| Now I would like to return to the binding that we looked at on page 7 W.Cat.42 . We pointed out that Barber mistakenly believed that the owner of this book died in 1753 which meant that the binding had to have been made before that date, and therefore had to be the work of J.-A. Derome, from there he when on to attribute a wide variety of bindings to J.-A. Derome. However it turns out that the W.Cat.42 binding could have been made as late as 1771 or 1772 the year when the owner passed away. I am going to present here some evidence to support such a theory. But first I want to address Barber's statement in his information about W.Cat.673. "The roll on the turn-in (ROLL 75) as well as the corner ornament (DCR 6) and FR 7, 10, 18 on the covers are the same as those used, a generation earlier, by Padeloup and J.-A. Derome (see W.Cat.42)" This is categorically incorrect, for one Padeloup never had or used such tools, and secondly there is absolutely no evidence that J.-A. Derome ever used such tools. W.Cat.42 was not decorated by J.-A. Derome in 1770! |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, I have isolated the various imprints found on W.Cat673, I show my original catalogue numbers for these imprints as well as Barber's catalogue numbers. One of my reasons for making a catalogue of these imprints was to be able to identify them by the binder, thus the prefix dj (derome le jeune) as well as catalogue the various types. One cannot get around the fact that if you want to discuss any particular individual tool you needed a unique name or number for it. Only a few researchers have managed to codify some of the earlier 16th century tools while the 18th century tools have remained in the dark. One of a number of failures that I see with Barber's system is that none of his catalogue numbers give a reference to a specific binder, and secondly he does not give each of the paired imprints a unique name, therefore they will be hard to describe individually in research papers. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, I show the specific tools that Barber has mentioned. These are certainly the tools of Derome le jeune, however even in Barber's notes he only mentions Derome in relation to DCR 6, Fortunately he does not mention Padeloup here, these tools could be considered copies of Dubuisson's tools and it is the Dubuisson tools that are found on bindings signed by Padeloup, that Barber has mistakenly mixed with Derome le jeune tools. |
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In Comparative Diagram 3 we see ROLL 75 that Barber has mentioned as part of his Padeloup, J.-A, Derome theory. We see in Barber's notes for this tool that he only found it on W.Cat.42 and W.Cat.673 (shown at the top of this page). However I have found another example of this roulette and you can see it online at the BnF with Gallica. (see it below) Nowhere in the BnF description of this item do we see any mention of this dentelle binding or anything about who made it, fortunately I can tell you who made it, Derome's main finisher, Jean-Pierre Jubert, who continued to decorate bindings for him right up to Derome's last days. We have studied this Derome le jeune roulette previously (click here to see it) and arranged it on another page showing an assortment of Derome roulettes (click here to see this). After an intensive study of these roulettes my conclusion was that dj-R-3 (ROLL 75) was a favorite of Derome le jeune that appears to have been employed from the mid 1760's to the mid 1770's. On another page we have detailed a Derome le jeune roulette (dj-R-18) that is similar to the one that appears on the Latin 9484 (click here to see it). These roulettes begin to appear on signed Derome bindings in the early part of the 80's. Thus we see that Barber's claim that W.Cat.42 was bound and decorated by J.-A. Derome in 1747 is an unlikely one. Further to this, if Barber has only one other binding example of ROLL 75 (W.Cat.673) then I must conclude that Barber did not encounter many real Derome le jeune bindings, and if he has not recognized PAL 33 as belonging to J.-A. Derome then he has never seen an actual J.-A. Derome binding, even though describing several other bindings that he attributes to him. (click here to see an actual J.-A. Derome binding). |
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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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