the james de rothschild bequest at waddesdon manor printed books and bookbindings

THE JAMES A. DE ROTHSCHILD BEQUEST AT WADDESDON MANOR

Printed Books and Bookbindings I

Catalogue of Printed Books and BookbindingsGiles Barber

Published by The Rothschild Foundation 2013

2 volumes1162 pages, on 130gsm paper

96 colour plates; 880 monochrome illustrationsOver 1000 images of bookbinders’ tools, in actual size

310 mm × 230 mmBound in buckram

ISBN 978 0 9547310 8 3£300.00

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Sheena CoxRetail Manager

The Rothschild FoundationWaddesdon Manor

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© The Rothschild Foundation 2013

The James A. de Rothschild Bequestat Waddesdon Manor, The National Trust

Catalogue of Printed Books and BookbindingsGiles Barber

THe outStaNdINg collectIoN of late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century books, together with their sumptuous bindings, built up by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild

in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, match his other extraordinary collec-tions (covered by earlier catalogues in this series), and is among the best of its kind outside Paris. This catalogue reveals the riches of his book collection for the first time.

The two volumes provide introductory surveys of the collecting of ancien régime books, of Baron Ferdinand’s life, historical interests and manner of book collecting (using impor-tant and unpublished trade documentation), an overview of the collection by subjects, a more detailed description of the illustrated books, and another of the wide range of royal, bibliophile and other important provenances, a further aspect of the collection. Seven substantial chapters describe and discuss the late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Parisian bookbinding trade and the technique of decorative gilding. They include par-ticular studies on the work and production of leading bookbinders – Padeloup, Douceur, the Deromes and others – whose rare mosaic and dentelle bindings so attracted Baron Ferdinand and of which he owned so many. The evolution of the various styles of the period are discussed, including the bindings of the Cabinet du Roi, and lists are provided of all the examples in the collection, before a final section on bookbinders’ ‘signing’ of their work, and lists of English and other bookbindings at Waddesdon.

Of special importance is the classified index of French bookbinders’ tools, some one thousand of those on the Waddesdon books being reproduced digitally, thus providing an authoritative reference file on the best French bookbinding of this period. All 790 books are described in full detail, with titlepage transcriptions, collations, lists of plates, details of provenance, descriptions of bindings, and notes on the importance of the works involved. A provenance index lists all identified past owners, with brief biographical notes on them. There is also a select bibliography.

Giles Barber, who died in 2012, started his career at the Bodleian Library and was later Librarian of the Taylor Institution, Oxford. He wrote extensively on ancien régime print-ing, publishing and book-collecting, as well as on bookbinding. He gave both the Panizzi Lectures in the British Library (1988) and the Sandars Lectures at Cambridge (1998), and was Commandeur in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Contents

Volume I

Preface 11Acknowledgements 13Editorial note 15Family tree 16Select bibliography 21

BaroN ferdINaNd de rotHScHIld, HIS BookS aNd tHeIr BINdINgSChapter 1 The collecting of ancien régime books in Baron Ferdinand’s 43 timeChapter 2 Baron Ferdinand as a book collector: the evidence 61Chapter 3 An overview of Baron Ferdinand’s books by subject 94Chapter 4 The graphic arts and the book: Baron Ferdinand’s library 107Chapter 5 The provenances and associations of books in 118

Baron Ferdinand’s libraryChapter 6 The Parisian bookbinding trade in the late seventeenth 137

and eighteenth centuriesChapter 7 Gilding, doublures and endleaves 156Chapter 8 The seventeenth century and its legacy 177Chapter 9 French styles of the early eighteenth century 192Chapter 10 Mid-eighteenth-century French mosaic bookbindings 241Chapter 11 The dentelle style 251Chapter 12 The Deromes, father and son, their styles and tools 282Chapter 13 Mid-eighteenth-century moves towards the greater 309

mechanisation of gildingChapter 14 The signing of bookbindings 336Chapter 15 Bindings, other than French ones, at Waddesdon 343

BookBINderS’ toolSOn the study and recording of bookbinders’ tools 357Tools Lists 1 to 18 363

