| The binding shown above is found in a 1993 Ader Tajan auction catalogue entitled: Tres Beaux Livres Anciens. This is item 54 and at first sight you might not think it was binding by Louis Douceur, however there is one Douceur tool that is so extraordinary it can't be missed. |
| The imprint shown above comes from item 90 which I have detailed on another page, (click to link to this page). it is one of the 1754 Lucretius bindings, and when I was extracting the imprint I realized that there was nothing ordinarary about the design of this tool, an abstracted leaf form that is a bit reminiscent of certain azured tools of two centuries earlier. Being so unique it is easy pick out, and I suspect not easily copied. In Comparative Diagram 2 shown below I have reproduced the item 90, 1754 Lucretius binding, along with the item 54, Dauphin binding, both at the same scale. |
| In Comparative Diagram 3, I have assembled the imrints from item 54, the lowest 5 imprints in this diagram (d-46a, d-46b, d-46a-2, d-46b-2, d-13) are shared imprints found on other Louis Douceur bindings (90, 60). Beyond these shared tools there are other important comparisons such as the tooling of the spine, the double filet treatment of the lower spine compartments and bottom palette. Perhaps more important is the dentelle configuration which differs greatly from the preferred style of those of the next two or three decades. On the next page we will explore this idea a bit further, assembling all the Louis Douceur bindings thus far identified in one diagram. |
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