| This 1747 Office de la Quinzaine de Pasque, caught my eye right away, the seller's photos were more than you needed to know that this was a classic Douceur. However this item had one major defect, big ugly stain on the last four pages and a missing marbled endpaper. The leather on the front cover was also a bit stained probably due to whatever stained the back pages. All this was good news for me as I imagined that it would be at least a little cheaper this way. In the last few minutes of the auction, which is always a nerve racking affair, you ask yourself what should you pay for a rare Louis Douceur dentelle binding. I wasn't going to let this slip out of my clutches and bid an absolute maximum in the last seconds. What a pleasant shock... I got it for 39.47 euros! The cost of shipping was almost as much. The bookbinding Gods must have been glitching the bids in my favor, how can you understand that a treasure such as this, exactly 200 years older than myself, made by one of the more celebrated of the French 18th century binders, could be sold for the price of a fish and chip dinner for two? Perhaps the bidding was a bit off due to the fact that the world was imploding and a global economic melt down looming on the horizon. |
| When this 1747 Quinzaine finally arrived in the mail, I had to carefuly wipe the package off with disinfectant, an unimaginable task that is now part of everyday life. I couldn't wait to get it on the scanner. In Comparative Diagram 1, we see one of Douceurs most mysterious pair of tools, an exotic form, that some might say is of rococo origins, and a tool that we need to be able to identify with certainty as there are a number of similar tools that have been recorded by Barber. Fortunately our high resolution images have exposed a flaw that can help us, it is shown with the green arrows. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, I wanted to show the different forms of this tool as recorded by Giles Barber from a binding that he has catalogued as W.Cat. 422, we have looked at that binding in detail on another page (click here to see this). When I was looking again at that page just now, something startling dawned on me, the framing roulette on W.Cat 422. appears to be the same as we see on this 1747 Douceur dentelle. This roulette would have to be one of the least attractive of all the Douceur roulettes, and in fact Giles Barber who catalogued most of the tools that he found on W.Cat. 422 did not record this shabby roulette. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, I have tackled the problem of identifying some characteristic elements that will allow us to measure this roulette very precisely, fortunately I did this before I found out that W.Cat. 422 appeared to have the same roulette. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, I present definitive proof that the 1747 roulette used by Louis Douceur was latterly used by Plumet, these imprints are the same and derive from the same Douceur tool. Giles Barber has indicated below the photo of this binding in his 2013 publication, that he estimates the date of manufacture to be the same as the printing date, that is to say 1745. |
| In Comparative Diagram 7, we see W.Cat 422 compared with our 1747 Quinzaine Douceur, there isn't alot that is similar however the framing roulette is the same. We know from our Plumet reseach that the tools used to decorate W.Cat 422 are mainly Plumet's own tools, however here is proof that he also was using some of Douceur's original tools. Personally I do not think he was doing this in 1745! In my opinion, certain tools that we see here are certainly from the 60's. |
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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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