This French mosaic binding was made for the Duchesse de Duras around 1790. The Sotheby’s sale catalogue of 7 December 1997, lot 450, identifies the arms on this binding as those of Jean- Baptiste de Durfort (1684-1770), Duc de Duras, and his wife Angelique- Victoire de Bournonville (1686-1764). However, as both were dead before the books inside were printed, the more likely first owner is either the widow of their son Emmanuel Félicité de Durfort, 4th Duc de Duras (1771-89) or possibly the wife of their grandson. Emmanuel Félicité was twice married, his first wife died in 1735, but his second wife, Louise-Françoise de Coëtquen (born 1724), whom he married the following year, lived until 1802. Their son, Emmanuel Celeste Auguste (1741-1800) became Duc de Duras in 1789 and married in 1760 Louise Henriette de Noailles (1745- 1832); she is therefore another candidate for the first ownership of this book, however, as it belonged to “F.S” in 1819, her ownership is less likely than that of her mother in law. 

We find the mosaic tile pattern with which this binding is decorated on a fair number of French 18th-century mosaic bindings and several of these have been attributed either to Padeloup or to Derome. As many of the bindings are decorated entirely with lines and gouges and have no individual and identifiable engraved tools, such attributions, based entirely on style, are highly suspect. Bindings with this pattern were fashionable from c. 1718 onwards, with revivals in the 1730s and 1790s. The binding illustrated here is a late example.¹ 

Mirjam Foot 

¹ Barber 2013, vol. I, pp.219-228, Style A. See p. 228, no. 7 (wrongly described).