Other Printed Materials
The harvest of printed material other than books is abundant. From menus to bookmarks to notebooks that quote and feature Aesop, there is much here:
Address Labels
2001 TH Address Labels. Two sheets with fourteen address labels each. White Wolf Designs. $2 from Nikki Brindle, Warsaw, IN, through Ebay, August, '01.
Each label is 1 1/3" x 4". A yellow and green tortoise apparently comes back past the finish line where we see the hare sitting. The white hare has a pink eye and blue drops of sweat. I never would have thought that such a thing existed! But why not?!
Art Book Offprints
1909 "Le Renard et le Héron" from Detmold's Fables d'Esope (1909). Purchased as a gift by Deborah Ruck on January 14, 1990 from a stall on the bank of the Seine near Notre Dame, Paris. The print is an offprint, rather than a page taken from a book. Mounted and labelled.
Articles Presenting La Fontaine's Works
1886 Article presenting the La Fontaine opera "Les Deux Pigeons." Pages 4-5 of "Journal Amusant," October 30, 1886. €10 at Clignancourt, July, '19.
"Les Deux Pigeons" is a touching story of two friends. One feels the need to travel but experiences nothing but trouble along the way. The other waits patiently at home. They are reunited. Apparently this fable inspired and provided lyrics for this opera, highly praised by the journal as it presents key characters and scenes.
1913 "L'Illustration" magazine for February 8, 1913, includes a full-page insert (page 117) as it reports on elements of, I believe, the "Balkan Wars." The full-page insert offers a photograph of a mule and two riders in Turkestan who illustrate MSA. The caption retells the fable. €12 from journauxanciens through Ebay, Feb., '
I agree with the editors that it is rare that one finds an uncontrived human situation perfectly illustrating a fable. I am grateful that the French have loved La Fontaine's fables so dearly and followed them so assiduously!
Bookmark Puzzles
2006 Three bookmark composite puzzles, displaying FC, LM, and "Fables de La Fontaine." Advertising "Le livre et la plume," May 21, 2006, in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. €12 each from youngpaperboy through Ebay, March, '22.
Each set is by a different artist. This genre is new to me. Five individual bookmarks line up together to make a larger scene from La Fontaine's fables. Who would have thought?! Collecting fables is giving me an education!
Box of Chinese characters with pen and booklet
2011 Box of Chinese characters with pen and booklet. "Fables Selected Enlightenments for Reading." Ben She. Hubei Children's Publishing House. 5¾" x 6". $6.50 from World Books through Ebay, May, '22.
This set has puzzled me for some time. I can understand some things about it. It offers children a set of some 30 sturdy cards for learning Chinese characters. There is also a sponge-tipped writing instrument. Also inside the box is a 30-page booklet with TH on its cover; this is the same image on the box's cover. As far as I can tell, there are seven stories. None of them seems to be TH or any other fable I know. Strange! I will keep this with printed materials. I would be happy to catalogue the book with other books, but I cannot decipher enough of it!
Brain-Teaser Puzzles: Fables de Nestlé
1950? Twelve large (9½" x 6") sets of puzzle pieces to cut out and assemble to make the central picture. "Les Fables de Nestlé." Numbered 1 through 12, with two sheets together in each case. Seven signed by Benjamin Rabier and five (#2 and #4-7) signed by Maurice Toussaint. The signatures may include dates. At least one of Toussaint's seems to be "1919." The title for each page of pieces is "Concours Casse-Tête Nestlé." 1re Série. $144 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
This is a curious find! Apparently a child was to study the image from Rabier or Toussaint, cut out the pieces, and put them together. Was there then a competition to see which child had assembled them best? These sheets came apparently in a wrapper entitled "Les Fables de Nestlé," as the title continues, with twelve compositions in colors presented as puzzles. Several of the "fables" here take liberties with their stories. Is that a monkey substituting for Little Red Ridinghood in #10? Of course, Nestlé's products show up delightfully in the illustrations!
Brochures
1950? Jean de La Fontaine présente...Maitre Corbeau. Paris: Edition de L'Office Central de l'Imagerie. $10 from Nicholas Gulotta, Sharon, WI, through eBay, June, '14.
Here is an ingenious piece of ephemera. One opens a brochure somewhat smaller than 10" x 4". As one opens, scenes open and succeed each other, each with a portion of La Fontaine's "Fox and Crow" on a facing text page. There are two double panels, five single panels, and a final double panel. The first double panel opens a curtain on a crow with a piece of cheese perched in a tree. The second double panel first shows a fox approaching and then, as one opens further, shows him beneath the crow. The first single panel has the crow holding the cheese high. In the next, the cheese is out of the crow's beak, and the tongue is out of the fox's mouth! The next panel shows tears -- or saliva? -- falling from the crow. One more panel shows the fox holding the cheese below an expressionless crow. In the final single panel, the fox is exiting, and the crow seems to be reading a bible on his branch. The last double panel provides a curtain call for the two characters. The fun lies in folding open one panel at a time and finding the appropriate verses and scene. Lovely use of red, brown, black, and green. I am not sure whether to list this lovely piece as a book or a brochure, so I will do both!
Classroom Scroll Hangings
1970? Eleven Greek canvas scroll hangings depicting Greek fables. E.E. Apomimesis. Thessalonike: P. Zacharopoulos. $200 from kabilis through Ebay, July, ’21.
