2010? Five postal souvenirs of the Fables of de La Fontaine, each with a perforated section to be removed from the surrounding image. GA; FG; CJ; “The Worker and His Children”; “The Snake and the File.” Benjamin Rabier. About 5.5" x 7". $5 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20.
I believe I have never seen something like this. And I can find no exemplars on the web. The reprinting of Rabier’s pages is exquisite; it is of the sort one would expect from the makers of postage stamps. The choice of the portion perfectly circumscribed with perforation is fascinating, as when CJ focuses on the bumpkin ready to sell his valuable book. Similarly, “The Worker and His Children” focuses on a sickle ready to be wielded in bringing in the bumper crop. Some searching on the web revealed other such philatelic productions, particularly in France. The “stamps” generated here have apparently no value for the posting of a letter. Curious!
1890? Two colored trade cards from a series of six, illustrating GA and “The Lion and the Gnat.” Pharmacie Normale. Paris: J. Chèret. $12 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20.
Bertrand tells me that this set is extremely rare and that the other four cards do not illustrate fables. The representation of the lion is regal, but is this a lion? The frozen background in GA sets a good scene. One may need a minute or two to notice the grasshopper’s guitar.
1926 Series of six photographic postcards representing a musical performance of GA by Petit Séminaire Flers-de-l'Orne. Music by L, Ripault. €60 from histoirepostale83 through Ebay, Dec. '19.
The six numbered photographic postcards show the cast at six moments in the presentation, marked by a portion of text from La Fontaine's fable. The scenes show summertime singing, wintertime hunger, pleading for food, declaration by the grasshopper of singing for the pleasure of any listener, rejection by the ant, and "Choeur Final." Blank versoes.
1910 “Le Petit Poisson et le Pécheur: Fable de La Fontaine.” Complete two-card set of colored photographic postcards. “Croissant Paris.” “3850.” Complete colored series of 2 portrait postcards photographed by Sazerac (“Sazerac phot.”) and published by Croissant in Paris. $5 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
This pair of cards is quite similar to the MM set by Sazerac and Croissant, especially the coloration of the photographs against a colored background screen. As Bertrand notes, a two-card set seems quite unusual!
Art print “Slow & Steady Wins the Race – The Tortoise and the Hare.” 8½” x 11”. $18.48 from Peter Pan Prints through Etsy, August, ’18.
The artist here places the hare’s white against the tortoise’s larger green space. I am delighted to see Etsy’s artists taking up Aesop!
1905? Perrette et le Pot au Lait. Three postcards of J. de Montrut's version of "Perrette et le Pot au Lait" presented with black-and-white photographs. Several colors have been added. Beneath each picture is a number ("2," "4," and "5" respectively) and a few lines of text, apparently from a version by J. de Montrut. €3 each from Eclair Collections, Angers, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05.
The photographs are the ultimate in posed photographs taken before large sheet-like backgrounds. Here one can see the ripples in the cloth background. The three scenes show, progressively, the joy of the dreaming milkmaid as she dreams of buying a new dress, her dismay at seeing the broken pot and spilled milk, and her regret. The pot seems more broken in the third picture than it was in the second! Portions of the maid's clothes are colored red. Is some of the background a light green? My guess is that there are only five cards in this series, since card #5 seems to end the text, with an attribution to J. du Montrut. Will I ever have a chance at the missing two cards?
1914 One photographic postcard presenting “The Return of Perrette.” P(ierre) Sezille des Essarts. Salon d’Hiver 1914. 2298. Paris: Albert Noyer. $8 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ‘’20.
This is a different view of MM, namely the return back home with the broken or dropped pitcher. Depicting Perrette from the back is appropriate here, as is the accompanying gesture. She has raised an arm to her head or face in a gesture of frustration and regret. Auguste Frédéric Pierre Sezille des Essarts was born in 1867. He has a variety of works represented on the internet, including an old favorite of mine showing a young couple escaping a rainstorm.
1905? Set of ten photographic postcards of "Perrette." All addressed to Mademoiselle Hebert in Rouen and Veules-les-Roses. $40 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
The cards are postmarked in 1906. The approach to the story known perhaps best through LaFontaine's fable is slightly different, especially as it involves a dog. 1. This Perrette is thinking as she goes about her dear old father. 2. She stops in the woods to put down the heavy pot. 3. It even seems a good idea to take a nap in the heat; she can catch up afterward. 4. Perrette dreams of the profits and their purchases, including clothes and jewels. 5. She wakes to find she has been joined by a dog. 6. She shares her lunch with her new friend. 7. Ah, but when you eat you must drink. The dog seems to point to the pot as the answer to her need. 8. Oh, my, that will lessen the value of this pot of milk. 9. In the meantime, the pot breaks. What bad luck! 10. Perrette and the dog pray together for God to restore the pot. One surprise is that there are some stamps for five centimes and some for ten. The text is attributed to C.M. I cannot find "C.M." online. Here is another example of using a simple photographic background and photographic postcards of children to offer a variant on a well-known La Fontaine fable.
