Almanach royal, année M. DCC. XLV […]. Paris, Veuve d’Houry, 1745. In-8°. 443 pp. The calendar is interfoliate and the copy is annotated. Contemporary red morocco , flat spines decorated with fleurs-de-lis, title and vintage pieces in fawn-colored morocco, arms on covers in the center of a large gilt plaque de Dubuisson, blue silk endpapers, gilt edges. (Dubuisson, with his label on an endpaper. : “Doré par Dubuisson Rue St Jacques à Paris “).
René Dubuisson (around 1690 – after 1776), received master bookbinder in 1710, is recognized as the creator of this technique of gilt decorations with plaque. Realizing the rich rocaille scenery with a press shot, it was then enough to complete it with fillets and roullettes to adjust the whole to the dimensions of the covers, then to possibly stamp the arms in their center, as it was for our copy. René Dubuisson then his son Pierre-Paul, received master in 1746, also made gilding for other fellow bookbinders, among which Antoine-Michel Padeloup, king’s binder.
With the arms of P. Doyen (death around 1761), lawyer at the Parliament of Paris; he annotated extensively the copy, and accurate on the first interfolio: “Everything that is written on this almanac, are notes made by M. Duret de Noiseville [?], Présid[in]t hon[orai]re to the Great and General Council “. François Duret was one of the four Secretaries of the Cabinet in 1708. Mainly historical details are provided concerning the origins of the names of the months, hospitals in Paris, Royal Houses (Versailles, Compiègne, Fontainebleau, etc.), the Golden Fleece, Secretaries of State, the Great and General Council, the Chamber of Accounts, the different courts and jurisdictions, universities, etc.
Guigard, II, 185 (similar arms). Édouard Rahir, Livres dans de riches reliures, Paris, 1910, n° 184-K ; Christian Galantaris, Manuel de bibliophilie, Paris, Éditions des Cendres, 1997, t. II, p. 284, n° 10 ; Yves Devaux, Dix Siècles de reliure, Paris, Pygmalion, 1977, p. 180, binding courtesy (plaque without arms).
Discreet restorations to heads and corners, beautiful and rare copy, René Dubuisson’s bindings are not common.
3 000 €