Like the gift set given earlier by Martin and Ulrike Koelle, these cloth scrolls feature each four scenes from a given fable, with a title and number at the top of the scroll. Where the Koelle scrolls feature lower case titles in blue, this set features block print in red. FG spends two panels, for example, on the birds who mock the frustrated and sweating fox. More images coming soon!
1975 Ten Greek schoolroom scrolls for hanging up in a classroom, each illustrating a fable in four scenes with a title. Wooden endpieces with an almost canvas-like paper for the pictures themselves. Gift of Martin and Ulrike Kölle, August, 2012. The fables pictured include :
1. TH
2. The Rooster, Fox, and Dog
3. MM
4. SS
5. The Wolf-Doctor and the Horse
6. AD
7. Two Rats
8. The Hen and a Seed
9. FS
10. TT
Decals
Decals -- or "transfer pictures" -- are just one of the curious places where I have been surprised to find fables appear. As I write now in November of 2023, I am particularly surprised to find a rather large set of 32 French decals. Enjoy them
R.S. Les Belles Décalcomanies
1950? "les belles décalcomanies," two sets, each with 16 "transfer pictures" of La Fontaine's fables. R.S. Paris. €6 each from labuandrie, through Ebay, Oct., '23.
The seller designates these two folders in good repair as coming from 1910, but I believe they are more likely from about 1950. At first I thought these images were what we called "transfers," instant tattoos. I changed my mind when the instructions urged "coating with varnish the next day to make them permanent"! Though there are two sets, there are repeaters between the two sets. There are repeat images even within the same collection.
Other Decals
1980 Vintage Three-Piece TH Decal Set. Two copies. Carol Stream, IL: The Meyercord Co. A Johnson Matthey Company. $1.99 each from Sue Daniels, Camarillo, CA, through Ebay, Nov., '01.
An 8" x 12" sheet offers a reclining bunny eating a carrot, a lumbering tortoise with pince-nez, and a bushy tree, each between 5½" and 6" across. The sheet suggests different arrangements on furniture and walls. Each comes with a stiff cardboard that provides instructions. Inflation has taken its toll. Each cost $1.15 in 1980.
Click on image to see larger version.
Die Cut Papers
1900? Antique Victorian Die Cut Paper Art Fable Set of 12. $100 from Chickadeepick through Ebay, March, '23.
These fragile papers are exquisite! Many seem to work out to a standard rectangular size. Numbers mark them as part of a series with at least 45 members, but there is a chance that the set includes only these twelve cuts of fables. With the exception of one (#38?) that is lacking its number, the set is complete from #34 through #45. I will present them here in numerical order. The delicacy and exactness of the printing, coloring, and cutting are remarkable!
Encyclopedia Articles
1901? Encyclopedia articles, "Aesop's Fables among the Jews" and "Fable." Isidore Singer, Managing Editor. NY: Funk and Wagnalls Company. Included in some one of the Jewish books purchased for the collection though Joshua Jakobovich, Shiloh, Israel, July, '22.
This article sees two streams of fables coming together after the first century: the Greek fables of Aesop and the Indian set under the name of Kybises. In the second century these two come together under the rhetor Nicostratus. In the third, these are turned into Greek verse by Babrius. The articles trace the place of fable in Hebrew Literature. Jewish fables take on some prominence with the 107 fables of Berechiah ha-Nakdan, apparently deeply related to the fables of Marie de France. The "Fable" article also mentions John of Capua. Jacobs "Fables of Aesop" is one of several sources mentioned here.
Engravings
Thus far I have found several engravings from the 19th century and a pair of engaging engravings from a contemporary artist.
François Bouchot
1850? Three matted circular colored engravings of fables of Jean de La Fontaine. €150 from lefennec205 through Ebay, Sept., '22.
Our collection has abundant editions using black-and-white illustrations from François Bouchot, but here are three lovely engravings in color. I fear that it is hard on the web to render the detail I find in this well-executed illustrations!
Heinrich Leutemann's Reineke
1880? Three framed Renard engravings by Henrich Leutemann. $40 from magnolia.boudoir through Ebay, March, '24.
Two of these three steel engravings are easy to identify and enjoy: FK and "The Ass and the Lapdog." The seller identifies the scenes as coming from La Fontaine. The third image puzzled me. It is identified as "Reynard and Merknau/Reineke und Meiknau." I could not identify who Merknau is until some searching through German sites brought me to "Merkenau" the talkative crow. This illustration faces page 200 in an edition of Reineke composed by Julius Eduard Hartmann and published by Payne in Leipzig. In Canto VII, Merkenau describes to King Noble how he and his wife came upon the apparently dead Reineke. Merkenau's wife came close to his snout to see if there were some sign of life. Reineke snapped off her head!
Fontana: Aesop Narrating His Fables
1878 "Aesop Narrating His Fables" by R. Fontana. Published as part of the "Exposition Universelle de 1878" by Gebbie and Barrie. Gravure by Goupil Companie. Hand tinted with watercolors and sold for $35 by David Eisler (Aylesbury, Bucks, England) at Baltimore Antiquarian Fair, August, '91.
The scene shows a manacled, bearded Aesop entertaining a group of delighted young women. The same engraving appears as the frontispiece to the Ariel Booklet edition (1848/1890?) of Aesop's Fables with the James text and Tenniel illustrations put out by the Knickerbocker press. Click on the picture to see a fuller version.