List of former owners 471List of booksellers’ traces 509General index

Volume IItHe catalogueThe general arrangement of the catalogue 521Catalogue entries 1 to 790 523

156

Chapter 7

Gilding , doublures and endleaves

sourCes of information

How were the gilt masterpieces of the bookbinder’s art actually produced in the mid-eighteenth century? Can one follow Nicolas-Denis Derome, or any other doreur of the period, step by step and see the finished work emerge from his hands? There are several sources of information which help in this process. First, a small number of contemporary documents – bills, letters, and inventories made in connection with the winding up of estates – all give us some idea of the domestic and professional situation of the binder. In a few cases they also list his tools and materials. Such documents can be of great value, particularly when they relate to individ-ual and identifiable works. A number of such cases are given, albeit without any indication of source, in Thoi-nan’s otherwise admirable history of French bookbind-ing. This evidence links with that of binders’ tickets in books (see Chapter 14) in connecting certain books to particular binders and thus apparently allowing their corpus of work to be identified, a process which should allow their personal techniques to be studied. This ap-proach, which seems to work with the major shops that, from the very late eighteenth century, signed their work by gilding their name on the binding, has, however, been more recently questioned when it relies on tickets. In general, the evidence of minor contemporary refer-ence is useful when studying prices or the terms used in the description of styles, or when it associates a named binder with a specific book.

Secondly, there is the fact that although printed accounts of the act of either printing or binding only came centuries after Gutenberg’s day – these arts be-ing perhaps seen as trade secrets, not to be too widely divulged – the eighteenth century was the period of the Enlightenment, when intellectuals such as the Ency-clopedists took a keen, if sometimes rather theoretical,

interest in precisely how manual and industrial trades were carried out. These sources have been recorded by the late Graham Pollard and Esther Potter in their useful book Early bookbinding manuals.1 Most of these concentrate however on forwarding (that is, the sew-ing and covering of the book) and few give a detailed description of gilding. The earliest of these is the un-published description of the processes of binding given in Jacques Jaugeon’s ‘Description des arts et métiers’ of 1704, of which there are two manuscript copies in Paris. The passage concerning gilding in this text, although concerned only with the physical work involved in gild-ing, is of interest as an early formal contribution to our knowledge of the technique. It has previously only been printed in an Italian translation and is therefore given here in full:

Du Dorement de la Couverture. Le Doreur sur Couver-ture est un ouvrier qui ne s’occupe, au moins à Paris, qu’à cette Espece d’ouvrage comme le Doreur sur tranche à y dorer et noircir L’Endroit où Il travaille est asses arbitraire quoi que ce soit presque toujours dans une chambre, ou sont ranges Le Long des murs de Longues tables en forme d’Establis sur lesquelles Il ordonne tous le Livres selon Leurs grandeurs, Leurs qualites et Leurs Couvertures; Le Lieu ou il dore est sur une Table posee Le plus qu’il peut devant une fenestre pour avoir le plus beau Jour qui a acoste d’elle plusieurs ferremens, ou moules a figurer tout ce qu’il veut representer en or: Les outils sont des fers de differentes Longeurs et grosseurs dont les plus forts n’excedent pas La longeur d’un pied sur un pouce d’Epais portant a un de ses bouts un manche ou poignet a L’autre une Espece de Poincon de Lettre, de chiffre, de fleur, de bouquet, et d’autre ornement plus ou moins grands selon la grandeur des Livres sur quoy Il les applique, que La planche de cet art a rendu tres sensibles comme on le pourra voir dans Le traitte qui en parle, avec tous ces Instruments il y a encore une grande

1. H.G. Pollard and E. Potter, Early bookbinding manuals, Oxford 1984.

The Deromes, faTher anD son

306

Fig.53. W.Cat.355. [ J.-B. de Junquières], Caquet-bonbec, [ Paris] 1763, 80. Bound by N.-D. Derome, with his ticket

