Beth Arnold

Letter From Paris: Pretty in Pink

The urban landscape of Paris is ever inspiring to me.  Before summer overtakes us, I want to give you some images of spring in Paris while she was pretty in pink.

 

Paris Art Market Buzz: Bookbinders Fare

Image via Wikipedia

By columnist Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts

This week I went to Drouot Montaigne (the high-end arm of Drouot on the Avenue Montaigne) to follow an auction that has generated considerable media attention.  Since the hard cover luxurious catalogue (priced at €45) appeared some weeks back there has been a lot of noise and speculation around the event.  The auction, entitled Les relieurs des rois de France (Bookbinders of the Kings of France), offered over 350 lots comprised mostly of engraved bronze plates used to emboss and gild leather book covers with a coat of arms and decoration.  The content of the workshop of a famous bookbinder, René Simier (1772-1843), was up for grabs.  Apparently the inheritors of the collection failed a ten-year effort to convince the government to create a museum for the collection and so decided to sell.  

The plates consist mostly of Royal coats of arms, some dating back to Louis XV (1710-1774) and Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) (pictured above), as well as monograms of aristocratic and princely families.  But here lies the main confusion: Simier was a bookbinder working primarily in the 19^th century for, most notably, the Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870) whose library at her Château de Rosny contained 8000 volumes.  Other notable clients were the Emperor Napoleon himself, Kings Louis XVIII (1755-1824) and Charles X (1757-1836), to name a few. 

Entrance to Drouot Montaigne