Rhine Art Engravings
Title: Rat-N-Decker
Date: Unknown
Dimensions: 8.5” x 11”
Cost: $15.00 from Adam Rhine
Date Purchased: March 3, 2003
Description: The print depicts the Lion and the Mouse, with the mouse holding a large chainsaw labeled “Rat-N-Decker”. Adam Rhine was the artist who made the print. The vibrant colors make for a very appealing fable illustration.
Title: Motorcycle Tortoise and the Hare
Date: Unknown
Dimensions: 8.5” x 11”
Cost: $15.00 from Adam Rhine
Date Purchased: March 3, 2003
Description: The print depicts a pen drawing of the tortoise and the hare. The hare rests by a tree while reading a newspaper with the headline “Hare Favored to Win Race”. He is alerted by the sound of tortoise whizzing by on a motorcycle. This drawing humorously reflects the moral behind the original Aesop fable.
Unknown Artists
1850? Separated page print of two engravings, "Fortune and the Young Child" and "The Doctors." Artist not identified. Tome 1, Page 117. €10 from a bouquinist, Paris, July, '23.
It will be fun to watch out for which book this page comes from. The images and the style both look familiar. The search is on!
Envelopes
1865? "The Washington Grape." An envelope with an illustration of FG. The Ebay seller describes it as "black printed Civil War Patriotic," and identifies the fox with the South and the grapes with the North. 5½" x 3¼". $9.99 from Douglas Uzakewicz, East Northport, NY, through Ebay, Feb., '02.
Notice the "Johnny Reb" crossed guns on the hind quarters of the fox. The fox is apparently Jefferson Davis ("J.D."), and he is hankering after the city Washington, whether as a military objective or as a political "plum." Is the fox's tail bandaged? What might the circle of holes or markings on the end of his tail suggest? Perhaps that he has been shot up?
See also the many envelopes included in the section on stamps and mail. The envelopes found in that section all have some relationship to a particular stamp, e.g. as a first day cover for the stamp.
Etchings
1975? 6 Eaux fortes etchings by Daniel Rouvière: "Les fables de La Fontaine." Each matted with a resulting space of 4½" x 6½". €80 from matbooks through Ebay, Sept., '23.
Daniel Rouvière (1913-1985) seems to have done etchings like these and oil paintings. FG is signed, apparently with a signature meant to cover the whole group. There are two versions of FC among the six. I would say that something like "dimensionality" marks this set of etchings: each works with the space between two characters or two scenes. The work within the limited space given to either of the two in any case is exceedingly fine. FG and TH include a snippet of text from La Fontaine. My favorite in the group is probably FS, since it contrasts two scenes. The distancing is particularly effective in FG.
Exhibit Guide Pages
2018 Thirteen laminated exhibit guides for the exhibit "I See That Fable Differently." Together with a duplicate set. 8½" x 11" descriptions of each of the artworks in the exhibit, grouped according to the thirteen fables represented. Gift of the Joslyn Museum, April, '18.
Two years after the exhibit I discovered these cards and found them a lovely souvenir of a lovely experience. In fact, they spurred me to put up two different ways for visitors to our website to experience the exhibit. One of those ways was to follow, fable by fable and artwork by artwork, with the appropriate portion of these guides visible under each of the artworks on the work's own page. The text was originally drafted by students. I did considerable editorial expansion and emendation before the texts went to the Joslyn. They were so professional about every aspect of this exhibit!
Fairy Tale Stamps
"Fairy Tale stamps explain in picture form the famous childhood stories of the world," says the back of each stamp. The four scenes here show the bear caught in a trap, Reynard called before the king's court, Mrs. Wolf caught in the ice, and Reynard hard pressed. There is an artist's name printed in the lower right of at least two of the stamps, but it is far too small for me to make out even with a magnifying glass.
Flip-Overs
1998 "Fables." Reading Words Flip-Overs. Four flip-over pages using TH, GGE, GA, and FG. Bryan House Publishers, Inc. Printed in the USA. $1.75 from Kim Douglas, Baytown, TX, through Ebay, August, '00.
I had not known of the existence of this learning tool. Each of the four stiff pages has a full-color cartoon image of its fable in the upper half with fifteen numbered items. The lower half of the page consists of the names of these fifteen items with an open rectangle beneath each name for the insertion of the correct number. When the page is flipped over, the young reader can check her or his numbers against the correct numbers below each word. Sentences at the top of this page use some of the emphasized words.
Christmas Tree Garlands
1950? Russian Christmas Tree Garland of ten double-sided colored paper pictures of fairy tales and fables. Produced by Consumer goods of the production associat4ion" Polygraphist," Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg), Russia. $30 from Svetlykms, Belarus, through Ebay, Dec., '22.
Now here is an ephemeral rarity! I recognize four of these twenty images as at least potentially illustrating fables. Two fit well with Krylov's "Quartet." One is unmistakably FC. There could be many stories for the fox carrying away the rooster. It may be the old "Chanticleer" story that we know best from Chaucer. This is certainly a competitor for the "most unusual" object in the collection. I for one have never experienced a Christmas garland. I think I heard of popcorn strung up on a Christmas tree. Even the package has survived!
Gift Certificates
1982? "Mr. Fables Family Restaurants" gift certificates. Grand Rapids, MI. $16 from anythingeverythingandmo through Ebay, Oct., '22.
There are five packets here. Two each contain three $W1 gift certificates. Three contain ten $1 gift certificates. The back of each booklet lists the eleven locations of Mr. Fables Family Restaurants. See also our Mr Fables travel mug.
