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The binding shown above is found in a 2015 Alde auction catalogue Collection Michel Wittock sixième partie and can also be found online. I noticed in the description "dauphin" and had to search to find it, as the photo in the catalogue is not very large, only with magnification can you really see it. They further mention "dentelle droite dorée ornée de petits fers dorés" here is a an interesting detail as normally in the past these 'dentelles' were carefully and mutinously executed, one tool at a time, however our research reveals that later, this was not always the case. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see a spine detail from a 1734 binding that I have described on a previous page (see this) compared with the 1737 example these look like they were made with the same tool. Notice as well that the 1737 spine panel has been made with the Dubuisson spine panel plaque SPP-1 |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, I have manipulated the Alde photograph of the 1737 binding. I wanted to make a test of the 'dentelle' to see of i could discover repeating elements, for this I needed to correct all the strips of this dentelle. This is actually simpler than what you might imagine, because the binding has been resized to it's exact vertical size, where there is almost no distortion, and the binding then made perfectly squared by removing the perspective. Then taking a vertical strip of dentelle and rotating it to match the horizontal strips, here we see that the elements do not line up, and that the binding must be made wider. by trial and error we can get the horizontal strips to match the vertical, and voila we have all the strips the same size proportionately. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we have juggled these dentelle strips to find identical elements (indicators). At first this is not so obvious, until you have found something that matches up. The blue arrow 'A' is pointing out an oversized hole (click to see the enlargement). the green arrow 'B' is pointing to something a lot less evident, it is that the central dot of this palmette is smaller less distinct and lower that the others, Dark green arrow 'C' is pointing out an important defect, the dolphin here is missing it's pectoral fin, this can be seen quite easily in all examples. The dark blue arrow 'D' is pointing out the only case where the palmette arms are so closely spaced as to be touching i.e. the only case where the palmettes are touching with no space between them. Now isn't this interesting, what does it prove? That this is not a real dentelle, this is in fact a cleverly made roulette that imitates a dentelle, and we can see that many have been fooled into thinking that these imprints have been laid down one by one as they would have been in the case of a traditional dentelle. Now that we have identified this roulette absolutely we can call it the dolphin and crown roulette (pd-r-d+c) the next example is very mysterious.. |
| The 1739 Almanach Royal shown above can be found in a 2019 Sotheby's auction catalogue Bibliothèque Jean-François Chaponnière. (see this) |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we compare a roulette strip from the 1737 example with the 1739 strips. These are obviously matching strips of the Dubuisson dolphin and crown roulette, and I am tempted to say 'ah ha' we have identified at last this mosaic. However a quick examination of the some of the imprints in this mosaic has not yet yielded anything definite in this regard. It may be that this mosaic was added afterwards by an as yet unidentified decorator however unlikely as that may seem. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5 we see Barber's FL 169 pair and description, I have previously catalogued this as a Plumet pair (see this) Pierre-Paul Dubuisson also has similar tools from around 1750. There are some important differences such as the berry that Barber omitted to mention, this berry seems to have taken the place of an upper leaf in the pd-72 pair. (see this). The René Dubuisson examples are from the 1730 mosaic (Tenschert 59) and again we could question whether René Dubuisson was the author of these mosaics. Notice that the berry in the René Dubuisson examples are placed in the same fashion as the Pierre-Paul Dubuisson examples. One might question the fact that these tools are different, logically Pierre could use his fathers tools for this work and this suggests that the tools shown as belonging to René Dubuisson may not actually be his. |
| In Comparative Diagram 8 we see that the Dolphin and Crown dentelle roulette was in use at least 10 years, although probably reserved for certain Royal clients. The large full cover plaques, were also in use in the later half of same period as well as other dentelles that we may briefly review on the next page. |
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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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