| On the previous page I mentioned my search for Chenu bindings that are found on the 1766 publication "Traité général des élémens du chant. Dédié à Monseigneur le Dauphin, par M. l'abbé Lacassagne" by a crazy coincidence there just happens to be one on eBay (click here to see it) I show a copy of sellers reproduction above with a some slight modifications. This binding fits in with our collection of Louis Chenu bindings shown below in Comparative Diagram 1. The seller has provided some good photos including one of the spine. Then of course one has to look up Béatrix de Choiseul-Stainville, Duchess of Gramont in Wikipedia, here we find some amazing facts |
| Béatrix de Choiseul-Stainville, Duchess of Gramont (18 November 1729 Lunéville - 17 April 1794 Paris) was a French salonnière and bibliophile. She was the daughter of Franz Joseph Marquis de Choiseul, Marquis of Stainville, and Marie-Louise Bassompierre, and sister of Étienne François, duc de Choiseul. She was canoness of Remiremont. She was summoned to Paris, where her family attempted, at first but without success, to marry her to the Louis de Bauffremont, who eluded the alliance. Shortly after, Beatrix married Antoine VII, Duke of Gramont, governor of Navarre, which consented to the union. From then on, the Duchesse de Gramont had a salon, sufficient to rival Madame de Pompadour. An ambitious and firm woman, she was a distinguished bibliophile. When she was summoned in 1794 to the Revolutionary Tribunal, which was to condemn her to the guillotine, she was asked: "Did you not send money to emigrants?", She replied: "I was going to say no, she replied, but my life is not worth a lie!" |
| After getting lucky in finding this binding owned by the Duchesse de Gramont, I decided to search out any bindings associated with her, soon I discovered a set of books that were sold in a 2014 Sotheby's auction. I show the auction details below, as soon as I saw it, it struck me that the fleuron decorating the spine compartments might be the same as that in the eBay Gramont. |
| We see in Comparative Diagram 2, that it is entirely likely that Louis Chenu also decorated this set of Rousseau for the Duchesse and this then points to the probablilty that she employed Chenu to decorate a number of her bindings as she was a bibliophile with an important collection of books, in fact she must have been very rich if she rivaled Madame de Pompadour. |
| Following this idea that Chenu worked for the Duchesse de Gramont I decided to track down all the bindings with her arms even though they might not have a dentelle this brought immediate results. The spines of bindings shown above are decorated with the same fleuron as found in the Ricci No. 92 signed Chenu binding. The reproduction of this binding is found in an online Drouot ÉTUDE COUTAU-BÉGARIE auction catalogue. They have protected their image by ruining it so it is not going to look good enlarged. However in the interest of science we are going to compare some details. |
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In Comparative Diagram 6 we see that there is a good chance that this palette is the same one found on 1759 Baron spines. In total then we find that the ripple palettes on the tomb labels are the same as well as the lettering and the bottom palette. in this exercise we have come a long way towards identifying Louis Chenu bindings with or without dentelles. Below I show a set of 16 volumes that were bound by Louis Chenu for Béatrix de Choiseul-Stainville, Duchess of Gramont, they are found in the 1996 Librairie Sourget catalogue XIII, item No. 207, pages 492 and 493. Below this I have added the Sourget information about this item by the experts of Librairie Sourget who have added a comentary by Quentin-Bauchart "The duchess of Gramont's books are mostly recommended for the exceptional quality of the morocco whose color resisted the incisive action of time. The care with which has been executed the 'body of the work' justifies the enthusiasm they receive from bibliophiles and the prices sometimes high they get in public auctions". (E. Quentin-Bauchart, Les Femmes Bibliophiles de France, II, pp. 108-110). Louis Chenu was not only an artist, his bindings were of a high quality! |
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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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