1920? Ceramic plate of "The Heron" by "Jars, France pour F & S." 10" in diameter. Scalloped rim. Tan with green edging, script, and illustration border around a circular full-color illustration of the heron. "Le Héron" and "Fables de la Fontaine" on the plate front. $5.95 from Charles W. Turner, through eBay, June, '04.
This colorful plate has the heron standing on one leg in the midst of calm water. Two features mark this excellent scene. One is that there is no other creature present. The artist rightly shows how the heron is at the center of his own world. Secondly, his eye looks out at us with something like disdain. Disdain drives the heron in this fable.
2007? "The Hare and the Tortoise." DVD of a black-and-white film by Encyclopedia Britannica Films in 1947. In collaboration with Grace Storm. Length 10:22 minutes. Distributed by the University of Alabama.
I may well have seen this film when I was in early grade school. It is a photographic video with narration, using largely posed animal footage. The tortoise can stand the rabbit's boasting no longer. The owl asks the fox to lay out a difficult course, and we watch its key points, including the hollow log and the creek. The tortoise plops more than once along the way. The hare's friend the raccoon awakens him, just a little too late. Unfortunately, the film cuts off in the middle of the pronouncement of the moral! It is curious that the DVD producers reverse the title of the film on their DVD.
2006 The Hare and the Tortoise. Quality Information Publishers. DVD reprint of a 1947 film by Encyclopedia Britannica films.
This DVD presentation of TH in ten minutes has the unusual feature of using live animals in its black-and-white movie. There is a one-voice narration. The owl directs the fox to create a hard course. Both wait -- for a long time -- at the finish. The tortoise has difficulty managing the hard terrain, especially when it involves a drop-off to the next level. Racoon, skunk, rooster, and goose all get into the story. The moral gets clipped off at the end after only “Slow and s….”
1981 The Hare and the Tortoise. By Aesop. Illustrated by Arthur Friedman. Paperbound. Mahwah, NJ: Troll Associates.
I have had this book for twenty-three years, but there was a new addition in this eBay advertisement: story cards for a literary center. I was curious. The book remains the same, and I will include my earlier remarks on it below. In addition to the book, I received eight laminated pictures. They include a tortoise, hare, start arrow, finish arrow, sun, tree, bush, and a collection of four smaller animals, the latter presumably as spectators. I will list this item both here as a book and under audio-visual materials. I suppose that these very light pictures might stick to a felt background. Unfortunately, these illustrations are not particularly adapted to this booklet. Aesop keeps provoking new things! As I wrote then, this is a lively book. The two animals live together. The tortoise has great facial expressions. A great deal of time is spent before we ever get to the idea of a race. Perhaps the best illustration is the centerfold of the angry tortoise.
1900? 1 French card, "La Cigale et la Fourmi." Chocolat Besnier, de Peretti, Successeur, Le Mans. 2¾" x 4⅜". Amiens. G. Lecocq, Éditeur.
This card is fully different from the other I have from Besnier. It has children acting outthe GA dismissal scene. And the verso has Peretti succeeding Besnier in Amiens.
1930? 7" white plate from Sarreguemines, France. Inside a 1.5" rim there is a rendition of J.J. Grandville's GA, without the "JJ G." on the ant's grain bag. The front carries two inscriptions: "Fables de la Fontaine" and "La Cigale et la Fourmi." The back has "Fables de la Fontaine" and "Digoin/Sarreguemines/France." $40 from Denise Blin, Gurnee, IL, through Ebay, March, '99. Extra copy for $33 from Brown Pelican Antiques, Panama City, FL, May, '99. One extra exemplar.
This is a really beautiful little black-and-white plate. It presents Grandville exquisitely!
La Cigale et la fourmi Apparently we are in the fall. The ant in his scarf is rubbing his hands behind a tree, as leaves fall from the tree. I think the artist's intent here is to have the ant cold in his winter clothes, while the cicada is still doing fine in his light clothes. In any case, this cicada is a hippy with "Love" on his t-shirt and long hair on his head.
2015 The Grasshopper & the Ant. Tales & Games. Designed by Yoann Levet. Purple Brain Creations. Iello. Las Vegas, NV. Made in China.
Board game with many parts: cards to draw, markers, tokens, cards, rules, and a booklet including three versions of the fable: Aesop, La Fontaine, and Benoit de La Flaque (“Benoit of the Puddle”). The latter is subtitled “The Grasshoper Strikes Back.” In it, the grasshopper steals from the ant but then dies of laughter. Part of a series of Tales and Games produced by Purple Brain Creations.