Fig.52. W.Cat.469. J.-F. Marmontel, Contes moraux, Paris 1765, 3 vols, 80. Bound by N.-D. Derome, with his ticket

waddesdon bindings list kBindings of N.-D. Derome’s later style at Waddesdon and with engraved tickets (listed in order of binding)

1. Late 1760s. W.Cat.469, fig.52. Marmontel, Contes moraux, 1765, 3 vols, 80. The boards here have a frame of three equally spaced fillets, a rosette at the inter-section, and a small ornament in the corners. The flat spine is divided into panels by double fillets, the panels being decorated by traditional coins (corner-pieces, sp 32) and a floral ornament (fl 24) with a pallet (pal 82) at the foot. There is a heavy zigzag turn-in roll (roll 5e) in vols 1 and 3. Derome ticket Ract-Madoux F1 (1780 – 85).

2. Late 1760s. (W.Cat.446. Lucan, La Pharsale, 1766, 2 vols, 80, and W.Cat.470. Marmontel, Belisaire, 1767, 80, bound in series with W.Cat.469 and basically the same except that the fillets are of the thin/thick/thin variety and that the tail and turn-in rolls are of a slightly older pattern. Neither bears a ticket. The nature of the binding strongly suggests Derome and the style of the fillets is slightly later in date than that of W.Cat.469.)

3. After 1780. W.Cat.21. Ariosto, Orlando furioso, 1773, large 80. The boards have three equal fillets with a

rosette at the intersections. The flat spine is divided by double fillets surrounding a thin flame pallet (pal 103), while the panels have small ornaments (not corner tools) at the corners and a smattering of dots and stars around a traditional panel ornament (fl 57). The tail pallet is pal 100. The board edges have roll 4a and the turn-in roll 101. The endleaves are dated 1780 and the Derome ticket is Ract-Madoux G2 (1780 – 85). The binding is clearly greatly simplified in decoration but combines traditional elements with simple modern floral ones.

4. c.1786. W.Cat.355, fig.53. [ Junquières], Caquet-Bonbec, 1763, thin 80. Equal triple fillet, a rosette at the inter-sections. Flat spine, lettered down, with fillet panels and a small fleuron, turn-in roll 98. The blank leaf watermarked 1778, note on Pâris de Meyzieu sale 1779, Derome ticket Ract-Madoux K4 (1785 – 89).

5. c.1786. W.Cat.67, pl. p.612. Bitaubé, Joseph, 1786, 80. Equal triple fillets with small circular ornament at the intersections, arms of the duchesse de Polignac, flat spine, hatched pallet with dots and flame (variant

307

n.-d. derome · waddesdon bindings l ists k , l

of pal 103), dotted horizontal lines to lettering-piece, the same small circular ornament to panels. Turn-in roll 98. Derome ticket Ract-Madoux K4.

6. c.1786. W.Cat.510. Montesquieu, Le Temple de Gnide, 1772, 40. Triple fillet with broad centre line, rosettes at the intersections; raised bands, double fillets to top and bottom of the spine panels, a five-leaf whirl-ing device on the panels (sp 51), tail pallet (pal 52); double fillet to board edges, turn-in roll 57. Derome ticket Ract-Madoux K3 (1785 – 89). A larger volume with even less ornamentation and the thick fillet of the 1780s.

Two other volumes bear Derome tickets but considerable reservations have been expressed as to their authenticity:

7. W.Cat.224. Du Verdier, Le Romant des romans, 1626 – 9, 40. Bound-in drawings dated 1774. Triple fillet to

covers, spine gilt with a pomegranate tool (fl 50). Derome ticket Ract-Madoux K3 but, unusually, at the top right of the first free fly-leaf. An unidentified sale cutting of before 1862 makes no reference to the Derome ticket which is probably a subsequent trans-fer.

8. W.Cat.370. La Fontaine, Fables choisies, 1765 – 75, 6 vols, 80. Triple fillet to boards with rosette at intersections, small ornament in from corners; flat spine with single fillet around a larger flame pallet (pal 102), coins (corner-pieces) (fl 178), panel ornament (fl 138), board edges with a single fillet, turn-in roll (unidenti-fied), blue endleaves. Derome ticket Ract-Madoux E1 in vol.1, vols 2, 3 (1768) similar, 4 – 6 bound to match. The tools have not been found on any other Derome binding and Monsieur Ract-Madoux has expressed the opinion that the book was not bound by Derome.

