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I made my first catalogue of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson imprints in May of 2007 and even from before that time I was determined to validate his story and return his name to its rightful place in the history of 18c bookbindings. I almost suspected that some sort of conspiracy was afoot and the main propagator was Louis-Marie Michon, I have detailed previously (see this) of how Michon was deluded by Gruel's revelation of a Jacques-Antoine Derome ticket in a binding that was obviously decorated by Dubuisson, however Michon translated the imprints as belonging to Derome and consequently attributed much of Dubuisson's work to Derome even going so far as to deny the evidence of Dubuisson's signature in an effort to protect his erroneous theory (see this).
Thanks to Michon, the work of Dubuisson had been swept under the carpet,
and it was so right up until I started my research, now after 15 years of intense study, I can safely say that I know what I am talking about when it comes to the decorative bindings of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson. |
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Let us look now at W.Cat.576 that is found in Giles Barber's 2013 publication: Printed Books and Bookbindings. Remembering that Barber may not have written the description of this binding (shown above) I suspect however, after ready many pages of his book, that he probably did. Here is a conundrum why would an otherwise intelligent man, who was not Michon, attribute this binding to J.-A.Derome? We know that Barber explored most of the important bookbinding catalogues in search of bindings and imprints that may have a connection with the bindings he was describing. Therefore it is totaly unlikely that he was not familiar with the many Dubuisson bindings in these catalogues, many shown with Dubuisson tickets, the most obvious being those on display in the Catalogues of the BnF. (see this) and this, here we can see on the spine of RES-V-2521
"Reliure en maroquin olive à décor rocaille (plaque) aux armes de la marquise de Pompadour, Paris, atelier de Pierre-Paul Dubuisson, vers 1755"
Paris. Bibliothéque nationale de France. Réserve des livres rares. RES-V-2521 the very same Dubuisson imprints that are found on W.Cat.575! But this is just a single example of dozens that I could show here. In describing W.Cat.576 Barber only manages to mention: FL 174, (the same as found on RES-V-2521), DCT 7, this is incorrect there is no such imprint not even a variable as he decribes it, FL 170 this not anywhere near to the actual imprint and INT 16, this is shown in my diagram as pd-7-4, Barber has illustrated it without the ring below it… this is one of Dubuisson's signature tools you will see it in the bindings shown on the previous page, and also detailed here and here and here and here So in fact Barber only recognizes 2 imprints from this binding that he attributes to Derome, and fails to mention any of the others, this in itself is unusual when, with most other bindings he records all of the important imprints. Why is he ignoring the other imprints? (shown in Comparative Diagram 1) I suspect that if he were to analyse and catalogue all the imprints found on W.Cat.576 he would open an enormous can of worms that would show, in fact, that the decoration of this binding has nothing to do with Derome. Let us imagine that he discovers the truth about Michon and Dubuisson. He would be forced to rewrite a large part of his book and change many embarrassingly wrong attributions. I suspect that he knew at this point that the J.-A. Derome story was false, however he had to continue to hide behind Michon's story. |
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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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