| On the previous page I mentioned the 1913 Wasserman catalogue Les livres composant le cabinet de M. Eugène v. W***. (click here to see this 1913 catalogue at archive.org). On this page I want to show you item 88 from this catalogue, right away we think that this is a Douceur due to a particular and unusual tool. I have detailed this tool on another page (click here to see this page) |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see the 1913 Wasserman item 88 compared with a Douceur binding Rahir No, 1105 as well as the 1105 description that mentions Douceur. This binding that we have studied closely is decorated with an usual imprint that Barber recorded from a signed Douceur binding and has catalogued as DCT 53. My first task was to resize the item 88 binding and I searched with Google for copies of "BOCCACE, Jean (Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). Le Decameron, traduit par Antoine Le Mâcon. Londres [Paris] : 1757 - 1761". It just so happens that a copy of this publication sold for the amazing price of EUR 27,600 in a December 2006 Christies auction (click here to see it). Christies does not show us and image of this item however they do give the dimensions, which is exactly what we are looking for... 5 volumes in-8 (205 x 132 mm). With this information I proceeded to resize item 88 to these dimentions and then decided to compare the DCT example of this with a 1105 example as I had done previously, comparing the 1105 example with Barber's DCT 53. What I was actually trying to do was confirm that my resized binding was correctly resized by comparing the imprints. |
| When I tried to match up these DCT 53 imprints with overlays I found that my resized No.88 example was at least 6 % too small, then there was the shock of discovering that these imprints were not exactly the same, critical elements are missing from the No 88 example, this is of course a big "ah ha" moment... Wasserman's No. 88 is an imitation. Now you will probably wonder if the binding shown below is also an imitation. |
| If you look closely at the imprints on the spines in Comparative Diagram 3, especially in the enlargement you will find good reasons to believe that Louis Douceur decorated both of these bindings. The Q. Horatii reproduction that is from a 1988 publication entitled Legacies of genius : a celebration of Philadelphia libraries : a selection of books, manuscripts, and works of art and found on archive.org (click here to see it) cannot be enlarged sufficently to prove this, however when we find a high resolution copy of this binding, I suspect that we will be able to demonstrate that it is another wild Douceur experiment. Louis-Marie Michon has attributed this binding to 'Atelier a la Tulipe'??? The prize goes to this man for making the most mistakes in a single book! |
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click here to return to the HOME page. click here to see an INDEX of the 2017 pages. see below links to previous work |
| 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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