ANTIQUARUM STATUARUM URBIS ROMAE

£4,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

A lovely copy of this suite of prints in a beautiful, most unusual and ingenious binding by the M.M. atelier in Paris, incorporating two large wallets to store drawings or prints. The binding was undoubtedly made with the idea in mind that a collector, perhaps on a grand tour of Italy, could use the wallets to store the engravings or drawings he found on his travels, to perhaps paste them into the blank leaves at a later date, or to make notes or drawings directly on these leaves. We have found other books with J M Tourret s label but nothing about his life, or his collection. The book is a most ingenious design, beautifully bound, a wonderful object, that gives an insight into collecting on the grand tour. The binding can be attributed to the MM binder; the corner-piece tool on the covers corresponds exactly with that identified as tool MM6 in cyclopedia.org. These bindings range from 1770 to at least 1786. .. This able binder appears to be a master of the classic dentelles of the 60 s and may have apprenticed with a famous royal binder from that period. At the same time he uses tools in the same fashion as Jubert in the mid 80 s. It would not surprise me if these two binders were about the same age and apprenticed with Derome, Douceur or Dubuisson. Unlike the work of Jubert we do not see the inclusion of any Derome tools or fers √† l oiseau in the decoration of these bindings. From the very first examples we see bindings of a very important and high standing. A 1776 Royal A

Binding: Hardcover

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