| In November of 2009 I scanned just this part of the binding shown above. I could see some Dubuisson tools and saved the image as dubuisson-1814.jpg. I scanned it at 600dpi and the file was huge 17.6 MB. Then I moved on to other things and this file remained untouched for many years. Now over 10 years later I was trying to remember where I found this reproduction, because I failed to include any text information with it. After some reflection I realized that such a large catalogue number didn't leave too many possibilities, and finally realized that it must be from Rahir's sixth and final catalogue, that I do not have here at home. So I cannot give you any further information on it at the moment, however we know from our work on the previous page that this is a large Delorme 2 plague binding. |
| First we need to check to see if the Rahir reproduction is at exact full size scale. In Comparative Diagram 2, I have placed an accurate 400dpi BnF side plaque sample over the Rahir 1814, and reduced the transparency to 50% and inverted the color to make things more visable. On the first attempts I could see that the Rahir example was too small and corrected it incrementally until I reached the result shown in this diagram. The side plaque as you can see is very close to 10 cm wide (pre 1774 size). |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we see another scale test with this amazing imprint, totally regal in appearance, it is a tool that Delorme has used as an armorial in a number of his Almanach Royal bindings. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see an interesting pair of imprints, this pair appears to have been designed to link together as shown. This pair is unusual in that they are truly a mirrored pair as the overlay proves. Most mirror pairs only look like their opposite but may differ quite a lot, here we see that these tools are more than just look alike, and may reflect something about the production process, also there is a strange annomaly in the crossover, as though del-32b was deliberately altered to show the upper branch crossing in front of the lower, as per the opposite. |
| Comparative Diagram 5 may be a bit confusing, I have used this old diagram to show the difference between the Dubuisson pd-21 pair and the later pd-21-2 pair that are missing the top bud. The second pair perhaps first appear in the 1757 Almanach Royal. I have often wondered about these tools and whether they might signal the arrival of Delorme in the Dubuisson workshop. Now in this Rahir No.1814 binding we see something odd, Delorme has used the pd-21a on one side and the pd-21b-2 on the other side! Strange but proof anyway that he possessed and used, sometimes simultaneously, both pairs. |
| We could spend hours discussing the tools that were employed on this binding however I want to move on to another important discovery it concerns the del-atlas-4 pair of tools. I do not remember seeing this pair of tools in the work of Dubuisson and Delorme has been using them in the plaque bindings in a way that is going to help us discover more Delorme plaque bindings. Below in Comparative Diagram 7 I have attempted to reconstruct t5he 1814 binding using the British Library example that we were looking at on page 25. Notice how Delorme has employed the del-atlas-4 pair on these bindings, on the next page you are going to see the importance of these tools. |
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| 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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