*

From the above and the examination of other signed Derome bindings a certain number of points can be made concerning Derome’s practice, in the 1780s. The first touches on the sparsity of decoration on the cov-ers, which have a frame of triple fillets (equal in size or with a fatter central one) and a rosette at their intersec-tions. Larger and more ornate bindings have the Doric entablature roll with other thin ribbon or classical rolls around and sometimes an intertwining dot and leaf roll a short way inside. The central area is largely blank. The spine is usually flat but panels are lightly marked by thin lines around a generally thin flame pallet. Hori-zontal lines of plain dots feature on both covers and spines. Spine panels have a small circular or other non-representational ornament and tail pallets are often of the interlaced ribbon or flame type. Board edges are often of the broad chevron and circle kind, while two particular turn-in rolls are frequently found. Unsigned bindings can therefore be attributed to Derome both

from a consideration of the general style and feel of the work and from the use of these identified and support-ed tools. Equally, books with tickets (as the two above) may be subject to suspicion if they do not match any of the evidence listed.

Some main tools used on later-style signed Derome bindings at Waddesdon:

Covers: triple fillets, equally spaced and with a thicker central fillet.

Spines: certain floral ornaments (fl 24, 57), non-representational ornaments (sp 32, sp 51 and others), pallets pal 52, 82, 100, 103.

Board edges: roll 4a.Turn-in rolls: roll 98, 101.

The following Waddesdon bindings of this later period are therefore also attributed to Derome:

*

waddesdon bindings list l

1. W.Cat.26. Basan, Recueil d’estampes, 1771, 40. Triple fillet with a thick centre fillet. Tail pallet (a variant of pal 114) as on the signed J.-A. Derome binding Gruel ii, p.58.

2. W.Cat.58. Berquin, Romances, 1777, small 80. Tail pallet (pal 46) as on W.Cat.454 with a Derome ticket.

3. W.Cat.136. Cervantes, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote,

1780, 40. Triple fillet with a wide middle fillet. Spine ornaments pal 46 and cbb 10, turn-in roll 85.

4. W.Cat.161. Corneille, Théâtre, 1774, 40. Spine orna-ment cbb 10 as W.Cat.136.

5. W.Cat.176. Crillon, Mémoires philosophiques, 1777, 80. Triple fillet with wider space between the outer ones. fl 56, head and tail pallet pal 44, turn-in roll 82.

378

Tools lisT 6: DsTDentelle special subject tools.

DsT 1. ornate crown with orb. Also as iNT 15.

W.Cat.783.

DsT 2. Coronet.W.Cat.629.

DsT 3. Crown.W.Cat.305.

DsT 4. Crown.W.Cat.305.

DsT 5. small crown with fleur-de-lis and scrolls below.

W.Cat.762.

DsT 6. Two pairs of leafy scrolls.

W.Cat.783.

DsT 7. A double-headed eagle.

W.Cat.392 (A.-M. Padeloup ticket).

DsT 8. A more angular double-headed eagle.

W.Cat.439.

DsT 9. spread eagle with angular wings and feet.

W.Cat.439.

DsT 10. A pair of (left/right-facing) birds standing with wings raised.

W.Cat.235.

DsT 11. A crowned dolphin with a curled tail.

W.Cat.501.

DsT 12. A curled dolphin with strongly marked scales.

W.Cat.439.

DsT 13. Upward-facing cornucopia from which spring pendant flower branches.

W.Cat.484.

DsT 15. A shell.W.Cat.305.

DsT 14. A sheaf of corn.W.Cat.199.

i. Allusive tools found on dentelle bindings

379

t o o l s l i s t 6 : d s t

DsT 16. A large butterfly.W.Cat.332.

