| On the first page of this series of Louis Chenu pages I mentioned a set of signed Chenu bindings, now they have arrived and I was able to scan them as well as take some photographs, I have not finished working on this, but we can look at some of the first results of this study. At the top of the page I show this binding in a bit of sunlight, this gives a better idea of the color. The books are really in amazing condition, they must have been sitting on a quiet shelf for a couple of centuries, the gold tooling looks like it was applied yesterday. I show a close up photo of L.Chenu's signature at the base of all the spines, really the spines are identical to the De Ricci's No. 92 which I show in Comparative Diagram 1 with both bindings in black and white. While the spines are the same there are some major differences in the gold tooling, here we see different and larger tools and thus a smaller number of imprints over all as well as a more limited variation in the tools themselves. Also we see some large gold dots and rings that were not used in binding No. 92 |
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In Comparative Diagram 2 I have assembled the entire collection of dentelle bindings by Louis Chenu, found so far. The last discovery (C) was found on a 2004 Sotheby's auction page (click here to see it) The Sothebys auction information for this item is very interesting... "reliure de l'époque. Maroquin olive, armes centrales de Marie-Josèphe de Saxe veuve du Dauphin, grand décor de dentelle dorée, dos long, gardes de tabis rose, tranches dorées. Charnières frottées, quelques restaurations au dos (coiffes et charnières)." Marie-Josephus of Saxony, younger daughter of the King of Poland Frederick Augustus III and the Archduchess of Austria Marie-Josèphe, married the Dauphin son of Louis XV in 1747. Mother of the last three kings of France of the elder branch of Bourbons, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X, she died on March 13, 1767. This work appeared in 1766, shortly after the death of the Dauphin on December 20, 1765. It is dedicated to the new dauphin, future Louis XVI (Upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin). Marie-Josephus of Saxony remains a widow a year and a half she never recovered from the loss of her husband and died on 13 March 1767, also from tuberculosis. Copies of her widow's arms are extremely rare, Olivier and Quentin-Bauchart not mentioning any. |
| Here are some new imprints, these have not been found on any other Chenu dentelles, this perhaps indicates that this binding was made after 1766, I have cataloged this imprint pair as LC-35a and LC- 35b |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see something very surprising, the tools of Gosselin appear very similar to those of Chenu. We know that some of the bindings of Chenu date from as early as 1766 and probably earlier. This Gosselin example is from a supposed 1777 binding in the Bibliotheque nationale de France (click here to see it). If this is the case then it may be that Gosselin copied these Chenu tools and this is not the only example. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, we see again something quite surprising Gosselin using a tool that is too similar in too many ways to be anything other than a take off of this Chenu tool, a tool that Chenu used in his corners a sort of signature tool. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, we discover another Gosselin pair that looks to have been spun out of Chenu's tools, probably there are too many examples to put on this page, however to be fair Gosselin copied everyones tools, he had a full collection of lookalike Dubuisson tools, so many in fact that Marius Michel mistook his bindings for those of Dubuisson. It appears as though Chenu was working for Royalty before Gosselin or Jubert even started, I am wondering if the type 70 pairs were in fact a Chenu invention. Gosselin and Jubert went on to become the greatest dentelle makers of the last quarter of the 18th century, surpassing Derome le Jeune with the quality and quantity of their work. No doubt they owe part of their success to Chenu with his extravagant tools, gold rings and dots large and small. |
| I see now, after doing these pages, comparing and searching out imprints, that Louis Chenu fils well deserves to be on the binders list at the Bibliotheque national de France and declare it a scandal that he isn't! |
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click here to return to the HOME page. click here to see an INDEX of the 2017 pages. see below links to previous work |
| 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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