprint as early as 1747 when it appears in a Padeloup signed binding that was decorated by Pierre-Paul Dubuisson. This hole is missing from our Sotheby's example. How can this be explained? When you look closely at the imprints we see that there is a lack of detail in our example, in the Isaiah imprint we can make out six separating lines that divide the skirt into seven segments, this sixth line is missing from the Sotheby's example, suggesting that the hole was filled and the line disappeared with this repair... if this is what really happened, it might suggest that this is not such an early dentelle by Dubuisson. |
|
click here to return to the HOME page. click here to see an INDEX of the 2017 pages. 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. |
| Virtual Bookings, created by L. A. Miller | return to the Home page of VIRTUAL BOOKBINDINGS |