1949? Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare Picture Puzzle. Harvey Famous Cartoons. No. 1230. Sta-N-Place Inlaid Puzzles. Made in USA. Unknown source and date of acquisition.
Now this is surprising. Recently I bought a picture puzzle, complete and boxed, of TH. It is the item just above. I soon realized that it was the same picture as a picture puzzle that I had found earlier, but missing two pieces and having no box. It is indeed the same picture, but slightly different in size, with a different border, and -- most remarkable to me -- with differently cut pieces. That is why I provide a small sample and a signature in addition to the overview of this puzzle.
1949 Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare Picture Puzzle. Over 70 large pieces. Ages 5 to 10. Harvey Famous Cartoons. No. 1017. Warren Built-Rite Puzzles. CFC 2020.0152.1. $3.99 from Bob & Veronica Quinn, Trimble MO through Ebay. June, '03.
This picture has the Tommy on a bicycle upending Moe with bowling pins flying before a large human crowd and a clown. All the pieces are there!
1996 Tom Toles, US News and World Report. Bob Dole and Bill Clinton as Tortoise and Hare. Tom Toles. US News and World Report. 1996. Unknown source.
The plodding tortoise wants to talk character as the hare reads Playboy Magazine. The hare answers “Talking got me this far.”
1982 Fourteen (of sixteen?) numbered postcards by Nikolai Romadin of fables and stories by Leo Tolstoy. 4⅛" x 5⅞". Moscow: Sovetsky Khudozhnik. Seven of them for C$14.99 and five for C$22.50 from Lovelystamps, IL, Israel, on Ebay, Sept., '21. Card #6 for AU$15.98 from postcardsworld through Ebay, Sept., '21. Card #3 for C$4.99 from block36 through Ebay, Sept., '21.
Many of these illustrations present Tolstoy’s renditions of standard Aesopic fables. Others may be "adaptations." For example, "The Shipwreck" (#2), seems an adaptation of Aesop’s "Hercules and the Wagon Driver." Still others are stories I have not yet been able to pin down, like "Sea, Rivers, and Streams" (#3); "The Monkey and Other Animals" (#4); "Fisherman" (#9), and ""Ram, Cat, and Boy" (#14).
1915? Four card colored-photographic postcard series of TMCM featuring children. "3127." "SE" or "ES" symbol at the lower right on each card. Each card features drawings of the fable in the upper portion, a text "bubble," the fable's title, and a large lower portion of the photographic presentation. Printed in France. $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
My, there was lively competition in the early twentieth century in Paris in producing colored photographic postcard series of fables! The piling on of specifications in that last sentence surprises even me! This set is closest to Chloro-Platine WL and shares the same symbol, "SE," in the lower right corner. As that set has the number 3142 on each card, so this set has 3127. That is a five-card set, apparently complete, and I believe that this four-card set is missing a third card in the middle, especially because those four verses are the only ones left out of the fable on the cards we have. Here, as there, we have lovely coloring distinguishing the two "mice" as they are played by children. How was that coloring done at the printer's? Especially fetching in this presentation, I believe, is the scene of the two mice devouring the city banquet! Now to find that fifth card! All four were sent in 1918 to the same "Cher Cousin Alfred Pepin" (?) in "Secteur 125."
1904 5 postcard series featuring adult women portraying TMCM. Postmarked all to Mademoiselle Brugere. February 1, 1904. $35 for the set from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
I never want to disagree with Monsieur Cocq, but I wonder if there is not a missing fourth card in a series of six. This set quotes La Fontane but, at that point, excises a few lines of his text. Is there an extra card out there somewhere, to complete this series? As it is, this photographic series presents a strong contrast between the luxuriously dressed city rat and the simpler country rat in her plain red dress.
1910? Two (of apparently five) photographic postcards presenting La Fontaine's TMCM. #3143/1 and #3143/5. Ch. Fontane, Editeur. Paris: Croissant. $12 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
Compare this pair with Croissant's similar work on MM and Croissant and Fontane's GA and TH. Here again children carry the roles. Again the first card presents the ornate title. Again we have less colorful images inserted showing the parallel scenes among animals, here rats. Are these cards hand-colored?
Tissot Bonbon tin. "Bonbons Frescomint Rafraichissants." Made in France. Cover features FC with an apparent mint dropping from the crow's beak. About 3" in diameter and ¾" high
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!
