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When I first saw this Derome binding in Barber's 2013 publication, my mind went into a state of shock, below the binding Barber had written... "Binding c.1747 ascribed to J.-A. Derome" WHAT???
Jacques-Antoine Derome was making better dentelle bindings than Derome le jeune was making more than 20 years later! I had to read the Barber's information on this binding more than once. This book belonged to the wife of Jean Paris de Monmartel, her name was Marie Armande de Bethune and her bookplate was inside the front cover. According to Barber's notes she died in 1753. Barber also notes (OHR 515 which produces another dentelle binding for her, on a book of 1748). Well that just about clinches the situation W.Cat.42 could not have been bound by Derome le jeune in 1747, it must be the work of J.-A. and in which case the famous caged bird must also belong to him, mystery solved! I was in a daze I could not accept this, this is impossible I said to myself... there must be an explanation somewhere, so I decided to investigate Jean Paris de Monmartel, who is easy to find on wikipedia. I had to read his whole fascinating history to finally get down to his wives, and what do we find ... "His third marriage (1746) was to Marie Armande de Bethune (1709 - 1772)" she died in 1772 not 1753! Crazy Barber put me through all this trauma for nothing. At least I understand now the cause of his hard to believe attributions to J.-A. Derome. This however is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his attributions to the Deromes. (note: one small incorrect detail can ruin a book that you have spent years working on). |
| The next Derome binding W.Cat.238, may have been decorated in 1773 according to Barber's interpretation of the end paper watermarks, The decoration looks very familiar but was it done by Jubert? |
| The next binding W.Cat.690, appears to have a completely new set of tools including the corner tools, this didn't phase Barber who attributed it to Derome le jeune anyway. Mainly I suppose, due to a Derome ticket inside, however this binding is obviously strongly affilliated with the BnF G 370 bindings that date to 1779 according to Derome tickets found inside. |
| This next binding is found in the Bibliothque nationale de France. (Reserve des livres rares. RES-G-370) . They attribute this binding to the workshop of Derome le jeune, however they also say that it was executed somewhere around 1770 to 1785 even though Derome's ticket inside has a hand written date on it of 1779. They also say that this binding is one of 21 more or less identical folio sized dentelle bindings. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see that the BnF RES-G-370 binding shares many tools with W.Cat.690. These appear to be the tools of Jean-Pierre Jubert, we do not see any obvious Derome tools in the dentelle. |
| In Compartive Diagram 2, we compare known famous examples of the Derome imprint dj-4 Barber's caged bird tool CB 4. this is the most common form of this tool. We can see that the imprint found on the spine of the BnF RES-G-370 is clearly not the same tool. This variant is not found in Barber's catalogue. In as much as Jubert has decorated most of this binding with his own tools we might be led to suspect that this is Jubert's fake Derome bird. However in the early part of Jubert's career when he was employed by Derome to decorate certain bindings we see a mixture of Jubert's tools with those of Derome. Thus we cannot be too sure of which tools are who's, perhaps this bird is one of Derome's spare bird tools. The question boils down to whether or not Derome himself decorated the spines after Jubert completed the dentelles. Barber has catalogued the Jubert tools found on this binding as being those of Derome le jeune he has done the same with Gosselin's tools and also those of Delorme. The result is total confusion in terms of tool and binding attributions. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3 we show from Barber's catalogue his tool model CB 4 that he correctly attributes to Derome. However he has failed to notice the difference of the BnF RES-G-370 example and is clearly mistaken in his description of these imprints as being CB 4. |
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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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