| Thanks to this Christie's auction description we have solved part of the mystery of the imitation Douceur bindings, here in the information for Lot number 174 , the description clearly states that the binding was signed "Plumet" at the bottom of the inside of the back board. (click here to see another signed Plumet) In these research pages we have been looking closely at imitation Douceur bindings, on page 12 we described how Giles Barber had fallen into this trap. On the previous page we have looked at another imitation binding. Now we have found the author of some of these bindings and his tools will all have been catalogued by Barber albeit mixed with those of Louis Douceur. (Catalogue of Printed Books and Bookbindings: The James A. de Rothschild Bequest at Waddesdon Manor, by Giles Barber 2013) |
| When I first looked at this Plumet binding my hopes were that we had solved the problem of who was making imitation Douceurs, however as soon as I started to compare imprints things became a lot more complex. You will see on the first Plumet binding that we have described, Douceur tools being employed, however on this new Plumet we see some different tools, and a few of the old ones, none appear connected to the W.Cat.636 binder, the tools are different even the corner tool shown above in Comparative Diagram 3, DCR 13, is not the same as the Plumet model. We could perhaps explain this by imagining that Plumet continued the work of the Douceur workshop after Douceur retired, where as the W.Cat.636 binder was a true imitator. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we see two authentic Louis Douceur bindings the first W.Cat.361 from Barbers book, the second BnF, RLR, RES-V-724 that can be found online in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. (click here to see it) and we compare these to the Plumet binding. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5 we try to compare the Plumet imprint d-4-5 with the BnF d-4-5 imprint. Unfortunately the BnF examples of this imprint are not good, due to the fact that it is a very large binding, even enlargement will not bring out the detail, however I have placed a green arrow to point out the outline of the imprint in this location, you will see that it follows closely the Plumet outline. If this was not the same tool I doubt that this outline could be anything so similar. |
| Comparative Diagram 6 shows that all three bindings have been decorated with this same tool that obviously derives from Louis Douceur's workshop. We see that Plumet has been using Douceur tools, however he has introduced some new ones, new ones that look like the old ones, just to make our investigations a little more interesting. |
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click here to return to the INDEX of the 1749 Henault pages. click here to see the INDEX of the 2017 pages. click here to return to the HOME page. 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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