| The image shown above is from the 1972 sales catalogue Bibliothèque Raphaël Esmerian, volume 2 (click here to see more about this catalogue). When I first started researching French gold tooled bookbindings, Raphaël Esmerian's work in this catalogue was a great inspiration. Here was one of the first attempts to catalogue the tools of French bookbinders of the 17th and 18th century. Even if you knew very little about the subject you could identify the bookbinders by recognizing the imprints of their tools, and this was my primary interest. So I am endebted to Esmerian, and respect the work that he did, however now I am forced to question whether or not Boyet created the dentelle shown above, it would seem that Esmerian has attributed it to Boyet. This same book can be found in a 2007 Sothey's auction LIBRARY OF MARCEL DE MERRE (click here to see it). I show the details below. |
| On the previous page we saw a Padeloup dentelle on a Boyet binding, and we know that both Boyet and Padeloup made bindings for comte d'Hoym, however when you start investigating the comte d'Hoym bindings, you will notice that the Boyet bindings are distinctly different, the spines have been decorated in the typical Boyet fashion (see Comparative Diagram 1), where as the Padeloup bindings all appear to be quite uniform in the their presentation, as shown in Comparative Diagram 2. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see 5 signed Padeloup bindings that were made for comte d'Hoym, these reproductions are from Seymour De Ricci's French signed bindings in the Mortimer L. Schiff Collection Paris, 1935. He shows 5 examples of comte d'Hoym bindings by Padeloup all are in this same exterior decor with the d'Hoym crowned monogram in the spine panels. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, you will notice that the crowned monograms of comte d'Hoym c, d, and f are all identical, smaller sized imprints. Example 'c' is from the binding at the top of the page, Esmerian's No. 68 the imprint was taken from the Sotheby's reproduction. Example 'd' is from De Ricci's signed Padeloup binding No. 5. Example 'f' is from the British Library example 688a10 that has an identical doublure to that of Esmerians No. 68 (shown below). Therefore we can be almost 99% certain that Padeloup was the author of these dentelles, not Boyet. In fact we do not see Boyet employing anywhere these comte d'Hoym crowned monograms. De Ricci states that these Padeloup bindings were probably made for d'Hoym not long before the 1738 sale of d'Hoyms collection, and that d'Hoym acquired No. 8 in the Colbert sale of 1728. It may be that the bindings by Boyet were made well before that date. |
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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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