| "An extraordinary and strictly contemporary binding, made by the author and soon-to-be Royal Bookbinder Pierre-Paul Dubuisson, with the painted arms and cypher of Maria Leszczyńska, Queen of France. A meticulous and delicate work of a bookbinder at the apex of his career". |
| Before we start our examination of this classic Dubuisson decorative masterpiece, I want to remind you, the reader, that Dubuisson was a man of many talents. Most other binders past and present did not have such a wide range of creative and inventive abilities or mental prowess. He was above all an artist. He was a skilled painter and illustrator as well as a master of the art of gold tooling as the bindings shown here prove and have proved for centuries, still looking as new as the day they were made. What miracle is this treasure to have existed so long without losing its shine or glory. Dubuisson must have also been a great perfectionist, historian, inventor, scientist, a mason and thus well versed in the mysteries of numbers and symbols. He was I am sure, the right man at the right time, a multi talented genius to whom few, if any, could compare. We need to read this book of his to discover the depth of his passion with armorial design, to imagine that anyone could master this vast collection comprised of thousands of complex patterns and symbols is alone a staggering accomplishment. If you happened to be a wealthy nobleman in mid 18th century France looking for someone to add or create your personal arms for the cover of a book that you just bought, obviously you would have had to turn to the specialized talents of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson. |
| I show at the top of this page a reproduction of one of Dubuisson's most famous creations, it can be found online in a 2021 Christie's auction catalogue. In the Christie's information about this binding we see that they mention that this binding was also reproduced in the 1910 catalogue of Librairie Morgand-Rahir, Livres dans de riches reliures, no.217. This is a truly amazing reproduction that has never been equaled. |
| In Comparative 1, we see that the Rahir 1910 reproduction is superior to that of Gilies Barber's W.Cat.647 (2013 dot matrix), this is quickly observed when comparing the so called bird tool 'Cb 2' that is actually a variant (pd-4-2) while my 1200dpi scan is better than both. The first thing that strikes me as a bit odd, the triple fillet is not exactly the same. This might be termed two fillets and a dog-tooth roulette. The teeth are not as closely spaced in the no.217 example and the straight filets are of a different thickness, where as the W.Cat.647 example and the 1759 example are probably the same, being both with 16 and a half units in the same distance while we see 17 in no.217 however this needs to be tested more rigorously (see Comparative Diagram 4). |
| In Comparative Diagram 2 we encounter some mysterious differences. It would appear that the differences in these imprints are very minor yet they cannot be ignored this is not the same set of tools. And yet these bindings were probably executed within a year or two of each other if that. What can be the point of making tools that are so similar you cannot really see the differences with the naked eye. Such differences are also easily masked by a heavier application of gold. We might suppose that these tools were lost or borrowed and duplicates made. In certain cases where a client might want his set of bindings to be identical even though they may have been printed separately over a period of years, then there is an obvious necessity of keeping the tools looking the same if one was misplaced, broken, borrowed or stolen. |
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In Comparative Diagram 3, we see Barber's ROLL 1 roulette compared to examples extracted from copies of Dubuissons 1757 armorial. At the top of the diagram I show the Ricci No. 15, under this is an example from the Christie's Armorial shown at the top of this page, below this is the inner roulette from the plaque binding shown on page 4, All three examples are ROLL 1 that repeats itself every 8.9 cm, while our 1759 inner roulette is Barber's ROLL 2. The question is, why was a different roulette employed in 1759? We know that Pierre Delorme who was Dubuisson's successor and possibly an apprentice in the Dubuisson workshop, also employed ROLL 2 in the post Dubuisson period. Perhaps we are seeing in the 1759 dentelle a transitioning to Delorme taking over a certain amount of the gold tooling work. |
| I met my match doing Comparative Diagram 4, finding parts of this roulette that match up was no simple task and my eyes started complaining while I was forcing them to do this work. Finally I managed to get them to align fairly well before discovering the flaw that makes the job really simple and removes all doubt. It was hiding out in the open where one does not usually expect it. The light green dots were the last that I employed and indicate an accidental cut in the fillets, while all this time I was searching for an identifier in the teeth of the dog tooth roulette. Finding this was a great relief and allowed me to measure very accurately this roulette (10.35 cm) is actually one tool laying down three different things at the same time. Click on this diagram to see it enlarged to 600dpi. You will notice that the fillets are not the same thickness and thus this tool is not the same one that was employed on the 1759 binding as per Comparative Diagram 1. Whether or not the term "dog tooth roulette" really applies here is, at the moment an undecided issue, even Google is not very helpful although I do remember seeing this somewhere, perhaps in relation to a Padeloup decoration (or was it Ruette). Barber shows a single example that he describes as a "dog tooth roll". |
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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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