| The reproduction shown above is from Seymour De Ricci's French signed bindings in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection. Lecram-Servant, Paris, 1935, Volume II, No. 156. I made a page on this a some time ago (click here to see it), and while working on these new Gosselin pages I discovered another clue that seems to confirm that this very plain and austere binding could be the work of our famous master of dentelles. The same Gosselin that made this dentelle in 1791 |
| "Constitution de 1791 : décret de l'Assemblée nationale précédé de la Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen. Exemplaire manuscrit collationné sur l'original, Reliure de maroquin vert estampillée du médaillon de l'Assemblée nationale. la reliure mesure environ 32,5 cm de haut sur 22 cm de large Archives nationales, AE/I/10 N° pièce 1 © Archives nationales, France." |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we compare Barber's palette PAL 127 with the Ricci 156 example and the W.Cat.421 example as well as the 1785 Missale Ordinum palette shown on page 1. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2 we see again some matching palettes however the roulette of Ricci 156 is not exactly the same as the 177 palettes, very similar design but not an exact match. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, I have placed the Ricci 156 palette over the 177 example to create an overlay diagram where the 156 has been inverted to black, these appear to match exactly. In total then we suspect that Ricci is a Gosselin binding, as it normally should be which at the same time verifies the Gosselin ticket. One wonders if the terrifying events of the French Revolution and execution of Louis XVI, Gosselin's most important client darkened his decorative spirits to such a degree that he no longer made the elaborate dentelles that he once made for the King. At the same time such dentelles were quickly falling out of fashion in the eyes of the revolutionists and bookbinding decoration made a radical change from the elaborate dentelles that dominated the previous decades. A change that perhaps some saw coming even before the Revolution as the trend to neoclassic styles had already started in the 80's (see British Library example C42c9 FENELON Les Aventures de Telemaque, fils d'Ulysse 1784). |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see that the Ricci 156 Gosselin roulette repeats every 11.53 centimeters and is rotating clock-wise in comparison with the No. 177 Gosselin palette that is rotating counter clockwise. This palette is essentially the same except that it is a mirror image reversal and somewhat smaller. |
|
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 |