| The reproduction of the binding shown above is found in the Gumuchain Catalogue (1930, XII,) It is binding number 31 (see also the description of this item). The quality of the Gumuchain reproductions is excellent and far exceeds anything that you can find in these "modern" times. Here we can extract some high resolution imprint specimens. Below I compare an imprint from the British Library binding Davis330, this binding is attributed by them to the Salel Binder. Here we have confirmation that these bindings share common tool imprints. |
| When I was searching for these imprints in the Gumuchain catalogue, I got a lucky break to discover that the number 32 binding was by Étienne Roffet, that also made use of a large plaque. The shock was that the Roffet plaque looked identical to the Davis330 Salel Binder plaque (P 3). |
| All this is very very interesting, the first first question is who copied who? These plaques look the same at first, but on closer inspection we can see slight but very real differences. On the next page we will look at this Roffet binding and imprints more closely |
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