| I found this binding in an auction catalogue, more than 10 years ago and it is only now that I have rediscovered it in my files. The information on this binding is the same sort that has been circulating for decades however our research has turned up some new clues concerning this sort of multi-plaque decoration. In the past I assumed that Dubuisson was behind these binding mainly due to the unmistakable presence of Dubuisson's tools. Now that Delorme has emerged as the successor of Dubuisson we need to look at these bindings in a new light. The first evidence that cannot be ignored is the palette at the base of the spine. |
| In Comparative Diagram 1, we compare palettes from, firstly a British Library binding found in their Database as Maps 7 Tab 118, this binding was obviously decorated by Delorme as we proved on page 25, further research showed that this 2 plaque decorated binding could not have been made before 1774 (see page 32) so this tells us that Delorme was using this palette, and suggests that this binding was decorated closer to 1770 than 1760. I was going to go into a long examination of the few filler tools that we see being used here, they are unusual and not the typical Dubuissonn tools, however while I was attempting to reconstruct this multi-plaque binding I stumbled upon another, that has the same corner plaque and this is one that we have already examined due to the fact that it has been decorated with the del-36b imprints that we looked at on page 34... just a reminder that there is no such thing as a coincidence. |
| Now at first you may think that the corner tool is not exactly the same and in some ways it is not, however when you place the two imprints together in the same diagram with an overlay you discover that they must be the same, the imprints are identical however one gives the effect of a solid tool as opposed to an open tool. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, we compare the corner imprints with an overlay, and they match precisely, if these are two different tools then they must have been made with a special replication process. Or perhaps the earlier solid tool was waisting to much gold and was later pared down. What is obvious to me, is that we do not know enough about how things were done 3 hundred years ago, when no one had ever heard of electricity let alone the internet. My point in showing this Rahir binding again, goes beyond just the fact that the corner tools are the same. If the del-36b imprint can be proven a certain Delorme tool then we can attribute the decoration of both of these bindings to Delorme. The Rahir 248 binding is covering a 1761 publication which then leaves little room for Dubuisson to have been the decorator. |
| In Comparative Diagram 5, I attempted to reconstruct this binding with the two plaques involved, the first thing that you discover is that the side plaque is not well adapted for middle top and bottom positions, its going to be heavily overlapped and messy. |
| In Comparative Diagram 6 and 7 I show some unusual imprints extracted from binding 105, there are not many filler tools and these ones are surprisingly different, perhaps a sign that this binding is not from c. 1760. |
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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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