DsT 17. A recumbent lamb facing right.W.Cat.422.This tool, together with DsT 18,

features on a 1745 longus, Daphnis et Chloe, with Douceur’s ticket, exhibited by the librairie Chamonal at the Foire du livre ancien, 1993. Also on an anonymous Ms ‘Aigle d’argent présenté à Madame de Pompadour’ [c.1750?], G. Bagratoumi sale, sotheby’s, 15 May 1997, lot 1; the Ms compares her to the eagle and lamb, ‘aigle par les talents, mouton par la douceur’.

DsT 18. A lamb walking left.W.Cat.422.

DsT 19. A small insect with two pairs of wings and a recurved proboscis.

W.Cat.636.

DsT 20. Male dancer between partner on right and pipe player on left.

W.Cat.423.

DsT 21. A shepherd holding a houlette, with dog.

W.Cat.423.This also occurs on another copy

of the 1757 Daphnis et Chloe (la Roche lacarelle 312), bearing Dubuisson’s ticket, and therefore is likely to be connected with him.

DsT 22. Cupid watering a tree in a tub. inscription below: ‘Amour me fait vivre’.

W.Cat.629.

DsT 23. A fan.W.Cat.199.

DsT 24. Two clasped hands (Friendship).

W.Cat.439.

DsT 25. Two clasped hands, smaller than above.

W.Cat.421.

DsT 26. Two hearts side by side pierced by an arrow; a circlet above.

W.Cat.421.

DsT 27. Two hearts super-imposed, pierced by an arrow.

W.Cat.423.

DsT 28. Houlette head tied with ribbon.

W.Cat.422. see DsT 21.

DsT 29. A lute with four strings.

W.Cat.673.

DsT 30. A lyre with four strings.

W.Cats 629, 734.

538

w.cats 24–25

Saint-Denis-en-l’Ile) is the prow of the Ile Saint-Louis and, at the time of its construc-tion, was still largely surrounded by open country. Le Vau exploited this to the maxi-mum with a plan which only reveals itself as the visitor mounts the staircase and ends with a grande esplanade and view through the vestibule and gallery leading out towards

the river. The design of the house was highly influential on that of later Parisian hôtels. Eustache Le Sueur worked on the house for nine years, as did Le Brun, mak-ing the house one of the most remarkable decorated houses in Paris. By the date of this book, however, when the marquis du Châtelet was in possession, various major

decorative elements were no longer pres-ent. Voltaire stayed here in the late 1730s when it was briefly owned by the Duchâte-let-Lomond family. In the 1840s the house was owned by the Czartoryski family.

References P. Jessen, Katalog der Ornamentstich-sammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek Ber-lin, Berlin 1939, reprinted New York 1958,

W.Cat.23. Plate following p.6, drawn and engraved by Picart.

539

boyer d’aguilles · galerie royale de dresde

4009; Cohen-de Ricci 609, referring to the Waddesdon copy; A. Mérot, Eustache Le Sueur, Paris 1989, esp. 257 – 80; Larousse, x, 109; A. Blunt, Art and architecture in France 1500 – 1700, 1982, 223 – 8.

Acc.no.3208

241744 Jean-Baptiste BOYER D’AGUILLES

Recueil d’estampes d’après les tableaux des peintres les plus célèbres d’Italie, des Pays-Bas et de France, qui sont à Aix dans le Cabinet de M. Boyer d’Aguilles, Procureur Général du Roy au Parlement de Provence, Gravées par Jacques Coelemans d’An-vers, par les soins, & sous la direction de Monsieur Jean-Baptiste Boyer d’Aguilles, Conseiller au même Parlement. Avec

une description de chaque tableau, & le caractère de chaque peintre. A Paris, chez Pierre-Jean Mariette, rue Saint Jacques, aux Colonnes d’Hercule. 1744

Folio π1 A-L1 followed by engraved plates.Plates Title-page vignette, unsigned. Front-

ispiece to Part 1, repeating the title and naming the engravers S. Barras and J. Coelemans. Part 1 containing 58 plates, Part 2 containing a title-page and 59 plates engraved by Coelemans and Barras (two only), all but six plates signed, some dated between 1696 and 1708. 16 pages have two plates; nine plates fold.