Hangable Pictures
2015? A heavy cardboard hangable print of a painting of LM "On a souvent besoin d'un plus petit que soi." Scarabéan. $12 from Marie Gervais, St.-Urbain-Premier, Quebec, Canada, through eBay, August, '18.
I apologize for the choice of category for this unusual object. The painting is dramatic, as a mouse reaches toward the lion trapped in a net suspended from the branch of a tree. On the back of this stiff cardboard a little over 8½" square, there is a flap for mounting the piece on a nail. The paper presenting the printed picture is carefully pasted over very stiff cardboard. I have been able to find nothing on or from Scarabéan.
Hidden Pictures/Devinettes
Our collection has a wide range of hidden pictures or devinettes. Elsewhere there are blotters and cards presenting hidden pictures.
Here in this listing we include:
Devinette Pages of Florian (Hidden Pictures)
1930? Six pages of Florian “devinettes,” sets of four hidden picture fable illustrations. $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20.
These pages have the look of pages taken from a magazine, though they do not have page numbers. The verso of each presents a cartoon strip of a children’s story. Two of them are “Les Aventures de Nanette.” Bertrand sent along a sample solution, pictured just below. I find some of the pictures hard to solve!
Hidden Pictures Albums
1987 Hidden Pictures Series 2. Highlights for Children, Columbus. A reusable screen-folder encloses sixteen two-sided pictures, with hidden images contained in them. Among the pictures are "The Fisherman and His Fish," FC, MM, and "The Big Race" (with other contestants besides the tortoise and the hare). These pen-and-ink drawings are by various artists.
Leaflets
1930? Six advertising leaflets for Le Sirop de Gaïarsol by Laboratoires Bouty in Paris. Benjamin Rabier colored illustration on the left and the same image as a line drawing on the right. Série D. "Une Fable de la fontaine -- Laquelle?" €4.50 each from mathilde9662 through Ebay, Oct.,'21.
These leaflets are a curious reiteration of the series "Le Sirop de Gaïarsol" among non-stock series of trade cards. On those portrait-formatted cards a small colored version gave the color clues for coloring the larger line drawings. Here in leaflets the colored version is the same size as the version to be colored. The illustrations in this series are identical with those in that series.
Linocut Print
2015? Signed, numbered linocut block print of Aesop's Fable "The Crab and His Mother" in black and white by Jillian E. Jenkins of jumpjackstudio, Baltimore, MD, on Etsy. "Live by Example." #2 of 10. 8" x 10". $48.16, July, '20.
This is a bold, strong, delightful presentation. It gives the mother a hat secured under her chin by a bow, along with an umbrella in her claw. She dwarfs her little child as the two look straight at each other. The going straight is the issue here! "Live by example" indeed! The artist writes "I love making art that helps other people to see the world a little differently." That happens well here!
Lottery Tickets
1970 Ten French lottery tickets. "Les Gueules Cassées" ("broken mouths," i.e., wounded WWI veterans). Each with a different tax stamp illustrating a fable of La Fontaine. $5 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
What a fascinating curiosity to add to the collection! Who would have known that the lottery used fables fifty years ago. Good find, Bertrand! Search for "French Lottery Tickets" brings up lots and lots of hits, but none about fables. As with postage stamps, the printing is admirable!
Magazines
1863 "Le Satyre et le Passant." (Jean) Pastelot. L'Illustrateur des Dames: Journal des Soirees de Famille." 3rd year, No. 43. October 25, 1863. Front cover. 10¼" x 14". €10 at Clignancourt, July, '19.
This rendition of the fable is more active than some others. The satyr is actively dispelling the visitor or, perhaps more accurately, warding him off from his children and wife. The attractive woman balances the male satyr nicely. I cannot tell whether we are in a cave or a woods: perhaps that is the point!
1879 "Le Meunier, son Fils et l'Ane, d'apres M. Lejeune." L'Illustration Europeenne, November 1, 1879. 9th year, Number 52. Front cover. 10¼" x 14". €10 at Clignancourt, July, '19.
This rendition of MSA seems very familiar. A group of women criticize the adult miller for making his son walk beside his mount. The son is here propped up with a stick. The following page quotes a 16th century version of the fable, concluding with "Ne nous en chaille, mais faisons toujours ce qui'il est bon de faire." The article then asks "Ne trouvez-vous pas cette conclusion superior a celle de La Fontaine?" La Fontaine's miller decides to please himself.
1906 "Le Corbeau et le Renard." (Achille) Lemot. La Croix Illustree. 7th year, No. 312. December 16, 1906. Back cover. 10" x 14". €10 at Clignancourt, July, '19.
This large illustration tells the fable, with La Fontaine's verse, through three top and three bottom cartoon panels. At the center, flanked by the fable's two animals, are two men. The fox on the right is perhaps cajoling the rustic to vote as the fox wants. This human fox has in his pocket the book "Profession of Faith: Citizens." The rustic holds a flier "Bulletin de Vote."
Magazine Articles
1949 Two-page article (from Illustration Magazine?) "Parade des Vitrines" by Amélie Anderson. Pages 662-663. 1949. €5.99 from saintemariefrance through Ebay, July, '20.
Apparently the stores and shops in the Faubourg St. Honore and its adjacent streets at this point in history put on grand shows of coordinated windrow dressing. In June, 1949 that effort focused on the fables of La Fontaine. The pre-title of this article is "La Grande Saison de Paris." This is one of the few objects in the collection that has been harmed since it came to us. There is water damage that hurts the images, but -- happily -- not the text. I have sought for a replacement, but so far in vain. Apparently the shops focused on culture at the time of La Fontaine, including furniture, books. Each window focused on one fable of La Fontaine that had something to do with the objects offered by that vendor. A corset-maker focused on OR! "Bend, do not break!" A specialist in tricots took Perrette from MM. A frame-maker chose "The Lion and Artist" and "A Man and His Image." Photos from the actual windows contribute well to this article. Where is another copy?
