[BINDING.] [PRAYERS.] [Le tableau de la croix representé dans les ceremonies de la S.te messe.]

Fanfare binding with pointillé tooling

[BINDING.] [PRAYERS.] [Le tableau de la croix representé dans les ceremonies de la S.te messe.] [Paris: François Mazot. c. 1651–53.]

Small 4to. Contemporary French dark red morocco, richly gilt, covers elaborately tooled with pointillé tools in an open fanfare design, within pointillé, double fillet and floral roll tool borders, spine gilt in compartments with raised bands, gilt edges, pink silk ties and place marker, marbled endpapers; ff. [2], 34, pp. 35–39, [1 (blank)], engraved throughout (77 full-page engravings) by Colin and De Gheyn; bound without engraved title and privilege leaf; two very small holes near hinge of rear board, hinges and extremities very expertly repaired; tiny hole to f. 33 (repaired); eighteenth-century shelfmark to blank recto of dedication; nineteenth-century catalogue clipping pasted to front free endpaper; bookplates of Paul Grandsire to verso of front free endpaper and verso of rear free endpaper (see below).

One of the most splendid French seventeenth-century devotional books, entirely engraved, this copy in a superb fanfare binding with pointillé tooling, attributed to the legendary binder known as Le Gascon.

The volume opens with a dedication letter from the printer, François Mazot, to Charles de l’Aubespine (1580–1653), Marquis de Châteauneuf, ambassador, and later Keeper of the Seals of France, faced by a portrait of the dedicatee by the Dutch engraver Willem de Gheyn (fl. 1650–1670). An engraved title-page by Jean Colin (c. 1623–1701) follows, introducing thirty-five illustrations depicting the order of the Mass, the upper register depicting scenes from the Passion of Christ. On facing pages are accompanying prayers in French and Latin, each flanked by full-length portraits of two saints and decorated with plants, flowers, and insects. The work concludes with four pages of litanies featuring female saints. Published between 1651 and 1653, Le tableau de la croix exists in several variants, with some editions including further litanies and portraits of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, as well as a selection of Psalms.

The binding is an exquisite example of French pointillé tooling, a style characterized by intricate dotted lines and curves that gained popularity in France in the 1630s. This technique was employed by several master gilders, the most famous of whom is known as Le Gascon, a mysterious figure whose identity remains uncertain. Brunet notes that other copies of the same work are often found in handsomely decorated morocco, and e.g. the copy at the BnF may have been bound by the same workshop as ours, featuring similar (if less elaborate) pointillé decoration and a seemingly identical border of small fleurs-de-lys; Ricardo Heredia’s library, sold by Drouot 22–30 May 1891, features six other works in bindings attributed to Le Gascon, his copy of Tableau de la croix is described as ‘red morocco, spine tooled in gilt, dentelle borders, corners with fleur-de-lys tooling, richly decorated aux petits fers and au pointillé, gilt edges (Le Gascon)’ (lot 1076).

Provenance:

Catalogue clipping from the 1879 Bachelin-Deflorenne Catalogue de livres rares et précieux provenant du cabinet d’un amateur lyonnais pasted to front free endpaper verso, attributing the binding to Le Gascon (’Théologie’, no. 2).

With the bookplates of Paul Grandsire of Nogent, Haute-Marne, to endpapers. His extensive collection was sold at auction by Drouot, 9–13 December 1930 (Livres rares et précieux, anciens et modernes composant la Bibliothèque de M. Paul Grandsire de Nogent-en-Bassigny).

USTC 6056034; Brunet V, col. 624 (‘one finds beautiful examples bound in morocco and richly gilt’, trans.); Graesse VI.2, p. 4.

SKU: 2120951