Bound in 1970 in black calf with thin onlays of white calf and thicker onlays of black, white and grey calf to a trompe l’oeil geometrical design of cut-out receding tiles and windows. Turnins: gold-tooled line. Sewn on five recessed cords, laced in (difficult to see). Smooth spine, onlaid in grey and white calf to the same continuous pattern; title tooled in white. White silk endbands, double with a bead; the ends of the cords seem to have been taken down under the joints. Gilt edges. Black leather joints. Grey suede (reversed calf) doublures; the tail turninof the upper cover is signed “P.L. MARTIN”; on the turn-in of the lower cover: “1970”; one free grey suede endleaf (backed) followed by three free paper endleaves. Label with “JP/G” [Jean-Pierre Guillaume]; exhibition label: “Exposition P. L. Martin. Claud Guérin l’Artisan du livre 1978”. A similar black and white geometrical trompe l’oeil design on the binding of A Camus, La Chute, Paris, 1956 was no. 56 in the P. L. Martin exhibition at the Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels, 1987. Original covers bound in. 337-(3) numbered pages.

This binding was made in Paris and designed by Pierre-Lucien Martin. Martin was born in 1913 in Denault in Nièvre. Unlike Pierre Legrain and Paul Bonet, he was trained as a binder, as well as a designer. He attended the École Technique Estienne from 1927-31 and was taught binding by Charles Chanat and design by Robert Bonfils. In 1931 he started working in the atelier of Jean Duval and then worked for several other binders; In 1936 he worked with A.-J. Gonon, in whose atelier he became familiar with contemporary poetry, painting and fine publications. In 1940 he set up his own atelier in Rue Saint-André-des Arts. After World War II he branched out in more original work and in 1948 won the 1er Prix de la Reliure Originale.

He had come away from copying earlier styles (as had been demanded by some of his clients) and started to use geometrical shapes and juxtapositions of colour and form, often using lettering and creating what looked like three-dimensional designs, either with the help of onlays and mosaics or just with tooling. As demand for his work grew, he no longer bound himself but employed several forwarders, such as René Desmules, and used finishers, such as André Jeanne and Charles Collet, to carry out his designs. All three had also worked for Pierre Legrain. He considered the binding essentially as the entry to the text, its purpose being to prepare the reader for what is to come. For illustrated books he wanted to achieve a synthesis between the impact of the author and the ideas and style of the illustrator.

[Mirjam Foot]