Magic Pads
1976 Fable Friends Magic Pad. "Just scribble over the pages with a pencil. Like magic -- pictures will appear." ©1962 and 1976. Printed in Canada. Alex Wilson Publications, Ltd. Dryden, Ontario, Canada. $3.82 from A.J. Gaudette, Fall River, MA, through Ebay, Feb., '00.
I thought I had seen it all! I do not remember pads like this from my youth. One scribbles over the surface of this special paper with a pencil or marker, and an image appears. I tried it, and got a rocking horse! Perhaps you will ask with me what "Fable Friends" means at the top of the pad. I have not the slightest idea!
Maps
1967 "The Tortoise & the Hare: A Pirelli Film." Combined map, advertising for the film, and for Pirelli's Cinturato tires. Film presented by Cammell Hudson & Brownjohn Associates. Produced and directed by Hugh Hudson. Starring Liz Allsopp, Gino Zottarelli, and Lucy Hornak. Script by David Cammell and Hugh Hudson, inspired by La Fontaine. Map produced by Mears Caldwell Hacker Ltd. £2.79 from Timothy Gardener, Bedhampton, UK, through eBay, June, '04.
This is a tour-de-force! The map sets the scene for a movie that seems built around a tour of its own. I gather that a sports car overtakes a truck, only to find the same truck ahead again, and again, and again. On the back of this oversized map are a number of stills from the film and photographs of the actors and settings. Prose talks about the generation of the film's idea and Pirelli's backing of it. Two of the many little panels--I think I count eighty-three of them--reproduce TH from standard text pages of Aesop and La Fontaine. Would this map have been sold in the theater on the occasion of the film? Or perhaps handed out as advertising for Pirelli's Cinturato tires (or as the brochure reads, "tyres")? Like almost every other map in the world, this one is big, unwieldy, clumsy. But besides that, it is one of the craziest of Aesopic remnants I have found. Aesop lives!
Minute Biographies
1950? Minute Biographies. Pages 11-12. Aesop and John Adams. 7¼" x 10". $7.49 from Bankhead & Company, Alpharetta, GA, through eBay, August, '05.
I had no idea that such a thing existed. Might this have been a book of poster-like individual biographies for posting in, say, a classroom? I am surprised to find the Aesop page speaking of Delphi as his native city. A rough approximation of Fontana's scene of Aesop with courtly women balances a redoing of the head of Aesop done after Velasquez' painting.
Musical Scores
1920? Musical Score for TMCM. Set against an illustration. Unknown source for $10, 2017.
This seems to be a copy of the page from "Chansons de France pour les Petits Francais" pasted onto a blank white background. I am a little surprised that one can tell the whole tale in such a short song! Could this illustration be by Boutet de Monvel?
Notebooks
The contributions to this category come from two places far from each other -- and two different generations.
Verminck Graph-Paper Notebooks
1935? Four graph-ruled 16-page notebooks offered by "Etablissements Verminck," a major producer of products from peanuts, some edible and some not, like soap, as the advertisements suggest. Orange and black, including on each cover an image and quotation from a La Fontaine fable. Artist: Paul Igert. $5 each from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '05.
The notebook with the WC cover is filled with computations and titled as notebook for vacation duties at the beginning of the "2eme." To my surprise, it is dated 1969! I would have presumed that these booklets were printed in the 1930's. Paul Igert signs all but the "Bear and the Gardener." He seems to have been born in 1899. In the 1890's, the Verminck family may have been the most powerful influence in Marseilles, the port through which the raw materials for their industry came.
Individual Notebooks
1988 Sogang University notebook with two phrases on its cover. "Slow and steady wins the race" stands just after "Life is half spent before we know what it is." Gift of Margaret Carlson Lytton, Spring, '88.
One might well ask if these two morals fit together.
Painting Reproductions
Velazquez' portrait of Aesop (large format) from the Prado. From the Milwaukee Antique Center, Jan., '88. Who would ever think that someone would make a poster of Aesop!
Paper Pads
2022? Paper pad 8" x 8". Twelve double-sided papers, many featuring Aesop's fables. Italy: Ciao Bella Paper. Card stock. $10.95 from ASC Supplies through Etsy, July, '22. One extra set.
Here is again something new to me: I am not sue what one is to do with these sheets, bout they are beautifully produced! Cards present the six scenes pictured below, as well as FC. There is also FC and a page of fable characters. Versos and one card feature old, slightly deteriorated wallpaper.
Tissage Imagé: Paper Puzzles for Weaving Together
1900? Paper puzzle woven from strips of paper. TH. "(I?)RIS." $30 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
Here is another lovely surprise! I do not think I have before encountered this kind of picture, constructed of a frame and then perhaps 6 horizontal and 6 vertical strips, carefully calibrated to fit together and cover each other to create an exact full-color image of TH. The scene, I presume, has the two near the end of the race as the hare tries to make up for lost ground. I have learned in my minimal handling of this highly delicate object that horizontal strips can easily "droop" a bit and open up white spaces. It is a delicate but rewarding task to bring them back up to their proper position! I can guess that it took significant time and care to weave this picture so well! I wish I knew more about its producer and circumstances!
