| I would like to thank the British Library again for letting me show you this greatly enlarged detail of this Derome binding shelfmarked Davis546, at this 600dpi scale we can see at last the fine details that will alow us to identify Derome imprints with a high degree of certainty. We know for certain that some of the tools used to decorate this spine belonged to Jacques-Antoine Derome, father of Derome le jeune, who took over his fathers bookbinding shop after his death on the 22th of November 1760 around 3 in the afternoon and was buried on the 24th. In Comparative Diagram 1, shown below, we compare spine compartments. On the far side is our J A Derome example, next to it we see a binding that has many J A Derome imprints that have beeen arranged in the same fashion particularly the 6 rings, however there has been a change in the corner elements to a flower form. Next to this we see the De Ricci 38, it has the same flower corner imprints, it is missing the rings however the central signature fleuron (jad-16) is present, then our Davis546 that retains the flower pairs in the corners, the jad-11 cross, and the rings jad-28, as well as the jad-27-2 dots. However the centrepiece signature fluron has changed, this new one may be a helpful chronological marker along with the new palette. |
| I have concentrated here, on the jad-16, imprint probably the single most important proof of the existance of Jacques-Antoine Deromes decorative skills. In as much as we see two very similar examples of this tool it is critical to identify both. In Comparative Diagram 3, we can see the imprint quite clearly in the 1759 Journal example. The flower like form in the center of the imprint has 12 petals each with a central nerve extending from the ring in the center, barly visible in most examples. These cuts for the nerve become irregular in the lower part and a accidental cut has removed part of the base of the 5th petal counting them from the 1 o'clock position |
| Now you are wondering how such a very small detail could be so important, but if you are at auction where someone is selling a Derome, it won't be cheap, if its a real Derome it will be selling for 10 or more thousand... how can you be absolutely sure it's a Derome? before putting your hard earned money on the table... you just bring out your jewelers eye piece and check for this flaw (remembering though that it is only about a half a millimeter large). Below we are going to look at the next imprint that closely resembles jad-16 it is found on Ricci's number 36 binding which he claims was made around 1762 and he shows the Deromes etiquette which Ract-Madows has classified as B1 it is then placed somewhere between 1760 and 1770 maybe about 1765?. However I can see right away the shortcomings of a chronology based on etiquettes, as the style of the spine decoration strikes me as being older. |
| Above I show De Ricci's number 50 and we can see by the spine palette that this is again much older, the etiquette appears to be a G 3 which is the same as the etiquette on Ricci 62, according to Ract-Madoux and that binding is from at least 1782. Here we see this same dj-16 being used in 1782! This seems to indicate that probably both the examples 36 and 50 are from a much older period than the jad-16. All considered it seems reasonable to to assign them to the tools of Derome le jeune. Of course one wonders why, a second almost identical tool. It seems likely that the first was either damaged or borrowed. What ever the case, if this tool dj-16 replaced jad-16, it may also help us in establishing a chronological order for the bindings of Derome le jeune and his father. |
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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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