Binding Mid-eighteenth-century French red morocco gilt, arms of Madame de Pom-padour (ohr 2399, stamp 1, but larger ver-sion: 121 × 108 mm) on both covers, foliage and frame roll (roll 51) round sides, bul-bous vase of flowers (bv 3) in each corner.

The spine decorated with pom egranates (fl 54), pal 73 and 75. Edges gilt over mar-ble. Attributed to Louis Douceur on the grounds of the use of bv 3 and roll 51; for further discussion, see Chapter 11, pp. 274, 277, 363. 554 × 422 mm.

Provenance Madame de Pompadour (sale, 1765 (Estampes), lot 17). William Beckford. Alexander, tenth duke of Hamilton, sold by the twelfth duke (Sotheby’s, 1882, pt 1, lot 2029), to Quaritch at £62. 1897 Wad-desdon Catalogue, p.8.

Notes The pictures described in this volume were largely collected by Jean-Baptiste Boyer d’Aguilles (d.1709), who had the en-gravings made around 1703. They passed to his son Pierre-Jean, also Procureur géné-ral at Aix-en-Provence. Pierre-Jean Boyer, marquis d’Argens, was concerned in the famous case of La Cadière where a Jesuit was accused of seduction. The case was finally quashed but in 1745 Boyer’s office was suppressed. This edition is, in a sense, a second edition and may have been pub-lished with a view to the sale of the pictures which occurred shortly afterwards. Pierre-Jean’s eldest son was the dissipated youth who as Marquis d’Argens later became a well-known and prolific writer.

Reference Cohen-de Ricci 183, referring to the Waddesdon copy.

Acc.no.4230

251753 [AUGUSTUS III, Elector of Saxony]

Recueil d’éstampes d’après les plus célè-bres tableaux de la Galerie Royale de Dresde. 1.[2] volume contenant cinquante pièces avec une description de chaque tab-leau en françois et en italien. Exemplaire Royal [not vol.2]. Imprimé à Dresde 1753 [vol.2 1757]. [Colophon] Imprimé à Dres-de, Chez Chrêtien Henri Hagenmüller

Folio 2 vols: π2 A-G2; A-I2.Plates (1) Portrait of Augustus III, engrave d

by J.-J. Baléchou (of Avignon) after H. Rigaud, dated 1750. Title-page vignette by C. Eisen engraved by Noël Le Mire. Plan of the Gallery, unsigned. Head-piece to the Avertissement, unsigned. 50 numbered plates. Four engraved decorated letters and 12 cut on wood.

(2) Portrait of Marie-Josèphe, engraved by J. Daullé after L. de Silvestre, dated 1750. Title-page vignette by Eisen engraved W.Cat.24.

302

W.Cat.502. Jean Monnet. Anthologie françoise, 1765. 8o. Bound by R.-F. Fétil, with his ticket.

303

W.Cat.454. [The duchesse du Maine]. Grandes nuits de Sceaux. 1715. Folio. Bound by N-D. Derome with his ticket.

The Waddesdon CatalogueOf the thirteen titles in this series, five are still available:

Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth CenturySerge Grandjean, Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, Charles Truman and Anthony Blunt

The group of precious objects recorded in this catalogue complement the other 17th and 18th century works of art brought together by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild.

Most prominent among them is the series of gold boxes made by leading Paris goldsmiths of the 1760’s – 1780’s and mounted with miniatures painted by the Van Blarenberghes. This group is one of the largest painted by this family, and the catalogue includes a detailed study of their work.

Besides snuffboxes there are also bonbonnières, patch boxes, needlecases and other containers, in gold, sometimes enamelled, in hardstones, or covered in shagreen, and other precious materials. While most originated from France, others were made in Austria and South Germany, all dating from about the same period.

The creation and composition of the boxes in this excep-tionally important collection, as well as the context in which they were used, are studied both in the introduction and in the catalogue entries.

