| I bought the dentelle binding shown aboue on eBay in 2017 and made some pages on it aty the time (click here to see them). This binding is found on L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ, traduite et paraphrasée en vers françois par Pierre Corneille, conseiller du roi. Bruxelles. Foppens, 1704. On this page we are going to concentrate on some high resolution images of this binding. |
| Many of you have probably seen the 'drape" shown in Comparative Diagram 1, and few will have seen it at a resolution high enough to discern what is actually going on in this imprint. Even at high resolution this is a mysterious object, something like a prehistoric double headed fish monster, some think it is actually some sort of floral bouquet. This imprint in many variations became hugely popular during the 18th century, however the primary difference between those that followed and this original is that there are actually three tools used to compose this 'drape'. I have attempted to show this with the green arrows A and B, showing thet the point of attachment is different in each, therefore the rings with ribbons attached are an added accessory, the green number 1 as opposed to the green number 2 indicate that the rings themselves are of a different size and shape, thus three distinct tools are combined. This is also obvious by the different dangle angle of the ribbons as indicated by the green lines C and D. The letter H indicating something very mysterious that you will see more clearly in the enlargement. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2 we see something due to this high resolution scan, that we might have otherwise missed. I suggested, on a previous page (click here to see it) that it would be unlikely that Boyet had two of these tools, here now I am proven wrong however, this example that we can catalogue as lab-3-2 is not the same as the Terrence example and is easily recognized from lab-3 by its very long antenna. |
| When we are faced with unexpected tool variations we need to find out if this is really a Boyet, although the 'drape' would serve as ample proof we can look for confirmation in the decoration of the spine. In Comparative Diagram3, I present a method of resizing photos to an exact scale. The 1200 dpi scan is great for dentelles on the boards but not very good on the spine where the surfaces are not flat, the focus of the scanner is exactly at the level of the glass, there fore the raides bands of the spine are in focus an the rest not quite. A photograph is the alternative but getting the photo to the right scale more of a challenge. It is a matter of selecing part of your scan and matching the exact same detail in your photo. This really only works with height, once you know the height of your scanned detail you adjust the height of the ph0to to the same pixel hieght, now you have the sharp photographic detail at exactly 1200dpi. This works but is not perfect as there is distortion caused by the curved surface of the spine as well as depth of field focus problems. Here the leather of the spine is such that even a perfect photo will not provide you with sharp imprint detail. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see a beautiful Boyet palette 1 example from another Boyet binding (click here to see it) This is a Boyet type I palette according to page 110 of the 2002 Paris publication entitled: Reliures françaises du XVIIe siècle : Chefs-d'oeuvre du musée Condé, by Isabelle de Conihout & Pascal Ract-Madoux, who have illustrated, under a title of "Fers du doreur de Boyet", a selection of rubbings of the more common tool imprints from bindings which they attribute to Luc-Antoine Boyet. In my example shown in Comparative Diagram 4, this palette from a 1693 example, repeats itself 3 times and is therefore a rather short palette, that is the same as our 1704 example, confirming that this is indeed a Boyet. |
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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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