| In our attempt to separate the dentelle bindings of Derome le jeune into a chronological sequence, we need to carefully study the work of Pascal Ract-Madoux entitled: "Essai de classement chronologique des etiquettes de Derome le jeune" published in the second volume of the 1989 Bulletin du bibliophile p. 382-391. It took me a while to finally get my hands on this publication, certainly there are no digital copies of it online, and probably not every Library has a copy. I managed to buy it, and waited excitedly for it to arrive while doing these pages working towards a chronology of Derome's dentelles. I will try to translate Ract-Madoux as we need to look at something he has proposed concerning the etiquettes of Derome. On the second page of this article (384) he provides an image of an etiquette which he claims to have been badly cut, suggesting that it was cut from a printing of 4 etiquettes, printed from a single plate. i. e. a single copperplate engraved with four copies of the etiquette. below in Comparative Diagram 1, I have reproduced an enlargement of his example, along with a theoretical example of what it looks like if you extend the lines shown in the supposed remaining one quarter of the printing. |
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Following his theory then the first group of etiquettes shown on page 387 derive from a single page of 4 etiquettes that are then cut out of the page, he explains that each is different and that they all only look similar. "semblables mais non identiques parce que le graveur copie l'une sur l'autre sans se soucier d'obtenir 4 etiquettes identiques -- ce qui serait tres difficile et, probablement ne lui etait pas demande" "similar but not identical because the graveur copies one on the other without worrying to get 4 identical etiquettes - which would be very difficult and probably was not asked for." In Comparative Diagram 2, I show the 4 etiquettes from the first group (Planche A) placed closely together. The first thing we notice is that the top two are very similar while the bottom two show significant differences from the upper ones yet each set is nearly identical. This whole theory seems to me rather unlikely, first the example shown in Comparative Diagram 1 does not indicate that 4 identical copies can be made, and in Comparative Diagram 2 we see that no effort has been made to have the 4 copies identical, the best we could do is suggest that the top two were on a single plate and the bottom two were on a single plate, this still gives us two models of this etiquette. Frankly why would Derome be mass producing his earliest etiquettes? Pascal Ract-Madoux is proposing something that will make identification/verification of these etiquettes very difficult if not impossible. He is suggesting that for each original etiquette there exists 4 similar but not identical models. I think we need more proof, expecially from examples that show, through poor cutting, the other half or quarter of the supposed group. |
| I have made a digram here to be inserted between page 387 and 388 to include the notes that are given for Planche A at the end of the article. Unfortunately for Pascal Ract-Madoux the printer has messed up the order of his pages and it is difficult to follow without them in the right order (390 is in the place of 389) I show them here in the right order, however our first concern in this chronology is to identify Derome le jeune's first etiquettes. Ract-Madoux states that the first tickets were probably from 1761 and shows the De Ricci number 38 example. We were probably not wrong in thinking that this binding could be from as early as1761. However we will have to isolate the beginning and ending periods for Planches A to D to have a really useful early chronology. |
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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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