| I have already mentioned Barber's epic work: Printed Books and Bookbindings: The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor (2 Volume Set) by Barber, Giles, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK: The Rothschild Foundation, 2013. and here again I show part of his Tool Catalogue as it refers exactly to these Dubuisson roulettes. In his description of ROLL 1 he lists W.Cat. 404, unfortunately he does not show this binding, however he does give a description of it... |
| ... from this description we know, by the presence of 'CB 2' that this is a Dubuisson binding. Barber does not attribute it to Dubuisson because he has been confused by it appearing on a binding decorated by Dubuisson that has a Padeloup ticket inside and assumes then that it is one of Padeloups tools however I doubt this theory knowing as well as Barber, that Dubuisson decorated many bindings for Padeloup. There is no real evidence that Padeloup owned or ever employed 'CB 2' while there is irrefutable evidence that Pierre-Paul Dubuisson often used this tool throughout his life. Padeloup was decorating bindings years before Dubuisson and developed a very particular set of tools that he often employed. Working with the same tools for decades, nowhere will you see 'CB 2' in a decoration where the usual Padeloup tools are found, in fact nowhere will you see 'CB 2' and any other Padeloup tool together on the same binding, therefore Barber 'ascribing' this tool to Padeloup as he does in his description of 'CB 2' (shown below) is proof that he was not an expert on the tools of Padeloup or Dubuisson. |
| I had the great good fortune to acquire a Dubuisson 'dentelle à l'oiseau' very early (2010) in my research. It was made possibly in the mid 40s and here we find the original 'CB 2'. I was able to scan these imprints and study them in high resolution. Now I have acquired another Dubuisson 'dentelle à l'oiseau' that was executed in 1759 or the following year and the bird is not exactly the same. There are some small differences that Barber should have noticed. I show these in Comparative Diagram 1, they become more obvious when enlarged. You will notice that Barber has included W.Cat 647 in the 'CB 2' list. I show this below and have included Barber's description as well as his reproduction of this binding, and here we find some interesting information that pertains also to our 1759 example. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see in the decoration of both bindings the 'CB 2' variant pd-4-2, we also find the same inner roulette ROLL 2, as well as the same palet at the base of the spine PAL 28 arranged in an identical configuration of filets. In the dentelle design pd-4-2 is placed in the same mid dentelle position on both sides of the board. A number of other Dubuisson tools have been employed., this then suggesting that these bindings were quite possibly decorated around the same period and not in 1770 by Derome as Barber has falsely asserted. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we compare the W.Cat.647 spine with that of our 1759 spine. Notice the fleurons found the middle of the spine panel on both sides of central star of the Order du Saint Esprit (DST 48).These are FL 42 and barely visible but present in the same position on the much thinner 1759 panel. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, I show Barber's FL 29, this is mentioned in his description of W.Cat.647 as well as FL 42 that he did not mention. His only reference for FL 42 is W.Cat.574. Now if you happen to read his description of this binding, you will discover an amazing salad of utterly false information. We know now in this year of 2024 that these tools belonged to and were used incessantly by Pierre-Paul Dubuisson, not J. A. Derome. |
| On the next page we are going to look at another 1757 Dubuisson Armorial binding. This example is certainly some of Dubuisson's best work and was magnificently reproduced in Rahirs catalogue. This same binding was also reproduced by Seymour de Ricci who included a reproduction of the inside of the front board showing the all important inner roulette. With these combined reproductions we have a maximum of information that we can compare with our 1759 example. |
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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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