The folio sized binding shown above is found in a 1999 LIBRAIRIE SOURGET - MANUSCRITS ET LIVRES PRECIEUX - CATALOGUE N° XX. First we should address the information given for this binding by the Sourget expert, He has been so bold as to bring up a quote by Derome le jeune? You can search the billions or is it trillions of documents that have been indexed by the search engines of Google, and not find this quote, I dare to suggest that it does not exist other than in the mind of our Sourget expert. Would Derome call himself the pinnacle of binders would he dare to pronounce that he is the most skilled artist of his time? We know for certain that he sometimes employed others to do the work, some have questioned whether he did any of it with his own hands, suggesting that he only supervised the work. And why has his name been brought up in this information? are we meant to suppose that Derome decorated this binding? That they are proclaiming to be a bookbinding masterpiece of 18th century, imagine the poor soul who actually created this masterpiece, turning in his grave, tortured with the idea that his work has been attributed to someone else, while he remains totally unknown, his name and history, forgotten entirely.
This binding is so large that the photographic reproduction of it is not sharply detailed when enlarged, and as we have already recorded most of these imprints, I will simply reproduce here the few that we have not already seen even though they are to be considered provisional. I have included a diagram below at the bottom of the page to show the large size of this binding. These bindings might not have been made in the same year as the publishing date of the books that they cover however it is interesting to note that all three are very similar, even though of different sizes. All three have the same corner fleuron. However the 1774 binding is also decorated with Barber's ornamented scrolls, is this due to size or is it a trend? Shown below in Comparative Diagram 1, the Relieur Royal examples are more or less the same size as Barber's FR 28, this is the average small size.
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