| On the previous page we were looking at Barber's W.Cat.422 binding. I did not have the exact size of this binding and I decided to search for online copies to see if I could find the dimensions for this publication. I could have resized it another way but that didn't occure to me right away and instead I was Googling through a lot of information when suddenly almost by accident I happened to see that the BnF's Gallica had a copy, better check that I thought, maybe there is a binding that goes with it, bingo, the Jackpot! I discovered the binding shown at the top of this page. At first it looked very much like a Douceur, especially with what appeared as Douceurs typical outer roulette. Here was an amazing find it actually looked like some kind of Plumet Douceur hybrid and the great part was that I would be able to download some sharp 400 dpi images of this treasure. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see the two examples of this 1745 Longus, the bindings are the same size, the large corner imprint is what I used to resize the W.Cat.422 photograph. |
| I could have used Barber's DCR-17 type model to achieve the same thing as we see in Comparative Diagram 3, you put a semi-transparent copy of your imprint on top of one that you know is an exact size, if its too small you enlarge it by increments until you have close fit (within 1%). Here I was starting to wonder, if this was a real Douceur why was I finding strange discrepencies, the first most obvious was Douceurs D-1 imprint, one of his favorites and found on his signed bindings (click here to see one, Davis543) |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we see something amazing, these imprints look very similar, here is a deliberate attempt at a copy, it is only when you see these imprints greatly enlarged that you see that they are not the same... why?. I see someone in the back raising his hand, and yes Douceur could have lost the original and had another made, maybe... but lets look at the next puzzle an imprint that I said was post Douceur right underneath the fake d-1!. |
| We see something that I missed in these FR 65 imprints shown on the previous page, and that is there is a small ring with a dot inside of it included with this imprint residing just below it. Finding this imprint was a shock to my system, I did not think that Douceur was using this tool although Chenu had it around the time Douceur retired. I tried many overlay diagrams because each time I did, this imprint seemed larger than the W.Cat.422 examples. In the end we have to admit that is is probably the same imprint, but is it a Douceur tool or a Plumet tool? We can see many of the other W.Cat.422 imprints here, the sheep as well. |
| In Comparative Diagram 7, some of you are going to say that I am clutching at straws, but I just happened to notice when I enlarged the Plumet signed binding 174, that the inner dentalle was just barely visible and rather unusual. Stranger than fiction, it appears as though this BnF binding also has this same inner dentelle, if this is the case then I think we can assume that Plumet may have had something to do with this binding... |
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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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