| The reproduction shown above can be found in a recent Sotheby's auction (click here to see it). From the limited auction information about this item, we will find it hard to estimate the exact time that it may have been decorated., However a few telltail signs of Delorme tools suggest that it may have been made in the 1760 to 1765 period. Someone recently critizised my assessment of what I consider to be Delorme's own personal tools and those of Dubuisson that Delorme used extensively. The early bindings are a mixture of mainly Dubuisson tools and Delorme tools. But how can we separate these tools? This is the question. It has been proposed that Dubuisson could have acquired new tools in the last couple of years that he was active. So we are going to look at this question to see if we can determine purely Dubuisson or Delorme tools. |
| This is a very small book, about then size of a largish cell phone, so the enlargement shown above is a bit misleading, not only that but it is a reconstructed image. Still it will serve our purpose of detecting Delorme imprints in the midst of the Dubuisson ones. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we enter into the thick of this problem. First thing to know is that Delorme used this Dubuisson tool a lot and for many years. When you look at the Dubuisson imprint that was taken from a binding that he decorated at least 20 years prior to our present Delorme example, you might even think that the two imprints do not derive from the same tool. Only the overlay assures us that indeed, the two imprints are examples of pd-3. |
| On the other hand in Comparative Diagram 2, we see a Delorme imprint that we have been tracking over the past few pages. This is a tool that I think Dubusson never owned, it is a sort of Delorme signature tool that he used right up until the end of his career (early 90's). |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we see something very interesting if not a little mysterious. I show at the top a corner from Rahir 217 that Dubuisson decorated in 1757, and at the bottom Davis487 a binding that I think was decorated by Dubuisson around 1747 to coincide the armories that are those of Dominique de la Rochefoucauld, he became archbishop of Albi in 1747. I speculate that the armories are those of an archbishop. That does not prove however that this binding was executed by Dubuisson at that time but it may be that Rochefoucauld ordered this new armorial plate from Dubuisson. However what I want to show is that these bindings were all executed in the same fashion. Delorme may not have had all of the Dubuisson tools on hand when he made this decoration however he used some similar looking tools to reproduce an almost identical design. This design is very particular, it employes a number imprints to make a corner pocket with a decorative framework where one can insert a small armorial emblem, note too that this corner design is specific to small bindings. The same tools are always employed in the same arrangements. For Delorme to be able to faithfully reproduce this same design suggests that he may have been working in the Dubuisson atellier possibly as early as 1757 (not a fact only a guess). |
| In Comparative Diagram 4, we see Delorme's replacement tools for the pd-1 pair, this then is a distinct indicator of Delorme's work and of purely Delorme tools. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, we compare these imprints and it is a tough call to say whether these are different pairs or the same pair that has been used to death. For the moment I have opted to separate these into Dubuisson tools and Delorme tools. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6, we can see that these enlarged imprints are different, at normal scale and with the naked eye I doubt whether any expert could make the call. I am guessing that Dubuisson did not have two nearly identical forms of this tool, thus I have catalogued the Delorme version as del-19. On the next page we are going to look at a 1757 Dubuisson binding that has many things in common with our binding No. 56. |
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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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