1910? Five cards titled "Bébé Fabulist." Papier Gulleminot. Série n. 704. "Clayette Phot." Each card's black-and-white picture-side features two portions. On the white portion, perhaps a quarter of the card, is a three or four line segment in sequence of La Fontaine's FC. The rest of this side of the card is a photograph composed of a rectangular section (generally a cloud-like backdrop of black and white) and a section including a portion of a circle. The young girl is in this enlarged, circular portion. €12 for the set from Coll'ex, Rottier/Verrier, Rouen, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan.,' 05.
I would guess that there is an experiment in the use of photography going on here. The experiment would seem to be this: can a good photographer show the course of a fable by the facial expressions of a clever young actress? The answer here has plenty of "yes," since the girl is both photogenic and expressive. The five pictures seem to me to follow well La Fontaine's fable's pattern: first distance on the part of the crow; then interest; then sheer joy over the flattery; then perhaps the fox's joy over outwitting the crow; and finally the crow's resolve--"but a little late," La Fontaine comments--not to be duped again. The child here is a gifted photographic subject.
1910? One colored "Fox and Geese" card advertising The Beaham Mfg. Co. of Kansas City, Mo., makers of "Faultless Starch." A bit less than 2½" x a bit more than 4". $3 somewhere, 1999.
I doubt that this is really a fable card. It is a hidden-picture card, with a fox to be found by the clever observer. The back makes an offer "Mail us 10 for Comic Pictures, Mail us 25 for Beautiful Pictures." I take it this is one of the former, cheaper variety! Browns and reds. A small symbol at the lower right of the picture says "N 718."
1981 Basler Münster Kryptafries, 112. H. "Aus der Fabel vom Kranken Löwen." Gift of Martin Kölle, July, '19.
This frieze shows on the left the fox reporting in to the sick king lion, who has wondered about his absence during the king's sickness. The fox's enemy, the wolf, has been painting the fox's absence as disloyalty. The fox answers that he has been searching far and wide for a remedy and has finally learned it. The king needs to apply the warm skin of a freshly skinned wolf! And is the scene on the right the skinning of the wolf or a shorthand presentation of the fable in which the fox is raised up out of a well by inviting the wolf to come down in the other bucket? What a thoughtful gift!
