cyclopaedia.org
COMPARATIVE IMPLEMENTOLOGY

French Decorative Bookbinding - Sixteenth Century

another Fanfare

click to enlarge

(click on this image to see an enlargement.)


click to enlarge




The fanfare binding shown above is from La bibliothèque de feu Édouard Rahir catalogue Volume 1, Paris 1930. if you dan't have this 6 volume catalogue, you are really missing one of the best ever made, the reproductions are exceptionally well done, This particular reproduction is not as good as most in these volumes but still better than anything printed more recently. I am showing this particuar example from this atelier as it demonstrates a marked change of tools from the previous binding. Reflecting possibly the evolution in these bindings from 1578 to 1587, an increasingly varied set of tools that allows us to track the bindings from this atelier with amazing ease.


click to enlarge


Comparative Diagram 1 - imprints from binding 92 enlarged to 300 dpi

(click on this image to see an enlargement.)




When I first spotted the scroll in the decoration I remembered it was illustrated in Hobson's fanfare imprint type models, as Fig. 36, I didn't follow this reference but rather searched again all the catalogues to find bindings with imprints of these tools and I found six. Not many really and it was after this that I found Hobson's list of bindings with this tool, cross checking this list I discovered that I had in fact found many of the bindings on his list


click to enlarge


Comparative Diagram 2 - Hobson various imprint models

(click on this image to see an enlargement.)


click to enlarge


Comparative Diagram 3 - Hobson fig. 36 scrolls - various examples

(click on this image to see an enlargement.)


click to enlarge

We see from his list that Hobson found 8 bindings with this exact scroll, at least 8 bindings from this particular bindery. Below I have collected the details each referenced binding in the list.


click to enlarge

You will notice that the binding at the top of this page #92 is shown as #157 on this list. I have not yet found the first one the list, #41, however I did find the next one, #103, we will examine this binding on the next page.



click on this link to see the next page: Hobson Fanfare binding No. 103.



information about the author return to the home page of VIRTUAL BOOKBINDING

l.a.miller@mail.pf