| We can now proceed to look at some high resolution scans, the first example shown below in Comparative Diagram 1, is the corner ornament, we see in these images a distinct cut or crease in the circles. These examplesm have be placed in the diagram respecting the corners from where they originated and they have not been rotated at all. One can observe that flaw is virtually always in the same place, this suggests that the tool is always held in the same way. and that the binding was not rotated to make these imprints. These flaws are clearly visible on the back with the light coming from below, the front of the binding was scanned with the lighting in the same orientation however the tool has been rotated about 45 degrees and the light strikes the flaw in such a way as to render it barely visible. Thus in the enlarged corner shown above you really do not see this flaw. |
| I know that some of you will think that I am going a bit over the top with this corner tool. Fortunately this flaw allows us to allign these imprints very precisely, why is this important? Well, just looking at the fleuron in the center and trying to eyeball its orientation, to decide whether it is stationary fixed to the circles as a single tool or is it separate? At first I thought that it did not line up in all cases, but once you make this overlay test you see that they do line up and therefore this is a single tool. I hear the guy in the back laughing, yes it is rather obvious that this should be a single tool, however Douceur used a smaller set of double circles in his mosaic bindings (d-116) and the center was empty until he added various different small tools to the center. (see Comparative Diagram 5) |
| Perhaps the most important observation that we can make about this corner tool is that it never became one of Douceur's favorites, this 1747 example appears to be the only one found so far. It has not appeared in the many dozens of Douceur bindings that we have encountered so far. |
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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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