1900? Paper puzzle woven from strips of paper. “The Little Fish and the Angler. F.N. Paris. $30 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
This individual tissage is particularly well done, and it comes to the collection thoroughly intact.
1900? Tissage Imagé. Six completed woven paper images and two not yet completed. About 7" square. CFC 2020.0148.1.1. F.N. Paris. Unknown source.
About six months ago, I catalogued an extraordinary and delicate single piece presenting TH found by Bertrand Cocq, a woven paper picture puzzle formed by weaving twelve strips of paper through a perforated sheet to create a picture. Now six months later, I discover that I had a set of eight of them that I had purchased sometime earlier – who knows where and for how much? – beautifully boxed and called “Tissage Imagé.” I have left the overhanging paper strips on FG so that you can sense how these puzzles work. I also present both the the lovely original box and a sample of what the two portions of "The Horse and the Ass" look like before the second is cut into strips. Seven of the eight fables are from La Fontaine. “The Blind Man and the Lame,” known as a story in antiquity, is best known to the French from Florian’s presentation. I will be so hoping that I can locate the record of when and where I got this set!
Photographs of Art Works
The Bayeux Tapestry
1980? La Tapisserie de Bayeux. Edition Ville de Bayeux. Originally 50 F in France. Bought for $10 at Paul Rohe and Son, Chicago, Dec., '92.
A complete reproduction of the Bayeux Tapestry in one-seventh of its original size. The original is 70 meters long and 50 centimeters high. I was delighted to find it still available three months after I had first seen it in this shop. The owner had at first insisted that I also buy The Bayeux Tapestry (which I already had for $29.95) for a combined price of $85. The chief value of this reproduction is that it is continuous--by my calculations some 28 feet long. Use this excellent reproduction with The Bayeux Tapestry (1985) and Les fables antiques de la broderie de Bayeux (1964).
The Kenmore Mantelpiece
Over a mantel in the dining room of Kenmore, the estate of George Washington's sister Betty and Fielding Lewis, is a chimney piece known as "The Aesop's Fable" mantelpiece or chimneypiece. A booklet, postcard, photos, and brochures, gifts of Margaret Carlson Lytton, Nov., '92 and April, '97, present the delightful plaster work, done by a stucco worker whose identity is one of the great questions of American design history. Further, professional photographer Dan Fitzpatrick has taken some high-density photographs to help in investigating the visual history of the overmantel's motifs. Click on any picture below to see it in larger format.
Legend says that it was George Washington himself who ordered the subject of Aesop's fables for the chimney piece and even that it was he who insisted on the inclusion of FC as a reminder to his young nieces and nephews to beware of flattery. In fact, FC is the clearest fable at the center of the piece.
Individual Photographs of Art Works
2000? Photo Print Reproduction of Aesop's Fable of the Fox and Crow. Wallpaper? £2.50 from J. Williams, Essex, UK, through BidStart, Nov., '17.
This is a curious image of FC in the midst of a pleasing geometric design. The arrangement reminds me of walls in Pompeii. I wonder where this segment (?) might be.
2000? Photo Print Reproduction of Adriaan Van Stalbemt, "Landscape with Fables," 1620. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp: oil on panel. Photo £2.50 from J. Williams, Essex, UK, through BidStart, Nov., '17.
This detailed landscape invites a search for known fables. I can identify the eagle who has flown off with a lamb in the upper left and the frogs desiring a king in the right foreground. I am not sure what animal is biting into an object in the left foreground. I am surprised not to find more fables. Are there more hidden here?
Other Photographs
Texas Mime Theatre, 1994
1994 Press Photo of Texas Mime Theatre Members in Production of "Aesop's Fables," July 22, 194, at Heinen Theater. Houston Chronicle, July 22, 1994. Photo by Alvin Gee. $10 from Historic Images, Nov., '16.
This show had already run two days, apparently. One cannot tell much about the fable presentation from these costumes!
Picture Story Albums
1935? Shredded Wheat Picture Story Album. Twelve 3" x 7" cards of familiar rhymes, stories, and foreign places, several colored in. $.25 at the Omaha Antique Center, Winter, '89.
Included is TH. Also, though without fables, an incomplete set of Tony Sarg's Animal Circus.
Pictures to Color
1923 Aesop's Fables: Kroma-Paket. Kroma Paket No. 1. Pictures to Color--A New Kind of Outline Reproduction. Sandusky, OH/NY: The American Crayon Company. $18 from Lisa Bouchard, Melrose, MA, through eBay, Jan., '13.
The pictures are acknowledged as coming from The Aesop for Children with pictures by Milo Winter, published by Rand McNally & Company. The cover shows the rooster telling the fox to come up, while the "doorman" dog awaits the fox inside the tree's opening. The package includes two colored illustrations, SS and "The Cock and the Fox." This set includes five "outline sketches" still waiting to be colored in and six rather well executed by someone with crayons. "The Wolf and the Kid" may be missing, as it is indicated on one of the three sheets of specific color instructions for each outline. The child is assumed not to need instructions for the two already colored illustrations. The three added sheets are fascinating. One advertises The Aesop for Children. Another advertises "Kroma Paket Awards." A third shows "How to Use Kroma Water Colors" and "How to Use Kroma Crayons."
1923 Argosy of Fables: Kroma-Paket. Kroma Paket No. 3. Pictures to Color--A New Kind of Outline Reproduction. Sandusky, OH/NY: The American Crayon Company. $3 from John Pacheco, Wallingford, CT, through Ebay, Feb., '01.
