| On the previous page I have shown that the spine panels of Tenscherts 1732 Almanach Royal (61) have been decorated with the same small plague (SPP) as our 1743 eBay example which then can be shown to be a Dubuisson tool. Many Almanach Royal bindings can be shown to have been decorated by the Dubuissons, however this 1732 example (shown above) appears to be an exception, we cannot look at the decoration and perceive it as being decorated with the more familiar Dubuisson tools. I have often wondered if we could separate the tools of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson from those of his father René. Indeed there are few tools that I identify as being those of René with the exception of some roulettes. Mainly due to the fact that we don't have examples that we can confidently attribute to René himself. We know/suspect that some of the early Almanach Royals were probably decorated by him while we also know that Boyet decorated a good many of the early ones too, this is an easy call because we can see recognizable Boyet tools in these bindings. However we do not have to get bogged down in this speculation, my first question is, could all of the imprints found on this 1732 Amanach Royal be those of René Dubuisson, have we found at last a trove of his tools? Another very intriguing question is why is there such a close correspondence in this "all over mosaic design" with the decoration of Louis Douceur several years later? |
| In Comparative diagram 1 we see Tenchert 58, 1728 mosaic Almanach Royal decorated with the arms of Louis Antoine de Pardaillan. My first inspiration was to search for bindings bearing the arms of Louis Antoine de Pardaillan, who turns out to be.... |
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"Louis Antoine de Pardaillan (5 September 1664 2 November 1736) was a French nobleman, marquis of Antin, Gondrin and Montespan, and first Duke of Antin.
The legitimate son of Louis Henri de Pardaillan, marquis of Montespan, and Madame de Montespan, he was carefully raised by his father at the Château de Bonnefont in Gascony with his older sister Marie Christine. He came to court in 1683 then set out on a military career, with his father gaining him a commission as lieutenant.
Thanks to his 1686 marriage, he was able to enter the circle of the Grand Dauphin. His wife, Julie Françoise de Crussol, was a grand daughter of Charles de Sainte Maure, Duke of Montausier and a great-grand daughter of the famous marquise de Rambouillet.
He was also an ally of his half-brothers the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse, legitimised bastard children of Madame de Montespan and Louis XIV. However, despite his best efforts, he was unable to win the king's favour and, after he made an error in maneuvering his troops at the battle of Ramillies, he was even dismissed from the army in 1707. Yet, later in 1707, Madame de Montespan's death brought her son Louis Antoine the bequest of Château de Petit-Bourg at Évry-sur-Seine and, more importantly, royal favour when he was finally rewarded by being made governor of the Orléanais (1707) then head of the Bâtiments du Roi (1708). In the latter role he gained particular access to the king." |
| Thus we learn from Wikipedia that Louis Antoine de Pardaillan's mother was none other than Madame de Montespan! Why am I mentioning this? Only because it shows us that René Dubuisson, in 1728 was already at the top of the social scale as far as his clients are concerned... |
| "Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan - ( Madame de Montespan); October 1640 27 May 1707) was the most celebrated maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XIV, by whom she had seven children. Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some the "true Queen of France"' during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV, due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time. Her so-called "reign" lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king's younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, at the Louvre Palace, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680s. Her immediate contemporary was Barbara Villiers, mistress of King Charles II of England. She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg." |
| A google search for "aux armes de Louis Antoine de Pardaillan" did not turn up any similar bindings with one fortunate exception that I now show below. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, I have assembled these three mosaic bindings that share common characteristics and imprints that can be linked to René Dubuisson's bindings of the Almanach Royal. These resemble closely the work of Louis Douceur that arrives almost a decade later (see below). |
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1739 Office de L Quinzaine de Pasque
latin-françois, à l'usage de Rome et de Paris. Paris, aux dépens des libraires associés, 1739. In-8, maroquin lavallière, décor mosaïqué de pièces rouges et orné aux petits fers, constitué d'écoinçons chargés de petites fleurs de lis, de pièces en amande dessinées par des jeux de compas formant des fleurs, chargées elles-mêmes de fleurs de lis ou autres, de deux quadrilobes chargés d'un coq, quatre tulipes, deux coeurs chargés de mains d'amitié, et petits disques chargés de bottes d'épis ou grappes de raisin, armes au centre, sur le champ divers petits fers, dont l'oiseau et le coeur traversé par deux flèches, dos orné du même vocabulaire ornemental, doublure et gardes de papier dominoté doré, tranches dorées sur marbrure, boîte-étui de maroquin bordeaux avec intérieur de basane bronze, de Mercier succ. de Cuzin (Reliure de l'époque). SUPERBE RELIURE MOSAÏQUÉE, sortie de l'atelier dit « à la tulipe ». Cet atelier utilisait un décor caractérisé par le fer à la tulipe, les pétales en amande réalisés par un jeu de compas, et de nombreux petits fers emblématiques. PRÉCIEUX EXEMPLAIRE AUX ARMES DE FRANÇOISE-MARIE DE BOURBON (1677-1749), duchese d'Orléans, veuve du Régent. Fille de Louis XIV et de Mme de Montespan, Mademoiselle de Blois avait épousé en 1692 le duc Philippe d'Orléans, Régent de France. Il est cité par Michon, Les reliures mosaïquées du XVIIIe siècle, n° 214 bis, qui retient une autre reliure de ce même atelier portant les mêmes armes (n° 335, Heures présentées à Madame la Dauphine), n° 1144 du catalogue von Wassermann. Il fait une erreur, ce n° 335, qui est notre reliure, doit se confondre avec le n° 214 bis. De la bibliothèque Eugène von Wassermann (Bruxelles, 1921, n° 1144). Mouillure marginale aux premiers feuillets, quelques rousseurs. Écusson sur le titre découpé. |
| In the past I have looked at these reliures mosaïquées à jeux de compas by Louis Douceur (see this). A close examination of the imprints found on the Douceur bindings reveals that they are not the same as those found on the 1732 Almanach Royal at the top of this page. Did Louis Douceur copy this so called "jeux de compas" from the work of René Dubuisson? |
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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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