Armorials and Individual Tooling

On the bindings at left and center, the binder had to take into account the size of the armorial when producing the dentelle. The two elements are not meant to compete but should instead form a single, cohesive composition. An ill-fitting armorial is a sign of poor planning or perhaps a later addition—as in the remboîtage, or repurposed binding, at right. This binding was removed from an unknown book, added on to a nineteenth-century text, then tooled with a large armorial that dominates and disrupts the initial, harmonious design. Hidden in each corner of the dentelle is an oiseau, or bird, the signature tool of the renowned original binder, Nicolas-Denis Derome.