1880? One badly damaged and clumsily repaired ABC plate 7½" in diameter. Various patterns encircle the alphabet displayed on the plate's rim. On its inner circle in capitals are "Æsop's Fables" above and "The Fox and the Grapes" below a pleasing design of a fox walking away from grapes hanging from a tree. Maker unknown. $29.99 from Susan Levine, Scarsdale, NY through Ebay, Sept., '99.
I have seen ABC plates on Ebay and hoped to land one, but they have been very expensive. Finding a broken one was my lucky way to beat that problem! Someone e-mailed Ms Levine during the auction with the information that it was customary, after a child grew up, to break his ABC plate and then glue it back together. Maybe that is what happened here. Actually, I like it broken! Around the letters of the alphabet are, in order, diamonds, and a maze pattern surrounded with a dark band that reaches to the edge of the plate. Colors are painted onto the central scene: red for flowers; purple for grapes; brown and green for leaves, grass, and ground. Has some color washed off?
1996 Badische Neueste Nachrichten Article on Ulm Fable Exhibit in Badische Landesbibliiothek: “Was man von den schlauen Füchsen d den dummen Hähnen lernen kann.” Sept. 5, ’96.
Our collection has a page and a brochure announcing the exhibit and the opening session program. My biggest surprise in this report on the exhibit is the statement that only two copies of the original edition survive. I have the impression that there are several, including at least two in Wolfenbüttel.
1920? Twelve cards, each with a line to be completed with a child's name after "Bon Point de." 2¾" x 4". Each card is signed (Ferdinand) "Bac." There is also regularly a further--illegible--signature at the picture's lower edge. Each verso contains La Fontaine's text and these two attributions: "A. Jeandé, Libraire-Éditeur, Paris" and "Paris - Imp. Des Arts et Manuifactures, 12, rue Paul-Lelong." $6 for GGE from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, March, '01. $13.90 for the other ten from Patrick Ruelle, Monaco, through Ebay, June, '20.
1906 6 postcard series featuring children Perrette and Colin. Postmarked all to Marguerite Giltat, June 25, 1906. $36 for the set from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
This seems to be a story built off of La Fontaine's fable, since it features Perrette, a jug, and a male. Perrette fills her jug as Colin looks on. She fills her jug, but he loves her. He describes to her the happiness of lovers. He puts his arm around her. Her jug falls and breaks, and Colin is happy over his mischief. Seeing her cry, he leads her into his house. As Bertrand writes of the set, "largely inspired by La Fontaine." Are these good lessons to be teaching French kids in 1906 or now?
1994 Averse to Beasts:Twenty-Three Reasonless Rhymes. Written, Illustrated, and Read by Nick Bantock. Hardbound. Printed in Hong Kong. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. $5 from Sebastopol Antique Mall, June, '99.
This book comes together with a tape, which presents the twenty-three poems well in a live performance (at "The Trough" no less!) with introductory comments and sound effects. Bantock is well known for the "Griffin & Sabine" series, and this book is worthy of him. There are perhaps four fables here. In "Bad Manners," a turkey vulture schooled to culture still eats the waiter along with the meal! "Harvest Mouse" is something of an answer to Beatrix Potter, but it only reinforces the old fable wisdom that a mouse out in a field will be eaten by a hawk. "The Warrior's Way" is a satire on contemporary yuppie samurai. This one uses a sword to defeat a warrior-fly but cuts off his own nose in the process! "Old School Ties" has fun with "allege" and "alligator" but in the process shows--as I understand it--that judges might follow old school loyalties rather than process or evidence. One item ("The Wolf at the Door") parodies WL in applying it to urban human wolves. The other pieces have fun with words (e.g., "Hitch" and "Aero Dynamics"), with shapes (e.g., "Appendages"), and with fantasies (e.g., "Rabbit's Revenge"). Each poem is done on a left-page with an illustration facing on the right-page. Among the best illustrations are "Bad Manners," "Thick Soup," "Carnivorous," "Appendages," "Preparing My Giraffe for a Formal Occasion," and especially "Harvest Mouse."
1890? 5 cards presenting La Fontaine's MM. The cards follow the fable's text up to a natural break preceding a reflection ("Do not all of us daydream?") by La Fontaine. Perhaps there is another card or two in the series, but I doubt it. Paris: Imp. Clamaron, Rue St. Jacques. €15 for the five in St. Ouen, August, '13.
The pictures are monochromatic blue-and-white, with five or six lines per card at the bottom. The text and picture are not coordinated. In the text, for example, Perette is still thinking about cows when the picture already shows the milk fallen. The whole series ends with the line "They call it 'The Pot of Milk.'" This set is identical in picture with a set listed under "Clamaron," which remains the printer. But each card in this set is stamped "Aux Phares de la Bastille: Habillements pour Hommes & Enfants." A fuller advertisement for this shop is on each verso. These cards, by contrast with those, are numbered.
1900? One fable-illustrated stock trade card of FC advertising "Aux Filles du Calvaire: Grands Magasins." 2½" x 3¾". $5 from Bernard Cocq, March, '01.
