1880? 2 more cards from the green set by Wemple and Kronheim, stamped "Reward of Merit" and then stamped again by Robinson Brothers' Picture Frames of Springfield, MA.
These cards of "The Eagle, the Lamb, and the Crow" and "The Heron" again include a prose text of the fable on the back side. Both the physical overstamping and the double function (reward of merit and advertisement) seem gauche to me.
1880? 1 TH card from the above set by Wemple and Kronheim, stamped "Reward of Merit."
This card, like the two above, includes a prose text of the fable on the back side. The color printing here may be among the best for Wemple and Kronheim cards. Here, as there, "Reward of Merit" tends to have some filigree work around it. It has the fancy "R" found in the card depicting "The Dog and His Master's Dinner."
1950? Menu: Restaurant Francais. 2442 North Clark Street, Chicago. "Fables de La Fontaine." 9" x 14". $4.99 through Ebay, May, '19.
When was a complete dinner $9.95?! The offerings look delectable. The front cover features a drawing of FC, and the back cover offers La Fontaine's text of the fable. I could find no information online about when this institution went out of business. There is a seven-digit phone number, and those seem to have started in the 50's, while area codes seem to have been added in the 60's.
1880? 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. $24.99 from Cindy Schneider, Wellington, OH, through Ebay, Oct., '00.
Here is a much better exemplar than the plate I had found earlier. The colored design in the middle is very well preserved. Repairs have been made to reinstate a smaller piece from about 10 and 11 o'clock and a larger piece extending from 11 to 4 o'clock.
1920? "Le Renard, le Loup et le Cheval." 4 (?) Deposé. €4 at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '04.
Apparently a copy of an oil painting showing the horse kicking the wolf as the latter was about to read what was supposed to be on the horse's hoof. Spector translates the verses on the card's picture side this way: "The Wolf, all flattered by this address,/Drew near, but his vain foolishness/Cost him four teeth. The Horse, with no further debate,/Gave him a kick and off he ran. So there was Wolf prostrate,/In deplorable shape, a bloody mess." The verso is blank, the card unused.
1997 Christmas postcard from the Reineke Fuchs Museum, Linden, Germany, with photograph of an 1890's clock, made in Paris, adorned by a statue of La Fontaine with fox and crow. Message from Friedrich von Fuchs to Rev. Gregory Carlson, S.J.
French meets German meets American, just as fox met crow.
2008 Two refrigerator magnets, each about 3½" x 5", presenting GA and "The Ant and the Chrysalis," respectively.
Here is another new one on me! I never would have thought of Aesopic refrigerator magnets. These two are very nicely made. Notice the hyperbole in the GA text: the ant drags a banana to his nest! Space and a change of typeface set off the moral in each case. Now here is a use of fables that Aesop never had in mind!
2017 12 Notecards by Redwood Library and Athenaeum Presenting Images and Texts from Phaedrus. Illustrations engraved by B. Cole from 1734 “Phaedri Fabulae Selectae, Latine, Anglice, Gallice.” Newport, RI. Unknown source.
This is a strong set of oval images, apparently with the (updated?) English of the original. The cards are in the middle and have identical last pages. I inquired at The Redwood Library and Athenaeum and received a helpful answer that the first record of selling these cards was in 2017. They could not say if there are more in the group; those that they have left are all represented in our twelve.
1980? Red and white runner featuring fable figures. 8’ x 8.3”. Source unknown.
This long piece of cloth features three repeated fable scenes – WL; FC; and TH – in that order around a central scene of a wolf with a young woman carrying a pitcher. Red Riding Hood perhaps?
1980? Red and white runner featuring ten fable scenes. 44.5" x 14.5”. Source unknown.
This piece of cloth features two rows of distinctive fable scenes. One row features, from left to right, FC; "The Heron"; MM; TH; and WL. If we turn it over and again proceed from left to right, we have "The Secret"; CJ; FS; "The Hare and the Frogs"; and MSA. Some scenes are more skillfully rendered than others, but overall it is a lovely piece!
