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The reproduction of the binding shown above is number 84 in Robert Hoe's book 176 Historic and Artistic Bookbindings, New York, 1895. Esmerian shows it in his list of Macé Ruette bindings in his Tableau II, under FANFARES MODERN, it is number 9 in this list. It has a printing date of 1586 and Esmerian has given a date of vers 1621 for its production. You will notice that this binding and a 1629 binding (click to see this binding), are so similar that we are forced to suspect that they were made in the same period, sometime around 1629. No doubt the date for the production of this binding will have to be revised at some future point in time. (see these bindings compared at the bottom of this page) Below I show the information fot this item (84). Today we see this is an obvious Macé Ruette binding, however in 1895, every binding of this sort was automatically attributed to Le Gascon. The bindings of Mace Ruette were virtually unknown, and continued to be for the next half of the following century. Who was the first person to recognize a Ruette binding is an interesting question. |
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