The pictures are acknowledged as coming from An Argosy of Fables by Frederick Tabor Cooper, with pictures by Paul Bransom. The cover shows the bear with its tail down a fishing hole. The package includes two colored illustrations, "If the ducks can swim there, why can't I?" and "They amused themselves by ringing it all the time." On top of each the following is written: "This serves to illustrate the effect a child can obtain after a few days' practice following the Kroma Paket instructions sheets." (Is this truth in advertising?!) The set includes eleven uncolored sheets and three sheets of specific color instructions for each. The set may be lacking the yet-to-be-colored page for the monkeys and their bell. Fables show up in the strangest places!
Popper Guns
1950? Mr. Fables Beef-burgs Air Popper Gun. Grand Rapids. $4.99 from Lee Whiteley Wills Point, TX, through eBay, March, '03.
By moving one's arm down rapidly, one catches the paper folded under the barrel of this gun. As this paper breaks out, it makes a "pop." The motto given here for Mr. Fables Beef-burgs is "To [sic] good to be true." On the back is a marker indicating that this is a sample of the Spotco G-Man Bang Gun, No. S 21. It is left to our imagination to figure out what fables have to do with beefburgers.
Plate Reproductions
1988 Framed Xerox copy of Francisco del Tuppo's illustration for "Animals Paying Last Respects to King Lion." Gift of Rev. Michael Zeps, S.J., July, '88.
This is an object where fable-collecting connects with other big things in my life. One of those things that I have done less well than others is to serve as a superior in several Jesuit communities. The object here is a framed Xerox copy of Francesco del Tuppo's 1485 image of the animals attacking the sick old lion. They are, one after another, paying him back for his heavy-handed rule over them. They can do so now that he is weak and in his last days. The lion understands it from others but is particularly insulted by being humiliated by the donkey. My good friend Fr. Mike Zeps, S.J., was charged with giving a farewell speech as I finished a difficult stint as a Jesuit superior -- difficult for me, and probably even more difficult for many of the Jesuits there. To offer a gift fit for its recipient, Mike actually went to the public library and found Taplinger's "The Life and Fables of Aesop" with del Tuppo's illustrations and chose this image of "saying good-bye." Mike knew my taste well enough that I would enjoy the wit of the selection. Notice that the donkey is not only kicking the lion in the mouth. He is also expressing himself with another bodily reaction. Fable can bring wit and even a kind of consolation to a tough moment!
1998 Félix Lorioux Plates. Two from a set of 72 reproductions, 8.5" x 11" each: "Le Rat de Ville et le Rat des Champs" title page and guitar-playing grasshopper from GA. Reproduced from Lorioux' Fables de La Fontaine (Hachette, 1921). Free samples from the whole set sent by Justin M. Jacobs, Jr., President of Fantasy Artworks, Palo Alto, CA.
I was confused, since the accompanying letter calls these (as they were advertised) "bookplate replicas." "Bookplate" here apparently means a plate in a book, not a personal identifier. I am sorry that I cannot invest $432 in reproductions from a book that cost me $50 for a first edition! But I am amazed at what people turn out! GA is matt, while TMCM has glossy paper. Apparently Fantasy Artworks means to prepare these as art to be matted and framed.
Poems Responding to La Fontaine
1965 "A Note to La Fontaine," poem by Jean Garrigue in "Selected Poems," published by University of Illinois Press in Urbana, 1992. Poem first appeared in "The New Yorker" in 1965. Available through Internet Archive.
Garrigue catches La Fontaine's sentiments, I believe, beautifully. Fie on the ant life! Live to sing and to be enchanted.
Posters
1978 "Russian Folk Tales." Set of ten oversized illustrations by Veniamin Losin, with text. Various translators. 11½" x 16¼".Moscow: Malysh Publishers. $6.48 at The Book Center, SF, Jan., '91.
#8 and #1 illustrate FC. Note that #8 pictures the first phase of the fable, while #1 pictures the second. Large, colorful folk art.
1983 "Russian Folk Tales"(?) Set of ten oversized illustrations by E. Rachyov, with a Russian text. Various authors. Moscow: Malvish (?) Publishers. $19 at Fairy Tales & Dreams, DC, Dec., '91.
This excellent illustrator (named Rachyeva there) is responsible for excellent books of Krilov's fables done in 1965 and 1983. Here we have tales by O. Kapeetsa, M. Boolatov, and A(leksei) Tolstoy. The tales seem to be: "The Fox and the Wolf"; "The Goat and the Wolf"; "The Cat, Ram, Goat, and Bear"; "The Bear and the Little Girl"; "The Fox, the Cat, and the Rooster" (see Harvest [1967/70], 123); "The Bear and the Man"; and on the covers "The Rooster, the Hare, and the Fox." Rachyov's style is distinctive and engaging.
1988 Literature Posters. Monterey, CA: Evan Moor Corporation. $8.95 for the set of four, including "Greek Myths" and "Greek and Roman Names," in Council Bluffs, March, '91.
- "Aesop's Fables" illustrates characters and objects from TMCM, LM, GGE, FG, FS, and TH. Simple, playful art graces this poster. The angry fox and the scurrying mice are perhaps the best characters here. See the 1988 book Aesop's Fables: Posters & Reproducible Pages based on this poster.
- "Fable Search" presents twelve morals associated with well known fables. To what fable does this poster's "Half a loaf is better than none" moral belong?
