cyclopaedia.org
COMPARATIVE IMPLEMENTOLOGY

French Decorative Bookbinding - Eighteenth Century

1955 Auction Catalogue - with a Dubuisson dentelle binding as frontispiece
click to enlarge

(click on this image to see an enlargement.)


Livres illustrés du XVIIIème siècle : Galerie Charpentier, les 11 et 12 mai 1955.
Publisher: Librairie Giraud-Badin, Paris 1955.
In-4 (282 x 224 mm) soft-cover, 74 pages,
55 plates including three in color, 150 lots described.
This catalogue was issued in a limited printing of 530 examplaires.




Louis-Marie Michon must have missed this catalogue which appeared the year before he published his disastrous work: Les reliures mosaïquées du XVIIIeme siècle, Paris 1956. If he had of seen this dentelle binding signed by Dubuisson he would have had to finally admit that bindings that he had attributed to Jaques-Antoine Derome (and subsequently his son Nicolas-Denis Derome) were actually the work of Pierre-Paul Dubuisson. Michon stubbornly refused to accept the clues that were already public knowledge. If we need any further proof of Michon's failure in this regard we only need to consult the work itself wherein he does not even mention Pierre Paul Dubuisson or his father Rene. Michon speaks of three main bookbinder dynasties (the Padeloups, the Monniers and the Deromes), that dominated the eighteenth century in France, without even being aware of the most important dynasty of them all, the Dubuissons. How can I compare this error to indicate its magnitude? Let us imagine that Michon was instead, an astronomer and his area of expertise was the planetary system... in Michon's book about the planets, Jupiter would be missing! If there is one book in the history of French decorated bookbinding that has confused more people, and propagated more errors, and "expert" lies, it is this unfortunate book by Michon.

Below I have reproduced the catalogue details concerning this item number 86, here it plainly states that Dubuisson's large etiquette has been glued onto the first free endpaper. Below this I have reproduced an example of a large Dubuisson etiquette. If we had to start with only one authentic Dubuisson example this one would serve us well, for we find here the imprints of a wide range of Dubuisson tools. This same binding was also reproduced in a 1931 Paris publication, La Reliure Française by Ètienne Deville, Vol. II, Pl. VII. Reliure de Dubuisson aux armes de la marquise de Pompadour



text

etiquette

Dubuisson étiquette c. 1757





Still, within this same 1955 catalogue, we find unfortunately Dubuisson decoration attributed to Derome. I have reproduced the item (#141) below with the accompanying notes. We see the spines of the 4 volumes in Plate LV. When we compare the palettes used at the base of the spine to those seen in a Dubuisson binding which I have detailed on a previous page and show just below, we are forced to conclude that this is the work of Dubuisson and not Derome.
click to enlarge

(click on this image to see an enlargement.)


text


click to enlarge

click to enlarge

Dubuisson Palettes







click on this link to go to see more bindings decorated by Dubuisson, signed by Paeloup.

click on this link to return to: The Dubuisson links page.



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

l.a.miller@mail.pf