A silver and enamel plaque jeweled binding

18th century] · [Paris

by MINIATURE SILVER & ENAMEL BINDING

[Paris, 18th century]. Silver filigree binding (82 x 60 mm., including spine), the filigree covers of volutes and curling tendrils with inset painted ceramic or enamel oval centerpiece and heart-shaped corner-pieces showing putti in pastoral settings below love-related mottos in French (central plaque on front cover slightly damaged), both covers decorated with ten glass “amethysts”; hollow tubular filigree spine (reworked?), pair of fore-edge clasps and catches, the silver binding apparently glued to yellow silk-covered thin pasteboards, the yellow silk liners with pockets front and back; preserved in a modern morocco case. Containing a pasted-in modern (truncated) illustrated manuscript (see below). ***

This jeweled silver filigree binding with painted enamel plaques is in the style of and may belong to a group of late 17th- or 18th-century bindings with similar plaques, whose contextual circumstances point to Paris as place of production.

I have located 13 analogous silver and enamel miniature bindings, found on manuscripts and on various late 17th-century editions of the Office of the Virgin, printed mostly in Paris from the 1670s to the early 1690s, including a few editions in Italian. My census is an expansion of one kindly shared by Dr. Jan Storm van Leeuwen, expanded from that published in the catalogue of Patricia Pistner’s miniature book collection, A Matter of Size (no. 123). All but one of those 13 bindings are miniature (measuring approximately 82 x 55/58 mm.) and are adorned with 20 cut-glass “jewels.” The silverwork is of two types: nine are filigree, with swirling volutes, as in this binding, and four are in a floral ajouré or openwork design with stems, leaves and blossoms (as in Patricia Pistner’s example, op.cit.).

The plaques, which are probably painted enamel*, are also of two types (not correlated with the two different silverwork types): the majority, ten in all, show Christian religious figures, with no inscriptions. Those religious plaques are in at least two different styles and may have been produced in different workshops. They are all found on editions of the Office of the Virgin, printed between 1672 and 1693, all but one in Paris.

The three other bindings have secular enamels painted in a rough, folk-art style, with putti and archaically spelled mottos relating to love, very similar to those in the present binding. One is the Pistner example (which is empty, and which is in the different floral ajouré style); the two others, filigree examples like this one, are found on Jewish or Hebrew manuscripts: one is in a private collection, and the other (in which the plaque inscriptions are in Italian) is preserved at Penn State University (acquired from us). All three of those “secular” bindings have oddly shaped spines, slightly deformed. This may be a result of reworking the spines to accommodate thinner text blocks than that for which they were originally intended; possibly all of them were like this one, originally rounded, and intended as sleeves for a stylus, although that seems less likely.

Both the plaques and the filigree silverwork of the present binding are extremely close to the example in the private collection, and one of the central plaques shares the same inscription (here Rien m[’]arrest; in the other binding somewhat more correctly Rien m[’]arreste).

Bookbindings of silver and previous metal were kept and reused through generations, and thus often appear on much later books or manuscripts. This binding, which is in very fine condition, presently houses a 20th-century mildly erotic manuscript in French, on 10 vellum leaves, the title Cantique de Salomon in a crowned frame, the 9 following leaves containing amateurish pencil and watercolor drawings on rectos only with one- or two-line captions. Originally glued in, most of the leaves are now loose. The manuscript is disposed in the style of a Hebrew codex, with the page order from left to right, and the Hebrew transcription of the name of God (YHWH) appears at the top of the title.

As noted above, this binding is closely similar to the two other filigree secular bindings described above, in the design of the catches, the joints, and the filigree itself, not to mention the enamel plaques. It certainly seems to belong to that group, but its fine condition and perfectly rounded spine may also point to some 19th-century restoration, with possibly renewed glass stones.

For examples of some of the other bindings, see A Matter of Size: Miniature bindings and texts from the collection of Patricia J. Pistner (2019), no. 123 (referring to 7 such bindings); F. Malaguzzi, Collezioni del Museo civico d'arte antica di Torino: legature (Turin, 2011), no. 92; Luigi Mallé, Smalti - Avori del Museo d’Arte Antico (Turin, 1969), pp. 113-114; G. Fletcher, Judging a Book by its Cover: Bookbindings in the Collections of the Grolier Club (N Y, 2023), no. 3.13; Musinsky Rare Books, Catalogue 28, item 7; Patrick Olson, NY Book Fair List 2024.

* To quote our colleague Patrick Olson, describing “his” binding: “When finely ground enamel frit was mixed with water, it formed a paste that could be painted on with a brush, then fired. The resulting lines could be quite well defined and resemble those made with traditional brushwork—much like the lines defining the figures on our enamels here. As it happens, the French had long been experts in this technique, the craftspeople of Limoges especially.” (Inventory #: 4426)

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Specializing in Continental printed books and manuscripts; Early printed books; Renaissance and Baroque literature; Incunabula; Illustrated books; Bindings; Popular printing; Women

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A silver and enamel plaque jeweled binding

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18th century] · [Paris

Musinsky Rare Books, Inc.

Directorium cathedrali ecclesiae Litomericensi ad S. Stephanum proto-martyrem proprium, Authoritate et Mandato .... Emmmanuelis Ernesti ... de Waldstein Episcopi Litomericensis

The ABAA Promise

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