This card is identical with that in the WMF set with these exceptions: it prints "Aus Filles du Calvaire" and "Le Corbeau et le Renard" on the picture side; it uses half the text side for advertising; on the lower half of the text page it gives the fable's title again and just six of its lines. This card is slightly smaller than its equivalent in the WMF set. Though the same image is used, a smaller portion of it is printed.
1895? 2 full-color cards illustrating La Fontaine's GA with human figures as actors. Just over 2 ½" by 4 1/8". Both backs are blank. 80 Francs each from Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, August, '01.
The texts do not follow La Fontaine exactly. This is the first time, I believe, that I have seen the ant dance in any form. The "Aux Deux Passages" is in Lyon and sells "nouveautés." Though I presume that there are six or seven cards in the set, these two complement each other nicely. In the first scene, the cicada approaches the ant; in the second scene, the ant dismisses the cicada. The artist here works with a very traditional approach to the fable: young woman visits matron. I find the artistry very good. The folds of the "cicada" skirt in the first picture, and the vigor of the dance (and the rejection) is telling in the second.
Now, in late 2008, I discover that these two pictures are identical with the last two in Liebig's 1892 "Grille und Ameise" series. My comments turned out to be right on the mark, and the dating seems quite close too!
2009 Auricolae: Fairy Tales Folklore & Fables. Storytelling and music for violin, cello and narrator. Artistic Director and narrator David Yang.
Here is a delightful rendition of six stories, the second of them with three different endings. Alas, I do not find a tale that I would call a fable among them. They are: "Ferdinand the Bull"; "The Rascally Rogue of the Beanstalk"; Rogue Endings A, B, C; "Rumpelstilskin"; "Adventure at Granny's"; "Prince Rooster"; "Three Little Pigs." The stories are well told, with excellent musical complements.
2008? Aunt DeeDee Tells Aesop's Fables and Other Tales. DVD. Debbie Deane. Down Memory Lane. $10 from Down Memory Lane through Ebay, May, '09.
This DVD offers vigorous tellings of eight Aesop's fables along with two others. The fables are GA; BW; TMCM; FG; GGE; LM; SW; and TH. The two other tales are "The Old Hag's Long Leather Bag" and "The Little Old Lady and Her Pig." The stories are accompanied by a wild proliferation of images of various sorts. The tellings are vigorous and include a variety of voices, all presumably from Deane. There is a written moral at the end of each fable followed by a vocalized slide "The end." The first day's cry in BW brings his mother and sister. The next cry brings men and boys with pitchforks. In TMCM, the city cousin drives a car with a windup key in its trunk. The cat attacks once, and the country mouse says good-bye. Here is one more evidence of how much people love Aesop's stories and keep them alive with their lively presentations.
This set of dust-jackets is unusual in two ways. First, it features original fables by someone other than either La Fontaine or Florian. Secondly, it seems not to be advertising anything. It lists only the printer Vagné in Pont-à-Mousson. Lovely color-printing! The text of each original fable is on the back cover of its dust-jacket. €9 each from Albert van den Bosch, June, '23.
1890? 10 large (5½" x 7") cards presenting La Fontaine's fables. Text is set into the picture in a rectangle. Advertisers on the verso include Les Grand Magasins du Printemps du Paris and Chicorée Bleu-Argent Arlatte from Cambrai. Printed by Publicité Bascoul-Olmer Vincennes. Extras of four of the cards (DW, FG, GGE, and "The Heron"). €30 at the Paris Postcard Exhibit, Jan., '05. A full set of twelve advertising "Au Camélia," with many duplicates, from Malesherbes Antiquités for €40, August, '13.
The pictures are colorful and impressive traditional scenes. Often they include a second reference, as when DW shows the dog animals meeting in a circle at the upper left, while the bulk of the picture shows a scene of a poor old man (the wolf) conversing with a plump man in uniform (the dog). FG has both a fox and grapes in the foreground and then, slightly set into the background, a courtier looking up to damsels in front of a castle. Other fables, like WL, GGE, and "The Heron," are presented simply in one scene. Besides DW, my favorite among these cards is BF. People point smiling at a dowdy gentleman who stands alone away from the crowd. Other fables as yet unmentioned include FS, GA, MM, and "Le Laboureur et ses Enfants." The verso of the Arlatte exemplars presents no nore than "Chicorée Bleu-Argent Arlatte Cambrai." The Printemps versos all show the same picture of a child with a balloon inscribed "Le Printemps est l'ami des enfants." A curiosity here is that the "Au Camélia" card for DW has the title "Le Chien et le Loup," while other DW cards have the title "Le Loup et le Chien." The illustrations on these cards are identical with those on Paris prize cards.
1913 A.T.C. Turkish Trophies Cigarettes. About 80 of the Turkish Trophies cards arranged in an album after both picture and text were pasted onto a new card and the former's gold frame extended around the latter. $17.50 from Doris Larson, Little Falls, MN, April, '00.
There have been other collectors as crazy as I am. This collector took a lot of time. First, the collector found two of every card. Secondly, she or he cut the text portion (title, fable, and moral) from the back of one of each pair and, thirdly, pasted both picture and text onto a new and slightly larger card. Finally the collector used a brush or pen to extend the golden stripe around the now lower text portion. Doris offered six loose cards on Ebay, and our contact led to my purchasing the whole album. We collectors can be a strange lot!
