| The reproduction shown above is from Heribert Tenscherts 2019 catalogue entitled « à compartiments ». This catalogue is a treasure chest of French 18th century mosaic bindings, however the catalogue information is completely out dated and lacking. We are going to show here that this binding was executed by Pierre Delorme, a binder who proclaimed himself to be Dubuisson's successor in 1769. His name is not found in the Tenschert catalogue index however there are numerous examples of his work in the catalogue, often incorrectly attributed to Derome le jeune as is the case here. It is a simple matter to prove this due to the fact that the Bibliotheque nationale de France has digitized one of Delorme's signed bindings, it is linked in his profile that is found in their list of important binders (click here to see it) |
| We can see in Comparative Diagram 1 that the Delorme roulette examples (A and B) have a small defect shown by the green dots. We can observe the same defect in the Tenschert 102 roulette examples, therefore it is obvious that these imprints are the same and that all the imprints derive from the same Delorme tool. I noticed that in the Tenschert information on this binding they mention and quote Giles Barber and reference W.Cat 8, this inspired me to look in Barber's catalogue for this roulette and sure enough I found it, however he failed to notice the defect and thus gives an incorrect length for it. This 'defect' might actually be damage that occured if someone dropped the tool. I show this below in Comparative Diagram 2. In as much as Barber does not mention Delorme I suspect that he too was unaware of the origin of this important roulette, that is however, not very hard to find. Signed bindings are rare and should be a first priority for any researcher who is trying to identify the decorative imprints found on 18th century bookbindings. |
| In my previous work, I have gone to great lengths to show that Delorme possessed a number of Dubuisson tools that he used in the same fashion as Dubuisson (click here to see this page). Primarily I concentrated at that time on Dubuisson's signature tool pd-7-4 and I noticed in the Tenschert catalogue some important bindings that also feature this signature tool. |
| In Comparative Diagram 4 we see page 182 from the Tenschert catalogue, where they show a binding with a reference of: Henry Davis Cat. III, Nr. 182. This very same binding can be found in color in the British Library Database of bookbindings (click here to see it) where we find this accompanying information... |
| Yes over three years ago the British Library posted this information with a link to my page on this binding (click here to see it). If the editors of the Tenschert catalogue had of visited this page they would have discovered not only the author of this binding, but also the authors of many other bindings that they have failed to recognize. It is not enough to just regurgitate the errors of past experts when you are making a book of this nature. This only perpetuates the confusion that exists today and is the failing of this catalogue. |
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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. |
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