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On the previous pages we have been looking at a classic Derome dentelle on the binding of a 1524 Book of Hours presently held by the Library of Congress, this magnificent book can be viewed on line (click here to see it). Now we are going to have an indepth look at the history of ownership of this book in the hopes of discovering something about when it might have been decorated. In the Library of Congress information about this book we find this... Former owners: Paul Girardot de Prefond; Louis Jean Gaignat; Guillaume Francois Debure; Louis Cesar, duc de La Vallire; William Beckford; F.G.A. Guyot de Villeneuve; Robert Hoe; Cortlandt F. Bishop. The first name on that list Paul Girardot de Prefond, leads us to some important clues. Fortunately the Bibliotheque nationale de France has a page on him (click here to see it), below is a Google translation of part of that page: Bibliophile descendant of a family of Clamecy who made fortunes in the trade of the wood, Paul Girardot de Prefond counts among the most important bibliophiles of the 18th century. He established successively two libraries. The catalog of the first was drawn up in 1757 by the bookseller Guillaume Debure, under the title Catalogue des livres de Mr. G...D... P... on the occasion of its dispersion in public sale to the Girardot de Prefond's initiative, on the pretext that he wanted to build a second library with more demanding selection criteria. The volumes that formed part of this first library are identified by the presence, on the upper contreplat, of his gilded name on a piece of leather or, on one of the guards at the beginning of the volume, his engraved ex-libris engraved. As for his second library, he had to get rid of it prematurely, in 1765, under the pressure of his creditors: it was acquired en bloc by Count MacCarthy-Reagh. after which we find: Marques de possession : 1. Ex-libris dore sur une piece de cuir, sous la forme latine "ex musaeo Pauli Girardot de Prefond"; voir la notice signaletique illustree dans la base "Numelyo": http://numelyo.bm-lyon.fr/f_view/BML:BML_06PRV01000SJAR139879 [lien verifie le 25 juin 2016] ; 2. Ex-libris armorie grave. This link takes you to the Bibliotheque numerique de Lyon "NUMELYO" that is part of the Bibliotheque municipale de Lyon, here they show an example (shown below) of the ex-libris of Paul Girardot de Prefond, they indicate that he died in 1765 however the BnF has a date of 1785. According to the BnF, he sold his second collection to MacCarthy 1765 so the Lyon date of his death seems unlikely, however we find a reference to this on Biblissima "Lors d'une recherche effectuee aux Archives Nationales en 1970, il apparut qu'un Paul Girardot de Prefond, marchand de bois, mourut a Paris le 20 avril 1765." I had seen this very ex-libris in the British Library Database of Bookbindings, it is found in binding C6a2, I show it above in Comparative Diagram 1, here we see that the inner roulette of 1524 Heures and that of the C6a2 binding are identical. I wondered if this ex-libris was found in books from the first sale in 1757. We learned that Prefond auctioned off his books in 1757, and that there was a catalogue drawn up for the auction: Catalogue des livres de Mr. G...D... P... . The ex-libris shown by NUMELYO was found in a book by Simon Rosarius: Antithese des faicts de Iesus Christ et du Pape : mise en vers franois. Ensemble les traditions et decrets du Pape opposez aux commandements de Dieu. Item, la description de la vraye image de l'Antechrist... published in Geneva 1578. |
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In the Numelyo information for this book, there is a reference to the 1757 Catalogue des livres de Mr. G...D... P... , to check this, I needed to find an online copy, and eventually found it online at Hathitrust (click here to see it). I found it via another very useful web site The Online Books Page Listing over 2 million free books on the Web, here you can find every online catalogue that ever existed (click here to see this), however I did not find in this catalogue any mention of the Rosarius book. The next reference I found comes from Biblissima This portal is a virtual library of libraries: discover the history of various texts and books that were written, translated, illuminated, collected and catalogued from Classical Antiquity through the 18th century. (click here to visit this site), here is a Google translation of the text, Paul Girardot de Prefond is a collector and a bibliophile of the foreground in the eighteenth century and the fact that it is a renowned bookseller and specialized in the old book as Guillaume-Franois de Bure who is in charge of the sale is not a coincidence . In his Manuel du libraire, Charles Brunet quotes numerous copies of works that belonged to Girardot de Prefond in order to underline their rarity and the preciousness of bindings. His collection is also cited by many bibliophile guides (Edmond Bonnaffe, collectors of ancient France, Paris, 1873, pp. 68-69). It should be noted that Girardot de Prefond has successively constituted two libraries and that this sale of 1757 does not follow his death but his desire to create a new collection better chosen than the first. This second collection, of which the books were perfectly bound by Padeloup, Boyet or Derome, was sold en bloc, under pressure from its creditors, to Count Justin of MacCarthy Reagh. The books of the first collection bear the name of Girardot de Prefond printed in gold and more often the ex-libris engraved with his arms stuck on one of the guards of the binding. Many of these works passed into collections