| The binding shown above is found in an old 1928 Maggs Bros catalogue: French literature (from 1700 to 1928) : with a selection of French engravings, portraits & autographs. I found it with HathiTrust's Digital Library (Click here to see it). The palette at the bottom of the spine on this binding reminded me of De Ricci's No. 38 a signed Derome le jeune binding, I show it below. According to De Ricci this binding was made about 1762. The style of the spine decoration is nothing like the six ring examples of the previous page. I suspect that this binding style is then from a later period but first I wanted to check to see if this Maggs example was really linked to the De Ricci No. 36. |
| At first I was doubtfull, the fact that we are trying to compare the Maggs Bros example that is a not high resolution reproduction with De Ricci's far better photogravure quality, does not help. In Comparative Diagram 1, we see both bindings at a the same scale. The first fortunate thing is the fact that the palette is quite irregular. To describe this we can say that there is a series of pods separated by drawer handles. The bases of the pods are all different... 'a' is rather short, 'b' is long and slightly angled, 'c' is of a mediun size but not well centered, click on this diagram to see an enlargement. These 'characteristics' the pods appear to be matched in both examples, and if they are then we are looking at the same palette. Now we assume then that these bindings were decorated by the same tools. However here we see in both examples the Derome dj-16 and not the jad-16 that is found on the 6 ring spine compartments, a very interesting difference. If we were to jump to conclusions we would think that these 1762 spines are the work of Derome le jeune and the six rings spine the work of Jacques-Antoine Derome. However the dentelle of the Maggs example has been made with mostly J A Derome tools. Not long after finding this Maggs example I discovered a very similar binding in a Tajan catalogue BIBLIOTHEQUES DES COMTES HENRI ET FRANCOIS CHANDON DE BRIAILLES ET A DIVERS AMATEURS MARDI 25 NOVEMBRE 2003 A 14 H 3. It is of terrible reproduction quality but even so you can see it is closely related to these bindings. I show it below in Comparative Diagram 2, number 73. In the catalogue description for No. 73 they clain this binding to be the work of Padeloup le jeune, however I cannot see how they have come to such an unlikely conclusion. |
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73. HEURES nouvelles a l'usage des Laics... Paris, Simon, 1748, in-12, maroquin creme, plats recouverts de maroquin vert sertis d'une elegante dentelle, au centre reserve centrale festonne decoree d'une marine aquarellee, avec chiffre entrelace [GB] sur le premier plat, dos mosaique, gardes et doublure de tabis bleu, tranches dorees (Padeloup le Jeune). Titre orne d'un bel encadrement. Exemplaire regle. Elegante et fraiche reliure mosaiquee et peinte de Padeloup le Jeune. Chaque plat est decore d'une scene marine, aquarellee sur mica. Le chiffre surmonte d'une couronne de rose est reste non identifie. Le dos et les plats sont ornes de coeurs ardents. Provenance : Lucien Graux (Cat. II, 1957, No. 56 avec reproduction). Michon, Les reliures Mosaiquees du XVIIIe siecle, pp. 37-41. 6 000 / 8 000 Euros |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see that Tajan No. 73 shares a similar dentelle to that of Maggs No. 78, however it also shares a central panel that shows a bizarre similarity to the panel of J A Derome's binding. Notice how Derome's central portion is a rather disappointing shape. The central portion of the Tajan No. 73 is almost as bad. Note that No. 73 is only aproximately to scale, however as it is of such a low resolution it hardly matters. Someone please find a better reproduction of this binding.. here is a clue from the Tajan expert (Cat. II, 1957, No. 56 avec reproduction). The importance of this binding cannot be understated, IF and it is a huge IF, this No. 73 turns out to be a J A Derome dentelle binding from 1748, this will be a total game changer. Below I show the Sotheby's No. 377 text for the Jacques-Antoine Derome binding, that suggests that this binding could have been made as early as 1746! |
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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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