| The reproduction shown above is from an Alde auction catalogue in PDF form that you can find here. In the Alde information about these bindings they mention everyone except Delorme. Below I show these same bindings from an older catalogue. |
| The reproduction shown above is number 821 in Edouard Rahir's catalogue La bibliothèque de feu Edouard Rahir: Livres illustrés du XVIIIéme siècle riches reliures anciennes, Volume 3. Lefrançois, 1935. This huge double page reproduction would be difficult to scan, I don't remember how I did it back in December of 2009. It is only just now however that I have realized that this was probably the work of Delorme and not Dubuisson as I first assumed. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we see good reasons to suspect that these large folio multi-plaque bindings were in fact decorated by Delorme. The imprint pair del-atlas-4 might be deemed convincing proof if we can show that Dubuisson himself never used or possessed such a pair of tools, however I have found something even better. |
| The binding shown above is found in the British Library Database of Bookbindings (click here to see it) We see a variety of information in the notes but nothing about Delorme! It is interesting that this is considered a masonic binding and again Le Monnier is mentioned, we have reviewed another masonic binding where Plumet and Le Monnier are mentioned (click here to see this) in that case Plumet was the decorator and Le Monnier was the binder and I suspect that this may well be a similar case where Delorme was the decorator and the binding by Le Monnier. |
| In Comparative Diagram 2, we see convincing evidence of Delorme's tools especially imprint del-1. This important imprint was the best single way to track down Delorme bindings when I first started looking for them. Unfortunately this huge binding is a relatively low resolution reproduction and we cannot go too far looking at the other imprints, suffice to know that we have one that is at 100% Delorme convidence level. |
| The next binding shown is found in Volume 1 of La bibliothèque de feu Édouard Rahir... , Paris: Francisque Lefrançois, 1930. I show the description for this item, it states that this binding was "probably the work of Douceur". Every "expert" who described this same volume in future auctions including Esmerian (Cat. II #117) repeated this attribution to Douceur. However the presents of Doubuisson and Delorme tools certainly seems to eliminate Douceur from the decoration of this binding. I have covered this subject on a previous page (click here to see it) where I show more folio plaque bindings and also on this page where I enter into the details of tools that are probably Delorme tools. The book found inside this Rahir No. 248 binding was printed in 1761, and so this could be some of Delormes post Dubuisson work, where he still uses mainly Dubuisson's tools. |
| The detail shown in Comparative Diagram 3, also relates to detail in Comparative Diagram 2 this concerns the Delorme pair of imprints shown in Comparative Diagram 4. These imprints differ from the Dubuisson pair pd-36 pair, however the differences can only be fully appreciated with enlargement. My theory is that the Delorme pair were never used by Dubuisson, i.e. they are not Dubuisson tools and can be used as Delorme identifiers, particularly del-36b where we can see distinct differences especially where the leaf enters the pod. Shown enlarged to 1200 dpi in Comparative Diagram 5. |
| Now that we have discovered these examples, I suspect that more will turn up. We see now the vast range of bindings by Delorme, and yet we are only scratching the surface. |
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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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