Marius Michel

Marius-Michel, Marius Michel or Marius-Michel fils (28 December 1846 - 9 May 1925) were the pseudonyms of Henri-François-Victor Michel, a French bookbinder. He was one of the most important 19th-century French bookbinders.

Life Born in the former 1st arrondissement of Paris, he began his career in the workshop of his father Jean Michel (1821–1890), known as Marius-Michel père, a renowned gilder. He and his father set up a joint workshop in 1876 at 15 Rue du Four in Paris. He won one of the first medals at the 1878 Exposition Universelle by leaving behind the fashion for pastiche and returning to ornamental decoration and floral motifs. He also brought engraved and incised leather back into fashion in France for the first time since the 16th century, working for figures such as Léon Conquet. after entrusting his workshop to Georges Cretté seven years earlier.

Essays Essai sur la décoration extérieure des livres, 1878. La reliure française depuis l'invention de l'imprimerie, 1880-1881. L'ornementation des reliures modernes, 1889.

Selected bindings