A book made of silk

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The city of Lyons (Lyon) is known for being the capital of silk in France. Lot 1495 from the sale of Reiss & Sohn in Königstein on 28 and 29 October is not unique, but it is of great rarity, and its place in the history of technical prowess is extraordinary.

The Livre de Prières (prayer book), published in Lyon in 1886-1887, is not a book. It has not been printed but instead it was woven on Jacquard type machines. The line is black on silver gray, the accuracy is one tenth of a millimeter. The drawings are taken from medieval illuminated books. It took 100 000 punch cards to achieve it, and only fifty copies have been successful. This work is a top of the technical capacity of Jacquard machines.

The copy of Reiss, presented in a box, is not binded. It is estimated 9 K €. This very low price is reasonable for an object out of the ordinary, but probably forgotten by most of us, except some Lyonnais specialists, of course. The auction house presents this technique as an anticipation of modern computers. It's fun, but such an argument will not raise the price!

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This extraordinary book has not been sold. It was not expensive. This unfortunately shows the difficulty to attract buyers to objects out of the ordinary.