1998? "Aesop's Fables" by Walter Crane. Illustrations and text for twenty of Crane's "tiles" from The Baby's' Own Aesop, Engraved and Printed in Colours by Edman Evans, 1887. 24" x 36". 15120. Rohnert Park, CA: Pomegranate Communications, Inc. Designed by Lisa Reid. Printed in Korea. $12.95 from Peder Berge at Puddy Sales, North Brunswick, NJ, through Ebay, May, '01. One extra copy at the same time from the same source.
The poster almost does justice to Crane's work, as my photograph certainly does not. The poster becomes somewhat overwhelming, but the individual tiles are lovely. Pomegranate did a set of boxed note cards at the same time.
2023 "The Fox and the Crow Fable" poster by TaliMooni. Vilnius Lithuania. 16½" x 23½". $18.94 through Etsy, Jan., '23.
This is a splendid, dramatic piece of work! A special touch is the element perhaps not noticed at first: the two creatures exit right in the background, one with cheese and one without. Snout and beak get special handling here!
Receipts
1951 Receipt for purchase of Chocolat-Menier. February 13, 1951. 44,214 Francs. Richard LeFranc in Avignon. Sold by Chocolat-Menier in Paris. €10 from kam-oulox through Ebay, March, '22.
The verso presents a child and many of La Fontaine's animals and urges the collecting of Menier's colored images of the fables of La Fontaine. Might Monsieur LeFranc in 1951 have dreamed that someone in 2022 would value the receipt he received for paying 44,000 Francs for chocolate? And who ever looks at the verso of a receipt?
Sewing Patterns and Designs
1912 Ouvrages de Dames "Broderies/Dessins Anciens" Brochure. April 7, 1912. Supplement 14 to Nouvelle Mode. $7.75 from Antiquesythier through Ebay, March, '20.
I lose my way in the various chapter headings in this 8-page brochure, which was a supplement in either Ouvrages de Dames or Nouvelle Mode. It consists mostly of patterns and descriptions. The description of FC lists it as a sequel to FG. The design itself is about 4" x 8".
Fables in Silhouette
1923 Fables in Silhouette. Bess Bruce Cleaveland. Chicago: Ideal School Supply Co. Printed in the USA. $15 from goldmtmercantile through Ebay, Feb., '20.
This is a slightly oversized envelope containing one 11" x 13" page of twelve designs in silhouette with comments under each about constructing the scene. Then there are twelve 9" x 12" black-backed pages of cutout figures, a page for each fable scene. Since both the envelope and the design-page are larger than my flatbed scanner, they presented a challenge. I hope to improve upon my first efforts in a long time at image-stitching!
Souvenir Currency
2016 "Zero Euro." Souvenir currency. $13.54 from Actualités d'Antan through Ebay, May, '22.
This is a beautifully executed bill. I am particularly taken with the grouping of colored symbols on the verso, with Mona Lisa keeping an eye on things. I was of course utterly unaware that such things exist!
Aesop's Fable Tags and Frames Scrapbook Paper
2021 Aesop's Fable Tags and Frames Scrapbook Paper. CBSS159. Ciao Bella. Made in Italy. 12" x 12". $1.89 from Ciao Bella through Etsy, April, '23.
BC, LM, TMCM; GA; and TH are various images able to be used from this surpsing page. Does one cut them out to make "tags" of them?
Stickers
2023 Three stickers from redbubble.com. Nov., '23.
Redbubble is quite the collective of creative, sometimes wild, artists. I am delighted to see them play with fables. In this case we have two small designs found elsewhere and one that is new to me.
Teacher Literature Units
1986 Into Books: Literature Pack No. 1: Brian Wildsmith's Fables. Melbourne: Oxford. AU $15 from Babyboomerbooks, Mount Gambier, Australia, through eBay, Feb., '09.
Here is a boxed literature unit meant to structure five sessions with pupils. A cover sheet details the contents, including five paperbound Wildsmith fables all contained elsewhere in the collection; a teacher's manual by Andrew Perry and Ron Thomas; two posters; a "Hare and Tortoise" board game; and reproducible bookmarks. Some teacher has also xeroxed copies of some of this material. The fables involved are: The Miller, the Boy, and the Donkey (1969/86); The North Wind and the Sun (1964/86); The Lion and the Rat (1963/86); The Rich Man and the Shoemaker (1965/86); and The Hare and the Tortoise (1982/86). Notice that all were reprinted in the year in which this pack was put together. I have all four elswhere in paperback versions; I have only a hardbound copy of The Rich Man and the Shoemaker. I will crosslist that paperback, as well as the teacher's manual but will keep all these materials together. One poster reproduces the cover of the box and the teacher's manual; the other is unrelated to fables. The six bookmarks offer different black-and-white scenes from TH. A lovely find!
Woodcuts
1982 Wer kann die Wahrheit nackend sehn? Five fabulists. Holzstiche von Harald Metzkes. Slipcase with five folded pages. Leipzig: Verlag Karl Quarch. €33.88 from Leipziger Antiquariat, Oct., '21.
This fascinating work is a set of five folded pages -- each with four folds about 4" by 8¼' -- brought together in a slipcase that offers a title on one side and a T of C on the other. For safety's sake, I am listing this work both as a book and as a set of printed woodcuts. The five fabulists are Gotthold Ehraim Lessing. Five fascinating fable texts are transformed into strong woodcuts, 3½" by up to 4½". It seems to me that the texts all have something to do with reverencing art. I am delighted to have come across this unusual effort!
