1687 Eight hand-painted leaves from Francis Barlow’s “Aesop’s Fables with his Life,” second edition. $400 from girlbookseller75 on Ebay, June, ’25.
These are exquisitely painted leaves! I look forward to showing them off together with our first edition Barlow from 1666. My two favorites among them are DS and “The Eagle and the Crow.” And I love the face of the old woman looking out the window as the two girls kill the cock. Notice the error on 213. The page’s title is “The Stag Looking into the Water.” That fits with the Latin text and moral, which were presumably printed together with the page’s title. But the illustration is for a different fable, “The Master’s Eye,” about a stag hiding in a stall and eluding notice until the master enters the barn. The English text, printed with the illustration, is the correct one for “The Master’s Eye.” Several of the illustrations are printed slightly askew on the page. Beautiful work!
2008 Barkface & Rootnose and Other Fables. Jonathan Kruk, Master Storyteller. Music by Matt Noble. Dedicated to "Fr. Greg -- One tale is good till another is told." Signed by Jonathan Kruk. Berger Platters.
I taught Jonathan in a course probably called "Greek Literature" at Holy Cross College in the 1970's. In a course in which students had to make some artwork in response to the literature we were reading, Jonathan made a wild oversized line-drawing of Jason making an indecent gesture to Medea with her children lying dead in the Sun-God's cart. The crazy, many-viewpointed drawing featured a cameo of Fr. Carlson! I displayed it proudly to years of subsequent students as I enlisted their artworks. In this disc we hear six stories with excellent sound effects, music, and various voices: "Barkface and Rootnose"; "Big Fish Small Pond": "Fox & Crow"; "Rabbit & Turtle"; "Squeak & Roar"; and "Tailor's Tale". The third, fourth, and fifth, are traditional Aesopic fables well told. The first story is about competing seeds who, as trees, learn to work together. Big fish learns that the big river has lots of threats in it and returns happy to the little pond. In LM, the mouse spearheads a movement to help the lion, and then maybe "he will not be so mean." The mouse helps when the lion has got a thorn in his paw. In a second phase, the lion is caught in a hunter's net. "Tailor's Tale" is a tale told for the fun of telling a tale. Good work, Jonathan! Your old teacher more than approves!
2008 Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton as Tortoise and Hare. Gary Varvel. Indianapolis Star. Unknown source.
Obama as front-running hare is telling the slow tortoise Clinton to quit when he runs into a solid tree of negative factors. He finishes with “Quit!” just as he is being knocked unconscious. She smiles.
1926 Bank of Palmyra, Palmyra, Missouri. Milo Winter. 6" x 11". Calendar for September, 1926. Framed behind glass. Gift of Susan Carlson, Dec., '24.
This great find by Susan relates to the calendar above. They are in the same style. They quote Aesop similarly, with two of the same resulting questions, whether the attribution to Aesop is warranted and what fable it might have come from. A third question above is answered in this case. The bear cub is lying about how big the fish was that he almost caught. Of course I am now determined to find the other ten in the series? And does this find indicate that there was also a set in 1927?
1962?/90? Banana Formula. "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle." Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Video. $6.38 from Brian Owen, Jackson, MS, through Ebay, Feb., '00.
The "Aesop & Son" portion here, so the slipcase says, is a catastrophic fable.
2000? Set of 7 Ballard lapel pins. "Doré Fin d'Or." €19.90 from Mabillon75 through Ebay, May, '22.
It took me a while to figure out OR. Ballard seems to have been known -- or to be known now -- for its lapel pins. Here are seven of La Fontaine's most beloved fables rendered in pins.
2000? Set of 7 Ballard lapel pins. "Doré Fin d'Or." €19.90 from Mabillon75 through Ebay, May, '22.
It took me a while to figure out OR. Ballard seems to have been known -- or to be known now -- for its lapel pins. Here are seven of La Fontaine's most beloved fables rendered in pins.
