The binding shown above is found in a 2002 LIBRAIRIE SOURGET - MANUSCRITS ET LIVRES PRECIEUX - CATALOGUE N° XXIV, page 87, lot 29. This is the same catalogue as the 1696 binding shown on the previous page. for those who think that nothing happens by accident this is a strange coincidence, to not find a Boyet No. 6 fer for 10 years then find 2 in the same catalogue seems mysterious. Now my thinking was that if I could find another No. 6 then it might be related to our 1696 binding. The first thing to note is that the books within these bindings are both rare 16th century publications that are within a few years of each other. I have included the entire Sourget information for this item, as it may lead us to more similar bindings. There are a number of similer if not identical tools that have been used on these two bindings that may represent the state of Boyet bindings around 1696. |
IN Comparative Diagram 2, we can see that the corner tools are the same on both bindings, this I think would seem to be a good indicator of a similar time of execution, I then set out to try to find another binding with the same spine panel corner tools. |
The binding shown above is found in a 1999 LIBRAIRIE SOURGET - MANUSCRITS ET LIVRES PRECIEUX - CATALOGUE N° XIX, page 208, lot 78. We know from reading the Sourget information that this is certainly a Boyet, it is binding that was made for René-François de La Vieuville with his arns on the covers, and who they say had all of his bindings made by the same workshop that we know today was Boyet's workshop. |
In Comparative Diagram 3 we see that all three bindings have spine panels decorated with the same corner tools, now I have found on Sotheby's another almost identical binding made by Boyet for Vieuville (click here to see it) |
In Comparative Diagram 4, I have assembled the lower spine panels and palettes of these two pairs of Vieuville bindings by Boyet, and below included the Sotheby's information on these bindings which are obviously by Boyet, my interest here was the palettes as I had seen this simple circle diamond square arrangement before and the question was this palette an important clue to early Boyet work and so started searching again the catalogues. |
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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