1951 Receipt for purchase of Chocolat-Menier. February 13, 1951. 44,214 Francs. Richard LeFranc in Avignon. Sold by Chocolat-Menier in Paris. €10 from kam-oulox through Ebay, March, '22.
The verso presents a child and many of La Fontaine's animals and urges the collecting of Menier's colored images of the fables of La Fontaine. Might Monsieur LeFranc in 1951 have dreamed that someone in 2022 would value the receipt he received for paying 44,000 Francs for chocolate? And who ever looks at the verso of a receipt?
1996? Rebus postcard. A soccer-player with milk in his hand asks "Retrouvez le title d'une célèbre fable de Jean de la Fontaine." The art bears the mark "Turier." Producteurs de Lait de Picardie, Amiens. Imp. Garet, Breteuil. Postmarked from Amiens, Jan., '97. €3 from Gerard Crucy, Yerres, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05.
I wish that my French were good enough to put together this title! The verso contains the motto "Le Lait l'Allié du Sportif."
1960? Six brightly colored cards signed by "Raylambert." The verso of each gives the title, "Serie A," and "Editiones Educatives."
The color artistry of these cards is outstanding. They are simply lovely. I would love to figure out for what they were made.
1910? Nine colored numbered cards signed by "Raylambert." The highest number here is "18." The verso of each repeats the number and offers La Fontaine's text.
These cards have an unusual cartoon-like style emphasizing vivid action and strong emotion.
The print depicts the Lion and the Mouse, with the mouse holding a large chainsaw labeled “Rat-N-Decker”. Adam Rhine was the artist who made the print. The vibrant colors make for a very appealing fable illustration.
1991 Rap La Fontaine. CD. 10 fables embedded in jazz arrangements, plus the arrangements without texts. Musiques de Dominique bouvier et Georges Sandri. Editions: J.L.B.E. Studio de la Nation. Herisson Vert/Warm-Up SA.
This disc surprised me. Rap turns out to be a great way to understand La Fontaine! The rap artist presents each fable quite briskly. Jump on the bus, because it is leaving fast and moving fast! Each fable is given first in its mixed form, with music and text, and then only the musical part is played – perhaps so that one can oneself rap? I could not identify what is titled "Le Grenouille Et Le Boeuf." It seems not to be La Fontaine's "Le Grenouille qui veut se faire aussi grosse que le Boeuf."
2005 Rammie Reads Aesop's Fables. DVD. Nine Aesopic fables and several exhortations from Rammie, the mascot of the Derby County Football Club. Ages 4-9. Film Studios, Duffield, UK.
Rammie starts by warning children not to go off with strangers – and finishes by urging them not to run out onto the road between parked cars. In between Rammie tells nine fables in various pastoral settings in the Derbyshire Dales countryside. Some fables may be so animated in their telling that the motivation gets obscured. Does the fox really invite his good friend the stork because he wants others to know his great soup and then decide to make sport of his friend? The mischievous boy in BW is never allowed to have fun again! The video segment turns amateurish in an attempt, for example, to simulate the panic of fearing an approaching wolf. Rammie's big message tends to be "Reading is fun!"
2000? Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt Featuring MLS. XL. 100% cotton. Made in Indonesia. Unknown source.
Here is a surprise! My mind does not easily put Aesop and Ralph Lauren into the same sentence. Secondly, the choice of this fable for a shirt is another surprise. Finally, the result is, for me at least, a surprise. This may be the most garish object in the collection! The patterns are familiar, but from where?
1920? Raimond grapes scissors. 6.5" long. Silver plated? Unknown source.
Heavy and beautifully formed. The fox heads offer a further point of contact for the fingers of the person using the scissors. A similar Raimond version is on Ebay now for $130. The edge here is not serrated. The seller on Ebay comments that gentlemen do not touch food with their hands. Might one better say that one does not touch food that may come to others? It seems difficult to sit at table and to get grapes from the vine all the way to one's mouth without touching them.
