Art Deco bookbinding was born with Pierre Legrain; he is its great master (equaled only by Rose Adler), and one of the most influential and innovative binders of modern time. It was the patronage of the brilliant Paris couturier and art collector Jacques Doucet, which led Legrain to the art form. A young furniture designer and decorator, at the age of 27 and in search of work, Legarin approached Doucet who immediately charged him with creating book bindings for a selection of titles in his library of French literature, his current collecting passion. Initially nonplussed by the assignment, Legrain soon accepted the commission and went on to design over 1,200 bindings for Doucet and others. A proponent of a minimal aesthetic, Legrain developed a new vocabulary of ornament in bookbinding that, in opposition to the prevailing elaborate manner, was fresh, restrained and spare and, at the same time, luxurious. He introduced unusual materials such as precious gems and metal, skins from lizards, pythons and crocodiles, explored possibilities with typography and letter placement, and invented radical and audacious new ways of articulating the space on the plane of the book. Enthusiastically embraced, his work was widely imitated by other binders and left a decisive mark on the art form.