2015 Through the Mirror: Tales from Childhood. Siobhan Lamb and the Suoni Ensemble. Libretto by Gregory Warren Wilson. PRCD 2074: Proprius Music.
This is a refreshing approach to the six fables offered. I listened to and enjoyed the first three. What a wide variety of emotions presented by the instruments and the human voices! There are surprising, lively explorations of the stories here. The demanding frog finally finds himself swallowed by chance by the ass to whom the frog has promised a reward. TH is presented in terms of its aftermath conversation between the two contestants. The fox in FC offers to teach the crow how to sing. It helps to have the printed text to check as one listens to this fine CD!
1900? Iron bracelet with clasp featuring three identical parts. TH and FC on each third. Unknown source and time of acquisition.
This is a gorgeous piece. I have tried to render its detail but fear that I have failed. The bracelet is heavy. Its serious clasp bears, in English, "Made in France." Similar bracelets on the web seem to be in the $200+ range.
1959 Three View-Master Talking Reels. Color 3-D photography of figurines in various styles with sound. AVB 309. Portland, OR: GAF Corporation.
I knew of this special approach to View-Master that incorporates recorded sound and that Aesop's Fables were offered as one of the sets, but I doubted that I would ever find a set. Surprise! The second surprise is that two months later at an off-beat flea market on the state fair grounds in West Allis, I found a working player and got it immediately for half the asking price! The two actually function together quite well. One needs to experiment with the sound bar on the player to get the needle where it belongs on the recording track. The visuals are the same as those on the regular View-Master reels for this set; see my comments there. The read texts here are taken from the same booklet that came with the regular reels. I am impressed on this round with the mid-air fox on the one image for FG, with the shining eyes of the cat in Scene 3 of TMCM, and with the flying hare at the starting line in TH's first scene. I notice that those were also items that impressed me in the visual experience a year ago!
1959 Three View-Master Reels. Color 3-D photography of figurines in various styles. Packet No. B 309. Stories and Adventure Series. Portland, OR: Sawyer's Inc.
This seems to be the more original packaging of a set whose pictures would remain the same. Notice that the copyright here belongs to Sawyer's in Portland, with no mention of GAF in New York. See my comments on the GAF version.
1959 Three View-Master Reels. Color 3-D photography of figurines in various styles. Learning Is Fun Series. Packet No. B 309. NY: View-Master Stereo Pictures: GAF Corporation.
At last I have found the View-Master Aesop that I have looked for so long! In GA the grasshopper has slept all summer and then danced in the fall; the former helps set up a rhyme for the fact that he wept in winter. DS gets only two images. There is a great leaping fox in the one image for FG! TMCM features great lighted eyes on the cat, and a fine paw reaching inside the TM's hole-home. TH has a great leaping hare at the race's start. The other fables here are FC, SW, FS, and LM. A sixteen-page color illustrated booklet parcels the story out among the slides. The set comes in a Special View-master outer envelope and inner packet. The reels themselves are in excellent condition. The copyright on the reels has changed from Sawyer's to GAF Corporation.
1959 Three View-Master Reels. Color 3-D photography of figurines in various styles. Learning Is Fun Series. Packet No. B 309. NY: View-Master Stereo Pictures: GAF Corporation.
I take the occasion of this gift to highlight the 16-page pamphlet that comes with the three reels described elsewhere. The booklet walks through the three reels offering the story for each of the strong images. I have also included this booklet among the collection's published books under 1959. What a thoughtful gift!
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.
2020? Three small limited edition prints from LittleMouseCompany: LM, “Town Mouse,” and “Country Mouse.” 7” x 5”, including the white frame. Limited edition of 100. Numbered: LM (#14); TM (#8); CM #18). $11.24 each from LittleMouseCompany, Dec., ’20.
How lovely to see artists taking their inspiration from fables! These are sprightly, lively colored prints. My favorite is “Town Mouse,” with the cork popping off of the champagne bottle before the two mice in their high silk hats. CM presents a nicely contrasting picture of dress, surroundings, table cloth, and what is offered for the meal. I am surprised not to find an artist named.
1930? Three small (slightly over 2" diameter) cheese labels: "K.H. De Jong's Exporthandel" and "Fromage de Hollande." Labels of fables in French and once in English. $15 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
It is curious that the De Jong labels feature one French and one English for the fable title. It is just as curious that the De Jong image for FC is the same image used in the more generic "Cheese from Holland" label.