1950? Pendant 1½" in diameter illustrating WL by Jean de La Fontaine. Artist: Jean Vernon. $20 from an unknown source, July, '16.
This heavy pendant is identical with and perhaps created from WL in the set of 1½" medallions by Vernon. There is nothing on the verso. The pendant, like the medallion, gives not only the title but the moral of this fable. Who wears a pendant showing a scene like this?
2000? Pen-and-ink drawing of “The Man with Two Mistresses.” Student work. Unknown date and artist.
I regret not being able to read the artist’s signature on this lovely work. Wonderful shadow technique! Effective caricature! Bravo!
1900? 4 Dust jackets ("Couverture Cahier") "Fables de La Fontaine" featuring colored work presentations of individual fables and texts on the back covers. Perhaps all from Pellerin of Épinal? €6 each from Chromosetcollections on Ebay, Nov., '20.
I have been unconvinced and then convinced – mostly – that these four dust-jackets were published by Épinal of Pellerin. They are so much in the style of that firm that I simply presumed that they were the publishers. Unfortunately, there is no marking on them to indicate the publisher except the symbol on the front of all four jackets: a coat of arms "P S" and "Propriété des Editeurs." The least likely to come from Pellerin, it seems to me, is "Le Lion et le Chasseur."
1890? Twenty-two printed sheets, 12½" x 16¼", each featuring either an individual fable of La Fontaine or a set of four fables. Each is numbered in an apparent set of 25. Now I have found the whole set of 25 gathered in a book, Fables de la Fontaine, for which I have guessed a date of the same year. Matted on white cardboard. Missing are #3, #7, and #20. There is one extra copy of #14. Each is marked "Série Supérieure aux Armes d'Épinal, Pellerin & Cie, imp. -édit." and "Fables de LA FONTAINE (Hors Groupes)." I bought 21 of them as a group from a Buchinist along the Seine, August, '99; individually they were priced between 70 and 120 Francs each, but we settled on a group price of 1150 Francs for the twenty-one. I found two others at another Buchinist stall just a few minutes later and paid 75 Francs each for them. Click on any image to see it enlarged.
I had long thought that Pellerin, whose beautiful printing work I had seen elsewhere, must have done a set of fables. What a great surprise to find them! On almost all, the color work is still lively; on several it is brilliant, especially MSA (#8), "Le Coche et la Mouche" (#9), "L'Oeil du Maitre" (# 10), and "La Besace" (#22). Each page includes a title at the top. Somewhere on the page, the text of the fable appears. The first, WL, is bleached, perhaps from standing out at the front of the group too long under the Paris sun!
1870? Now, in 2022, I am gathering together our 25 broadsides, including three duplicates, from L'Imagerie d'Épinal. These were found in groups at various times. There seem to be two sets of publications. I list a more recent set, differently numbered, under "Pellerin 1890," though I am as unsure of that date as I am of this earlier set's date. A set of 12 from Ramses for €20 each through Ebay in Sept., '20 and another set in Nov., '21. A set for €16 each from Istrilene through Ebay in Oct., '21. A set of seven on heavier stock from an unknown source.
Some of these broadsides look more like pages torn from a book, and one can find those Pellerin books scattered through the collection. Several are duplicates bought in different groups. As with the illustrations in earlier Pellerin book publications around 1910, each broadside here is numbered either between 400 and 455 or between 3007 and 3088.
1880? Brown Westhead Moore and Co transferware pedestal dish illustrating “The Two Doves.” 13” in diameter, 7” high. Unknown source.
Beautiful work well preserved. The handling of the image is consistent with the other excellent things we have from BWM. Cream color with blue transferware. One handle has been repaired. Grape vines surround the central scene. One dove feels the need to travel while the other waits at home. Travel goes very poorly, and the traveling dove is delighted to make it home wounded and battered. The scene is sometimes portrayed as a romantic scene of human lovers reunited.
1907 "The Tortoise and the Hare." Print of a drawing originally created by Henry Jarvis Peck. 7” x 9.5”. $2.74 from Steven Morawiec, August, '03.
The illustration features an old man apparently tugging a boat of younger men through the ocean. The title of the image implies a moral behind the story depicted in the drawing. The slower fishing boat of the old man has to tow in the speedy sailing boat with its broken mast and several riders. Slow and steady wins again!
1926?/98? Aesop's Fables (Volume 3). Eight Paul Terry Aesop's Films. Commonwealth Pictures. 2274. $18.50 from Nostalgia Family Video, Baker City, OR, through Ebay, June, '00.
This tape lists only its name and number on the label. At least there is no mistake!
1926?/98? Aesop's Fables (Volume 2). Eight Paul Terry Aesop's Films. Commonwealth Pictures. 2273. $14.50 from Nostalgia Family Video, Baker City, OR, through Ebay, June, '00.
This tape's label is incorrect. It has a different number from the first volume but then lists the same cartoons. In fact, the tape presents a new set of cartoons, beginning with "Jungle Sports." In it, an explorer and an ape play games and then get into a fight.
