This binding was made by Joseph Thouvenin around 1820. Thouvenin was born on 9 September 1790, the eldest son of a bookseller.¹ In 1802, aged eleven, he went to work in the shop of the binder Bozérian le jeune, until 1813 when he set up on his own in Rue Saint-Jacques, no. 75, apparently to learn gold finishing, an important aspect of the craft which Bozérian had refused to teach him. He can be found at a number of different addresses. In 1815 he was established in Rue de l’École-de- Médecine; in 1819 he lived in Rue des Fossés-Saint-Victor, no. 36; then in 1823 at no. 34 Rue Mazarine and from 1830 at no. 29 Rue Mazarine and 36 Passage Dauphine. He took part in the Exposition of 1819 where he got an honourable mention, and he obtained a silver medal in the Exposition of 1823. At first his style was much like his former master, but then he broke away. He worked the leather to bring out the grain and his tooling became very good. He took as his example the binders who were working in London at that time, such as Charles Lewis, whom he thought much better craftsmen than those of Paris. Only by 1830 did he feel that he had obtained the necessary experience and built up a team of binders which enabled him to compete successfully with all the English binders of the period. He renewed the craft in France with his style Gothique and his “Cathedral” designs, made with large blocks and small hand tools. Charles Nodier was a friend and patron and Thouvenin worked for a number of famous clients in different styles. He was an excellent craftsman, but not a good businessman, being often slow in fulfilling orders, and getting into financial difficulties. In 1833 he had an accident, tore his Achilles tendon, and died on 9 January 1834, apparently from blood poisoning in his foot. 

Mirjam Foot  

¹ Gruel 1898, pp. 435-446, 508-509; Ramsden 1950; Brussels 1961, pp. 53-54; Devauchelle 1959-61, vol. II, pp. 155-169; Culot 1995, no. 45 and pp. 560-561. The latter two sources give as his date of birth 1791, but according to Gruel he was born on 6 September 1790 and died, aged forty-three, on 9 January 1834.