| The reproduction shown above is from Giles Barber's Catalogue of Printed Books and Bookbindings : The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor published in 2013. We recently looked at this binding on another page (click here to see it). This binding was probably not decorated by Douceur, because we see, plainly visible the signature imprint of René-François Fétil. The reader is advised to read the Fetil pages otherwise this page may get a bit complicated. I have discovered convincing evidence that Fetil worked as a doreur for Douceur, the bindings were signed by Douceur however the decoration was executed by Fetil. The mystery of all this, concerns Barber who as we saw on the previous page, catalogued all or most of the imprints that he found on the bindings in his inventory, Below is the list for W.Car 361, the signature imprint of Fetil does not appear in this list. Similarly he catalogued a rare Fetil signed binding (see here to see this binding) and again he failed to catalogue this signature imprint. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see Barber's catalogued tools of this type, if he had of catalogued the Fetil imprint rf-3 it would necessarily appear here next to DCT 37, that is a very similar imprint. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we see the close relationship of Barber's DCT 37 to Fetil's rf-3 imprint as well as BnF examples, now here is where the plot thickens the BnF examples are from one of Douceurs most celibrated bindings. |
| The binding shown above is found in the Bibliotheque nationale de France it has Louis Douceur's ticket inside glued on to the 2e garde volante. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we see something amazing, here is Fetil's signature imprint rf-3 decorating the spine compartments of Douceur's signed and famous Fables bindings for which he had special tools made. I suspect that these bindings were not decorated by Louis Douceur but by René-François Fétil!... Fetil was working with Douceurs special tools as well as some of his own. The Fables binding is thought to have been executed around 1760, the W.Cat.361 binding could not have been made before 1765, in as much as Douceur retired in 1766 it is likely/almost certain that he never decorated W.Cat.361 and by a comparative analysis very likely that he did not execute these Fables signed bindings. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6 we see something extraordinary, this imprint, that Barber catalogued as DCT 29, came from the centerpiece of the signed Fetil 1765 binding W.Cat.502, Barber who had viewed and catalogued hundreds of Douceur tools has no other reference for this imprint other that Fetil's signed binding, apparantly he found it on no other Douceur bindings of the possibly 50 or more that he knew of, yet here it is boldy occupying the inside corners of the BnF Fables bindings! Now I know some of you might be wondering what all this has to do with Plumet, we are going to see that on the next page, Plumet was using Fetil tools too! |
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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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