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On a previous page I show a virtual reconstruction of this binding which I created for our inventory, being at that time, unable to find the entire binding reproduced by any other author. It is listed as number #36 in our inventory of bindings from the workshops of Louis XII and Francois Ier. Now, after what seems far too long, I am finally able to present excellent high resolution photographs (shown above) of what remains of the front and back boards (photo by Suzanne Nagy). To make my reconstruction I used strips of the roulette Ananas entrelacés AEa1 as per Denise Gid's data for rubbing #618, which was taken from the front board. The roulette does not show up well in this rubbing and I questioned whether or not it was actually an AEa1 due to finding 2 other examples from this workshop where the roulettes appeared to be AEa3 (mysteriously AEa2 is not shown in her Planche 38, shown below). |
| For me, there were a number of other important issues that I might be able to resolve if I had a good photo of this binding, I wanted to know if the crown was broken as it is on my copy, and also whether the same flaw appears in the base of the crown. These flaws do not appear on the early examples and could serve as chronological markers that would allow a better fix on the actual time frame of when these bindings were produced. Further to this it would provide a sort of absolute proof that my copy was indeed an authentic treasure that was crafted in the Royal workshops nearly 500 years ago. Imagine my satisfaction on beholding at last these photos. The first discovery is that this is not an AEa1 roulette as shown in the rubbing data (AE 1), but is rather an AEa3 as you can see for your self in the comparative diagram below. The differences between AEa1 and Aea3 are considerable, perhaps the most obvious is that AEa3 is a reversed copy of AEa1 and thus they are not easily confused. One wonders then, how Denise Gid could have made this mistake...? Especially as she designates the roulette as AE 1 'without the signature'. Anyway I am glad to see that it is AEa3, as it confirms that this roulette was indeed used by the Louis XII workshop, being found now, on at least three bindings. |
| Now we can look at the crown flaws, I have detailed these on another page. In Comparative Diagram 2, I show imprints designated by Denise Gid as "her 1" from #36 and my binding #37 (click on this image to see an enlargement). The small white arrows indicating that both examples share this common flaw. While at point "a" we can see that the lobe is missing in both examples. I have enlarged another example in Comparative Diagram 3, that shows this defect more clearly in both bindings. |
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