Published in 1975368 pages; 32 colour plates, 270 b/w illustrations; 310 × 230 mmISBN 0 7078 0023 4; £200.00

Glass, Stained Glass and EnamelsR.J. Charleston, Michael Archer and Madeleine Marcheix

These works of art were installed in the Smoking Room at Waddesdon Manor chiefly by Miss Alice de Rothschild. The glass vessels are varied in origin and include two rare early 16th century Venetian enamelled goblets, Netherlandish and German façon de Venise late 16th or early 17th century pieces, a group of 17th century blue vases in gilt-metal mounts very probably made at Naples, and later Bohemian enamelled beakers. There is also a group of Bohemian gold-sandwich glasses of the 18th century.The origins of all these glasses are studied and analysed in the introduction.

The stained glass panels are from England, Switzerland and Germany and range in date from c.1400 to the mid-17th century; all were intended for domestic use.

The Limoges enamels – dishes, plaques, and a ewer – cover the second great period of production there and include many of the great names, from the work of the Aeneid Master probably of 1525–30, to one plaque by Léonard II Limosin of the beginning of the 17th century. A study on each artist’s work precedes the catalogue entries on the group by or attributed to him.


Illuminated ManuscriptsL.M.J. Delaissé, James Marrow and John de Wit

The illuminated manuscripts at Waddesdon represent one third of the magnificent collection begun by Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (d.1868) and extended by his son Baron Edmond (d.1934). Many are among the best prod-ucts of the later Middle Ages, from the workshop of Jean Pucelle in Paris of the early 14th century, to that of Jean Bourdichon of Tours or of Simon Bening of Bruges, both of the early 16th century; some are valuable for their texts and others for the richness of their illumination.

The catalogue descriptions are organised to emphasize the history of the medieval book. Their components, tech-nical elements, texts, and illustrations, are analysed in the sequence in which they were produced, in order to recon-struct the life of each book and, as far as possible, its history.


Architecture and PanellingBruno Pons

This catalogue contains a scholarly account of the origins of Waddesdon Manor, built for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the late 19th century and designed by Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur.

The volume opens with an account of Destailleur’s family, Paris architects of the 18th and 19th century, with particular emphasis on Gabriel-Hippolyte who was active during the Second Empire. The sources for Waddesdon Manor lie in the 16th century but its exterior decoration is drawn from the 17th century, and these sources are analysed and the building is set in the context of Destailleur’s other great houses. The second chapter studies the use and re-use of old French panelling: its trade and export in the 18th century, its destruction during the Revolution, the market

and organisation of sales in the 19th century, and Baron Ferdinand’s interest in it, in particular.

The 385 individual elements are then described and analysed, with measurements, locations and provenance. Each panel has a commentary on its period and history, and its relation to the series of which it forms part, and each series is introduced by a fully documented section on the house for which it was carved.

Published in 1996704 pages; 22 colour plates, 650 b/w illustrations, 20 diagrams; 310 × 230 mmISBN 0 85667 437 0; £145.00

Drawings for Architecture, Design and OrnamentAlastair Laing, Martin Meade, Michael Jacobs, J.W. Niemeijer, Michael Snodin, Christopher White and Karin Wolfe

The drawings, numbering over one thousand, are remark-able above all for the sheer abundance and quality of works by virtually every French 18th century ornemaniste or architect of note. Some formed part of the great collec-tion assembled by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, but the majority came from the collections of Baron Ferdinand’s Parisian cousin, Baron Edmond, whose career as a collector lasted from the 1870’s into the 1920’s. Baron Edmond became interested in such drawings when they first began to appear on the market, frequently straight from the artist’s heirs or successors. This accounts for the presence of entire runs by outstanding draughtsmen (Oppenord, Meissonnier, Delafosse) and also explains the abundance of smaller groups or individual drawings by designers of the stature of Lebrun, Lepautre, De Wailly, and others.

Published in 20062 volumes, 848 pages; 96 colour plates, 1100 b/w illustrations; 310 × 230 mmISBN 987 0 9547310 2 1; £250.00

THE JAMES A. DE ROTHSCHILD BEQUEST AT WADDESDON MANOR

Printed Books and Bookbindings II

the james de rothschild bequest at waddesdon manor printed books and bookbindings

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