| On the previous page we were wondering what this binding, Barber's W.Cat 8 looked like. One day when we have a lot more money we are going to buy Barber's book, but until then we have to hunt around looking for photo's on the internet and it just so happens that I found some. This very book is on display in the Waddesdon Manor Buckinghamshire Exhibition room, along with three other mosaics that we are going to look at as well. |
| In Giles Barber's catalogues we discover this unusual framing roulette found decorating this 1778 Almanach Royal. and thus can tentaively identify it as W.Cat 9. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see a critically important Dubuisson set of tools, I have made a page about them in 2017 (click here to see this). Delorme continued to use these tools over a long period. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we see another critically important Dubuisson signature tool, I have made a page on this also (click here to see it). Barber failed to see the bottom ring that accompanies this imprint. Delorme used this very tool on his 1775 signed mosaic binding for Marie-Antoinette Queen of France. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, I have assembled some of the tools that Barber never recorded for this binding, fortunately he did record 2 that allowed me to identify this binding as W.Cat 576. The majority of the examples that I show next to the W.Cat 576 detail are from a 1750 mosaic Almanach Royal (click here to see it). When you see these tools and the way they have been employed, you can easily imagine that this binding was made by Dubuisson himself probably around 1753, i.e. not long after the publication of this Book of Hours. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, we see another classic Dubuisson tool that he used in many bindings. Barber references 4, W.Cats 305, 423, 574, 647 we have found 2 of them . |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, we see an unusual imprint, I do not recognize this as being part of Dubuisson toolkit. Perhaps then this decoration is the work of Delorme, we need to study carefully all the clues to separate the work of these two master decorators. The FL 42 example that I show from this binding looks suspicously like Barber'e type model and so we can be almost certain that this is W.Cat 574. The oddly shaped bulb with criss-crossed leaves, is something I have seen in another of these mosaics, perhaps this will be a way to determine when this binding was made. |
|
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. |
| Virtual Bookings, created by L. A. Miller | return to the Home page of VIRTUAL BOOKBINDINGS |