| The binding shown above appeared in the 2018 BINOCHE et GIQUELLO. Paris auction Collection A.J. - Livres anciens et manuscrits. Livres choisis - Livres brûlés : Etienne Dolet (1509-1546). MERCREDI 28 NOVEMBRE 2018 (click here to see it). In the auction information we see that this very rare bibliophile treasure sold for more than 51 thousand euros, and although a great many specifics about this book were known, these experts were not able to identify the magnificent decoration of the binding, amazing but true. Here we are going to prove that the decoration of this binding was executed by Delorme. However the history of Delorme, remains somewhat confused. In a 1905 publication Lean Gruel reproduced a signature that he claimed was that of Pierre Delorme and also a publicity poster that promotes P. Delorme as Dubuisson's successor with an address of Rue St. Jacques. Thoinan on the other hand states that he found a Delorme signature with an address of 191 Rue St. Jacques, this he assumed was Jean Delorme. The Bibliotheque nationale de France lists the address of Jean Delorme as 191 rue St. Jacques as well as reproducing a signed binding that they attribute to Jean Delorme. In my first pages about this in 2017 I assumed that signature reproduced by Gruel was that of Pierre Delorme and stated that Pierre Delorme was the author of the Etat bindings. I now have come across a recent example of Delorme's signature and it is almost certainly the same as the one produced by Gruel |
| The image shown above is from a 2015 Alde auction catalogue Collection Michel Wittock - 6ème Partie it can be found online (click here to see it) unfortunately I do not have this catalogue yet, however we can make do with these online images. The Alde experts maintain that the signature here is that of Rene-Pierre Delorme. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see the signed binding item 53 compared with bindings from the Royal Library in Madrid. The corner tools appear to be the same and these are the same tools that we have been looking at in the past 12 pages. Here is a conundrum, are these the tools of Jean or Pierre... in retrospect I would not be surprised if the BnF experts have relied heavily on Thoinan's suggestion that the signature is that of Jean Delorme, and thus the address they have given for Jean Delorme is 191 St. Jacques...when I consider that most of the evidence is pointing to Pierre Delorme as the author of these bindings and that he names himself as the successor of Dubuisson, I have to state here and now that all references in my pages are to Pierre and not Jean. I will have to alter some of my previous pages as I have used occasionally the BnF attribution to this binder as Jean Delorme. Now imagine this... that the BnF has incorrectly attributed their signed Delorme binding to Jean Delorme, this is now obvious and I can present here proof, first that the signed Delorme binding presented at the 2015 Alde auction bears the same signature as the Gruel facsimile. Second that the address of this signature is No. 191 Rue St. Jacques. Third that the tools found on this Alde binding are the same tools found on the Delorme bindings so far studied. Fourth that these tools match those found on the signed BnF binding. Fifth that Gruel attributes this signature to Pierre Delorme, which is a logical assumption for a number of good reasons. Below I show Gruel's reproduction of P. Delorme's 1769 publicity poster. I have shown this on a previous page describing some of these same issues (click here to see it). Also I have ordered this Alde catalogue and when it arrives I will be able to present much more convincing proof, however we can proceed with an examination of bindings that are very evidently linked to the Delorme binding shown at the top of this page. |
| In May of 2007 I was starting my research on the bindings of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson, and came across this 1774 Etat that appeared to have the same fer à l' oiseau as that of Dubuisson, I must admit that at the time I was obsessed with le fer à l' oiseau that seemed in all cases to be unjustly attributed to Derome le jeune. So this Etat binding caught my eye and soon I had collected a number of bindings that appeared to be linked by similar tools. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see a collection of bindings that are obviously all from the same workshop, I called this wokshop ETAT due to the first 1774 volume, then a few years later I managed to purchase an ETAT binding which meant that at last I would be able to study the imprints with high resolution scans, I mentioned this binding on a previous page, and just now I have rediscovered my lost files concerning this binding that I bought on eBay in early 2010. These we will look at on the next page. |
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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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