Padeloup le Jeune was royal binder to Louis XV. after Boyet, and belonged to one of the many French families of binders. Padeloup’s work is luckily often signed by means of a small ticket on the title page or end paper. He perfected the patterns known as “Dentelles,” which had been first thought of by Boyet. These designs start from the edges of the boards inwards, and the inner edge is deeply dentated and is supposed to resemble lace. Padeloup used blue and red morocco, and executed several small bindings with inlays of coloured leather in geometrical designs.
Fig. 125.—French inlaid and gold tooled binding, 1718, by Padeloup le Jeune.
Fig. 126.—French gold tooled binding “Dentelle à l’oiseau,” by Derôme le Jeune.
Padeloup made several large bindings, and his stamps are often large and boldly cut, but his successors gradually fined his style down until the original bold indented work became quite small and lace-like in itself.
The liking for inlaid work which was started by Padeloup rapidly grew, and it caused a certain deterioration in the taste of French binding because it gave such scope for minute technical skill that this soon became more sought after than the power of fine designing. The skill shown on inlaid bindings by Jean le Monnier, for instance, is astonishing, but the designs on all his bindings are weak. The same may be said of the work of J. A. Derôme. But the work of both these binders is much sought after and esteemed by many collectors.
Derôme le Jeune was the most important French binder of the late eighteenth century. He took Padeloup’s large “dentelles” and altered them so much that he at last evolved a style of his own from them. Derôme drew the whole design out in a much smaller and more delicate way, and always put in some bird figures, and these designs are known as “Dentelles a l’oiseau.” He used citron, olive and red morocco. Derôme has not a good reputation as a forwarder; he is said to have cropped his books badly, and also to have “sawn in” his bands so as to get flat or open backs. Even so, he did not invent “sawn in” bands, as that vice was practised in England a hundred years before Derôme’s time, in the case of embroidered books; but the fact of these two mannerisms having been noticed in the work of this great binder only shows that the same faults were probably universally prevalent at the time.
Modern French work is astonishing for its technical skill. The work of Capé, Duru, Thouvenin, Bauzonnet, Trautz, Lortic, Niedrée, Marius-Michel, Chambolle, and many others is admirable from all workmanlike points of view.