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Probably there is no other French 18th century binder who has had so much ink spilled in his name. Derome le jeune is well known, on the other hand his father, Jacques-Antoine Derome is the subject of much speculation. On this page I hope to find the line between where the work of Jacques-Antoine becomes that of his son Nicolas-Denis aka Derome le jeune. Louis-Marie Michon and Giles Barber have made a lot of claims about the work of both men however, on close examination, these claims fall apart. Now, suddenly the gods of dentelle bindings have thrown a clue my way…
when I saw this 1754 Derome dentelle on eBay I nearly fell out of my chair, here was a chance to put the Derome imprints under my microscope. In the past I have examined two particular bindings that would seem to have been the work of Jacques-Antoine Derome (see this). From this start in my investigation, I was able to trace the imprints all the way to the dentelle bindings of Derome le jeune. The question soon became where does the work of Jacques-Antoine end the that of Derome le jeune begin? Was Jacque-Antoine still making dentelles in 1754 or were they made by Derome le jeune? Nicolas-Denis attained his papers as a binder on the 31st of March 1761 however he was born in 1731 this means that he was 30 before he could officially work as a binder, what was he doing before this? Why didn't he become binder in his early 20s like many others who were born into a family of binders? Normally he would be working with his father from an early age, and fully versed in the trade long before 1761. Jacques-Antoine was born around 1696 and attained his papers as a binder in 1718 at the age of 22? By 1754 he would have been 58 and perhaps no longer able to do this kind of intricate gold tooled decoration that requires steady hands and good eyes. It seems logical that Derome le Jeune would/could have taken over the arduous task of dentelle work, perhaps as early as 1750. Certainly this could explain certain elaborate dentelles à l'oiseau that appear to have been made prior to 1761. However such speculation is just that, only speculation for now. In these pages we will explore together this subject and try to track the tools of Jacques-Antoine Derome. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see the highly accurate although blurred scan of the spine panel and palette compared with a high resolution photograph. The vertical scale of the scan is absolutely accurate, there remains only to resize the photo to match the vertical size of the scan. Because the spine is curved horizontally the photo will never be truly accurate as far as width goes. It is this palette that is so important, as it appears to be a favorite of Jacques-Antoine Derome and is found on bindings that span a period of 20 or more years, as it passed down to Derome le jeune and was perhaps even employed by Jubert in the 80's. To prove this we need to be able to securely identify these imprints. This palette is certainly one of the strangest that you are likely to encounter, looking as though it was created in the depths of the middle ages, we might call it, Derome's medieval palette. For Barber it is PAL 33, found in his tool catalogue without any fanfare in its description. How is this possible? The one tool that is absolutely the key to the early Derome bindings, remains without even an attribution! |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, I have collected a few examples of this unusual palette. In between our 1754 Office and the 1757 W.Cat.216, I have placed the 1524 Heures, that may have been bound in this same period, the spine panel corner tools (jad-46-6pair) as well as the palette are arranged in the same way. Note that the first example (1745) is a binding that we can definitely link to Jacques-Antoine Derome, it covers an undated Book of Hours with an interesting and sad history. These engraved Hours were dedicated to Marie-Thèrése, Infanta of Spain, daughter of Philippe V, Dauphine of France by her marriage to Louis of France, son of Louis XV, on February 23, 1745. Marie-Thèrése died the following year, July 22, 1746. These close dates allow a precise dating of the edition. |
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We see in Comparative Diagram 5, that Derome has used a large number of the same tools to construct these corner decorations. One might guess that these dentelle bindings are contemporaneous give or take a few years. I want to point out that the 1524 Heures was one of the most important decorative bindings ever made by Derome, covering a rare and very expensive manuscript (see this). A close study of the changes in the various tools used, might reveal a chronological order in these bindings. Certainly the roulette is one of the best indicators in this regard. It seems that certain roulettes were preferred for longer periods of time, if we could pinpoint when they change a lot of the guesswork might be eliminated. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, we have taken great pains to measure this relatively long roulette that may be close to 11.9 cm in length. My measurement for the 1754 examples gives a length of 11.89 cm based on 2400dpi scans, whereas the 1524 HEURES measured 11.93. However that may be due on part to my approximate digital reproduction. The hard part was trying to find where the roulette repeated. There are a lot of clues but nothing obvious. |
| In Comparative Diagram 7, we see a section of this roulette where you can definitely see that two of the dogtooth units are smaller and close together (touching). This roulette seems to be leaving a messy track, and that is obvious in both examples leading me to think that these roulette imprints are contemporaneous (imagining that such details will not last long?) |
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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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