as rich and prestigious as those of Duke de La Valliere, Gaignat or Nodier (Brunet, 2, cols 553-554). (Source: Esprit des livres) Their source reference (click here to see it) gives you some more information about the catalogue, but does not give details about Prefond himself. Anyway to recap we have learned that it was probably the second collection of books that were bound by Derome and Padeloup? this probably means Dubuisson who has been confused with Padeloup due to Dubuisson decorating bindings for him that he then signed as well as the fact that by the time of the second collection Padeloup was already dead. Also we are told that the second collection was purchased entirely by Count MacCarthy-Reagh. Here we enter into the very interesting story of Justin Mac-Carthy Reagh (1744-1811). He would have been only 25 years old when he bought, lock stock and barrel the entire collection of Prefond, this would have been the scoop of the century, a collection of some of the rarest manuscripts and incunabulum, finely decorated by Derome. However when you look at the list of owners for our 1524 Heures, you see that it was never owned MacCarthy. if Louis Jean Gaignat bought it, when did he buy it? and was it in the catalogue of the sale of his books after he died: Supplement a la bibliographie instructive, ou catalogue des livres du cabinet de feu M. Louis Jean Gaignat by De Bure, Paris 1769... after a lucky search, I found it in the De Bure catalogue that can be seen online at archive.org (click here to see it), shown below on page 55 of the catalogue, we see at the bottom of the page Lot number 194. On the next page they mention that the binding is a small folio maroquin rouge with dentelles. Following then this chain of owners, it must have been Guillaume Francois De Bure who paid the equivalent of about 50 or more thousand dollars for it in this 1769 auction. De Bure is the one who drew up both catalogues, the 1757 auction of Prefond and the 1769 auction of Gaignat. |
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I have one more reference to show you on this page, this comes from a web page entitled Medieval Manuscripts Provenance and is a blog by Peter Kidd (click here to see it) on this page Kidd explains how he came about identifying Prefonds ex-libris on a manuscript held by the New York Public Library (shown above), here he gives some details that he found concerning Prefond "Paul Girardot de Prefond is a somewhat shadowy figure. In Charles and Mary Elton, The Great Book-Collectors (London, 1893), pp.198-99, we read this attractive tale: Paul Girardot de Prefond was a timber-merchant who fell into an apathetic state on retiring from active business. His physician, Hyacinthe Baron, was an eminent book-collector, and he advised the patient to take up the task of forming a library. So successful was the prescription that the merchant became renowned during the next half century for his superb bindings, his specimens from Grolier's stores, and the Delphin and Variorum classics which he procured from the library of Gascq de la Lande. On two occasions the sale of his surplus treasures made an excitement for the literary world. Some of his rarest books were sold in 1757, and twelve years afterwards his Delphin series and the greater part of his general collection were purchased by Count Macarthy." |
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Kidd discovered, in an old Sotheby's auction catalogue, another ex-libris that was the same as the one in the New York Library manuscript however this one was accompanied with a label bearing the name GIRARDOT DE PREFOND. This eventually led Kidd to Prefonds 1757 auction Catalogue and in it he found among many other things the 1524 Heures... Lot 42, a Book of Hours, described among several other books of Hours and Missals, can be identified by the fact that it is dated 1524; it is now Library of Congress, MS. 52 (Rosenwald 10/14), and was known by William Beckford, one of its later owners, as "Les Heures de Prefond" This clears up the whole story, I was wondering how the 1524 Heures was connected to Prefond as his ex-libris is not found inside, the whole mystery is solved here, Louis Jean Gaignat must have acquired it at the 1757 Prefond auction. Now going one step further, looking through the 1757 catalogue we find something very interesting, a list of descriptors, shown below on a page entitled: EXPLICATION. |
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You can see on page 8 of the catalogue, a further description of Lot 42, here we do not see the mention of dentelles as in the 1769 Gaignat 194 item, which is otherwise the same with the 1524 date and 41 minitures, however more important is the "M. B." notation at the end of the notice, this signifies that the binding was a blue maroquin, later when it was sold at the Gaignat sale it was in a red maroquin with dentelles. It was therefore in all probability, Louis Jean Gaignat who had it bound and decorated by Derome le jeune some time between 1758 and 1768, the year that Gaignat passed away. His collection was sold in the 1769 auction and we see that the 1524 Book of Hours sold for more than double the price that Gaignat paid for it in 1757. I found another bibliophile page that tells us about Count MacCarthy-Reagh (click here to see it) Here we find many more details about his library and what happened to it. However on this page the author states that MacCarthy-Reagh bought Prefonds second collection in 1769 (not 1765 as stated by the BnF) further they claim that Prefond bought more books at the 1769 Gaignat auction, just before selling them all to MacCarthy-Reagh. Obviously then he didn't die in 1765. Reading carefully Kidd's Charles and Mary Elton reference (shown above) "Some of his rarest books were sold in 1757, and twelve years afterwards his Delphin series and the greater part of his general collection were purchased by Count Macarthy" also confirms this 1769 date. Now as wild all all this sounds I found another very solid reference to these facts (click here to see this) this comes from the very respectable Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. On this page outlining a 1440 manuscript (Bod-Inc: S-268) entitled Speculum humanae salvationis. we see in their description: |
