| I spotted this binding on eBay last week, and even though the seller has provided some good photos, it was hard to say whether or not this could be an early work of Louis Douceur, certainly it looked like it however the detail that would have convinced me completely was just not clear enough in the photos. Still I was determined to bid and as the auction wore on I had convinced myself that this was a Douceur. The bidding was very quiet right down to the last minute as usual and I decided to bid 251 euros in the last few seconds, thinking someone might try 250, and sure enough I won this at 251 meaning that someone did bid exactly 250, sometimes premonitions helps us. These books arrived in record time and were packed so well it took a long time to get them unpacked. Altogether then I can say this this seller is one of the best on eBay, selling quality items, well described and photographed. I was amazed to see the condition of these bindings, they are bright and shiny as if Douceur had made them just recently. |
| As the reader will know, I was so determined to prove that my last Douceur from eBay was authentic, that I left no stone unturned. Now with this new one in my hands I was quick to scan the spines knowing that there was an exceptional detail here that would prove my theory beyond all doubts. Flatbed scanners are not very good at scanning spines but at least they will give you a high resolution result for part of the spine. |
| As you can see in Comparative Diagram 1, the palette at the base of the spine is identical in both eBay items. This is a very fortunate thing, and at 1200 dpi we do not doubt this miracle. I show below, the same palette in a photo as well as the 1749 Henault, where we can see an obvious mishap, this palette is a very short one and for larger bindings it will have to be applied twice. Joining them together seems a difficult task for every example is different, they are either two far apart or overlapping. Now you might think that I am being overly attentive to this palette however while I was doing this work it dawned on me, that this early palette, these bindings that I have been calling early Douceur's, bear some incredible armorial stamps... i.e. by this point in time 1746 or earlier Louis Douceur was already Relieur de roi (Kings binder). The Bibliotheque national de France does not elaborate on when Louis Douceur became Relieur de roi, and they do not recognize his early work confusing it with that of Padeloup???, but one thing is certain, he produced some of the most beautiful bindings ever seen in France, such as the one shown at the bottom of this page. He reached the highest level that a bookbinder could ever hope to attain, yet now, the world barely remembers him, few it is who can even recognize his work, certainly not the "experts" in the BnF. His bindings sell for peanuts on eBay, in a world gone mad, where people value junk and pass up on one of a kind masterpieces hundreds of years old, made by a master craftsman who spent more that 40 years perfecting his art... and he wasn't using power tools to do it. |
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58. MASSILLON (Jean-Baptise). Sentimens d'une âme touchée de Dieu, tirés des Pseaumes de David ; ou paraphrase morale de plusieurs pseaumes en forme de prière. Paris : Veuve Estienne & fils, Jean Hérissant, 1747. ‹ 2 volumes in-12, 164 x 98 : ix pp., (2 ff.), 385 pp., (1 f.) ; (4 ff.), 275 pp. Maroquin rouge, dentelle dorée et armes dorées au centre sur les plats, dos à nerfs orné, roulette dorée intérieure, tranches dorées sur marbrures (reliure de l'époque). Première édition, posthume. Cette Paraphrase morale est le dernier texte écrit par le célèbre oratorien et prédicateur Jean-Baptiste Massillon (1663-1742), évêque de Clermont. Son dessein n'était pas de paraphraser les psaumes mais de présenter aux fidèles des modèles de prières qu'ils devaient adresser à Dieu, suivant les différentes situations où ils se trouvaient. L'ouvrage resta inachevé et se termine au Psaume 31. Exemplaire de choix, en maroquin à dentelle de l'époque, dans le goût de Padeloup. Cette dentelle, exécutée aux petits fers, présente des motifs de volutes, de feuillages et de fleurs. Au centre figurent les armes de Louis XV. Ces armes ne sont pas de l'époque et ont été apposées très postérieurement, sans doute au XIXe ou au XXe siècle. Deux coins habilement retouchés. Quelques rousseurs et feuillets jaunis au tome II. Provenance : Cachet sur le titre indiquant « Petite bibliothèque Rue de Sèvres ». - Ex-libris armorié moderne. |
| You can see in the Massillon example shown above that the palette is overlapped on Tomb I and out of alignment in Tomb II, one being placed too high as well as being overlapped... not forgetting that we are talking about minuscule, less than half a millimeter amounts. |
| The black and white example shown above is from another Henault binding, you can find the full description of it here. The dauphin motifs in the spine panels represent the arms of the son of Louis XV |
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SORET (G.-J.). Discours qui a remporté le prix d'éloquence par le jugement de l'Académie françoise, À Paris, Chez Claude Hérissant, 1749, in-12, maroquin rouge, dentelle dorée à l'oiseau et au lis autour des plats, armes au centre, dos à nerfs orné, doublure et gardes de papier à fond étoilé doré, roulette intérieure dorée, tranches dorées (reliure de l'époque). |
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SORET (G.-J.). Speech that won the prize of eloquence by the judgment of the French Academy ... Paris, Claude Hérissant, 1749. In-12, red morocco, gold tooled Dentelle, with bird and lily around the boards, coat of arms in the center, spine adorned, liners and paper guards with golden starry background, gold tooled inner roulette, gilded edges, (Reliure de l'époque). Original edition. Jean Soret, a lawyer in the parliament of Paris, a member of the Academy of Nancy, won the prize of eloquence awarded in 1748 by the French Academy. The theme was: men do not feel sufficiently how advantageous it would be for them to compete for the good and happiness of one another. Soret saw himself discerning this same price of eloquence for the competitions of the years 1752 and 1758. He composed in 1770 an Ode for the marriage of the Dauphin, future Louis XVI, eldest son of Louis-Ferdinand of France and Marie-Josèphe de Saxe . Armes of Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, dauphine of France, quoted by Quentin Bauchart. Daughter of Augustus III, King of Poland and Prince-Elector of Saxony, Maria Josepha von Sachsen (1731-1767) became dauphine of France in 1747 by her marriage with Louis-Ferdinand, eldest son of Louis XV, barely widowed Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain. The marriage proposed by Marshal Saxe, the winner of Fontenoy, was to serve to renew the alliances between Saxony, Poland and France, after the tensions due to the succession of Austria. The young Dauphine had some difficulty in conquering her husband's heart, inconsolable with the loss of his first wife, and making herself accepted by the court, but she finally succeeded in doing so by a keen sense of diplomacy that impressed people deeply. particular, Marie Leszczynska. She is the mother of the last three Bourbons who ascended the throne of France, Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X. La reliure est intéressante par son vocabulaire ornemental. Dimensions : 168 x 93 mm. Provenances : Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, dauphine de France ; Potier (Cat., 1870, n° 328) ; vente anonyme [Liliane de Rothschild] (Cat., 9 nov. 2006, n° 200, avec reproduction). Quérard, La France littéraire, VIII, p. 215 ; Quentin Bauchart, II, pp. 91-104 et 102, n° 23 ; Olivier, pl. 2526, fer n° 2. |
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I have already detailed this binding on another page but repeat it here to show its relationship with my eBay binding and also to point out again the armories here that are of the highest level, being those of Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, dauphine of France, the second wife of Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV) who should have logically become King but died before he got the chance. "On 10 January 1747, Louis was married by proxy at Dresden to Maria Josepha of Saxony, the 15-year-old younger daughter of Frederick Augustus II, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and his wife Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria. A second marriage ceremony took place in person at Versailles on 9 February 1747". |
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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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