I saw this 1785 Almanach Royal on eBay almost the same day that I was working on the Gallica binding shown on the previous page, I knew full well that this must be a Gosselin binding but how much would it cost? The seller claimed that it was a binding by Derome le jeune, that is kind of an honest mistake considering that Barber would have said the same, this of course made it yet more expensive but then you have to remember that Gosselin was even better at making these dentelles than Derome. I have to tell again my story here about Marius Michel, no in fact you have to read it here.
Suffice to say that Marius Michal was one of the greatest bookbinders and decorators of the 19th and 20th century, he knew bookbinding decoration inside and out, as he spent his life working in this field as did his father. Now Marius never held back in his accolades of Dubuisson's work, we have to think that this was a huge compliment coming from someone who truly knew the art of bookbinding decoration. Michel did not know who had made the binding that he shows in his illustration XXII of his famous book La Reliure française but he equated the work to that of Dubuisson. i.e. decoration of the highest order, we know now that it was Gosselin who executed this binding and so too we also discover that Gosselin was certainly one of the best if not the best artist of his time. How is it then that we know almost nothing about him? That his name has been forgotten... below In Comparative Diagram 1, we see the reason. Gosselin was another binder who started his career working for Derome le jeune. The binding shown is from Barber's 2013 publication, I found the picture in a publicity brochure promoting his book, below the picture Barber wrote: "W.Cat.454 [The Dutchesse du Maine].Grandes nuits de Sceaux. 1715. Folio. Bound by N-D Derome with his ticket."
With all the work that Barber did, and his extensive catalogue of tools, he still did not know what was a Derome and what was not, and here we are talking about 2013! for hundreds of years this mistake has been perpetuated and still today it persists, no one recognizes Gosselin's work simply because they think it is the work of Derome who fooled the world with his phoney tickets. Anyway I just bought a beautiful Gosselin dentelle binding on eBay at a rock bottom price, when the world wakes up to who made what and what things are worth, what will they pay for a Rembrandt? Gosselin is the Rembrant of the late 18th century bookbinders, and his bindings are worth more than mere money.
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