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Binding: Eighteenth-century French gold-tooled red morocco, sometimes ascribed to binding by Derome le jeune; reproduced in [I. G. Philip], Gold-tooled Bookbindings, Bodleian Picture Books, 2 (Oxford, 1951), pl. 24, and mentioned at p. 6. Barber, 'Baroque to Neoclassicism', no. 22: 'Red morocco; double fillet, dentelle with shell corner, open lattice and interlace tools, also thistle and bird (head turned to left) in frame. Flat back lettered down the spine SPECULUM HUMANAE SALVATIONIS EDITIO PRINCEPS CIRCA ANNO 1440. Gilt-edged leaves. Leaf-combed marble endleaves with watermark 1742'. 'The framed bird tool is often automatically associated with Derome le jeune, but the ownership of several close, but different, versions has not yet been sorted out' (Barber). Provenance: [ ] de Wandermark (early eighteenth century); see Jean-Baptiste Michel Papillon, Traite historique et pratique de la gravure en bois, 2 vols (Paris, 1766), I 104. Claude Gros de Boze (1680-1753); given to de Boze by de Wandermark, for which see Papillon I 104; see also Catalogue des livres du cabinet de M. de Boze (Paris, 1753), I no. 57; Guillaume de Bure, Bibliographie instructive ou traite de la connaissance des livres rares et singuliers, 8 vols (Paris, 1763-8), vol. de theologie (1763), p. 128. President de Cotte (eighteenth century); see Papillon I 104. Louis Jean de Gaignat (1697-1768); see Guillaume de Bure, Bibliographie instructive: Supplement, 2 vols (Paris, 1769), lot 116; sold for 1600 francs to Girardot de Prefond. Paul Girardot de Prefond ( after c.1800); item rebound for him; on the front pastedown a small label of red leather inscribed in gold: 'Ex musaeo Pauli Girardot de Prefond'. Justin, comte MacCarthy Reagh (1744-1811); sale (1815), lot 142, sold for 1320 francs. George Hibbert (1757-1837); sale (1829), lot 7588; purchased by Douce; see Munby, Connoisseurs, 54. Francis Douce (1757-1834); armorial book-plate. Bequeathed in 1834 [provenances ex informatione Nigel F. Palmer and Roger Middleton]. |
| Now this is very hard to imagine, he buys the SPECULUM at the enormous price of 1600 livres (equal to more than 100 thousand dollars in todays money) , then has it bound by Derome and then sells it with all the rest of his books to MacCarthy, all this would have to have happened in the narrow time frame of 1769. This means that we can be certain that the binding shown in the Gold-tooled Bookbindings, Bodleian Picture Books, 2 (Oxford, 1951), pl. 24, by I. G. Philip, would have been executed in 1769, I have not found a copy of this yet however it will be another important chronological example. |
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In Kidd's search of the Prefond 1757 auction catalogues he found an interesting annotated copy once owned by TOUVENOT de SABLONIERE (shown above). Here we find a note by Sabloniere that explains the fact that there are 2 different types of the ex-libris of Prefond, one is the small round leather type as per the Numelyo example shown at the beginning of this page of this page the other is the paper one with the arms of of Prefond such as the Sothebys example discovered by Kidd. The paper ex-libris that shows the arms of Prefond, appears to be found in his early pre 1757 books, and the smaller red or olive colored leather ex-libris are found in his second collection and date from 1757 to 1769. This has been confirmed by the notes and references shown above, and is critically important in our search to discover whether ot not Jacques-Antoine Derome actually made some of the early dentelle bindings. Now by great good fortune we can find in the British Library Database of Bookbindings examples of both types, we are going to inspect these on the next page. There is one thing that I must add to this page, that reminds me of an archeological problem. Imagine that you are excavating a beach site on a remote south seas island, you are hoping to find, at the bottom of your pit, what must be the earliest arifacts. However what you didn't know is that an earlier settlement was established on a beach that not longer exists in front of where you are digging. Sometime in the past a violent cyclone passed over the island and caused all the deposits of the earlier settlement to be washed up over the later settlement. So in your excavation the oldest objects actually will be recovered above the more recent ones. Now imagine that Gaignat bought the 1524 book of hours in 1757 and had it rebound by Derome sometime later say around 1763, in the meantime Prefond buys C6a2 and has it bound possibly by J A Derome in 1758 and then adds his "ex musaeo Pauli Girardot de Prefond" ex-libris. This would result in the 1524 binding being older than the C6a2 binding even though that is not what you would expect. When you compare the decoration of C6a2 with that of the 1524 Heures you see or feel that there is a distinct difference, and that C6a2 is possibly earlier. |
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