1926?/98? Aesop's Fables (Volume 1). Eight Paul Terry Aesop's Films. Commonwealth Pictures. 2061. $14.50 from Nostalgia Family Video, Baker City, OR, through Ebay, June, '00.
Included are "Up in the Air" ('26), "Flying Hoofs" ('28), "Rooster and the Eagle" ('28), "Wicked City" ('26), "Red Hot Sands" ('28), "Hitting the Rails" ('28), "Runaway Balloon" ('28), and "Fable of the Alley Cat" ('28). I am presuming that the numbers "26" and "28" in parentheses indicate the year of each cartoon. These are typical Terry work in the series "Aesop's Film Fables." In what I watched this time, there is plenty of music but never any spoken speech. There will be an occasional written expression from one character. These are not traditional Aesopic fables, but rather stories about animals playing tricks on people. There is delightful fantasy here, as when a mice musician plays some notes and then climbs them like steps of a ladder.
1915? Three dust-jackets, each with an orange duochrome illustration of a La Fontaine fable signed by Paul Giraud. The verso offers tables of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The stapled inside flaps offer the outline of a weekly work plan and a centimeter ruler, respectively. $5 apiece from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '05. Extra copy for $6 of LM from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '21.
Paul Giraud died in 1917. The line figures on these dust-jackets are surprisingly engaging, particularly the tears of the dying laborer's children. I also enjoy the three different emotions suggested by the three faces in MSA. Can one speak of a "cartoon style," and would it appropriately characterize the approach of these three illustrations?
1930? Two black-and-white handbills by Paul Colin presenting FG and “The Old Man and the Three Young Men.” Stamped by Lesbroussart & Fils in Beauvais. 7¾” x 11”. No publisher acknowledged. Planche #2008 (“Old Man”) and #2016 (FG). $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20.
Someone must have produced a lot of handbills to make these in the 2000’s! These images replicate large Colin posters in the collection and also a book of Colin posters, “La Fontaine en Images.” I love Colin’s work! Does something of the fox’s face get lost in FG? Does some other artist create these black-and-white designs on the basis of Colin's work, or might he do that himself?
1960? Brown, red, and gold presentation of FC designed by R. Odoul with a long cartoon advertisement on the back cover. Pastilles Pulmoll. $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '05.
Pulmoll is here using the same catch-phrase as on the dust-jackets from a different era. The side flaps still present districts of France. The cartoon on the back cover seems to say that Grandpa gets over the cough from smoking cigars by taking Pulmoll tablets.
1940? Three French dust-jackets, 9½" x 7", apparently for a school book, advertising "Pastille Pulmoll" €6 each at St. Ouen, August, '13. One duplicate of TH without the "Grande Pharmacie La Fontaine" stamp on the cover for $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '05.
The title continues "calme la Toux * flatte le Gout" (perhaps "calms the cough, soothes the taste"?) Two marked "Face au Pont Grand Pharmacie. J. Fontaine. Compiegne." Highly colorful cartoons of TH, GA, and TMCM grace the covers of these three dust jackets. The back cover has basic road signs. Inside on the flaps are lists of districts of France.
1880? Partial set of 6 cards with red backing similar in format to the above complete set, but with a different numbering system. By Mauclair and Dacier, according to the seller. $91.72 from Alexandra Lacroix of nantes-antiques, Nantes, France, through Ebay, Oct., '20.
Six of the cards in this lot actually repeat cards in the above complete set. These other six follow a different numbering system, namely two sets of continuous numbers, four consecutive numbers at the top and then, after skipping eight numbers, another continuous set of numbers across the bottom of the board. These illustrations are well colored, and the boards themselves are well preserved.
1920? Two large (10½" x 8⅛") sheets presenting each two fables (WL and WC; LM and DS) in four colors. Paris-Vêtements. $20 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
Thin paper and vivid color mark these pages. It is hard to imagine where in life they would show up, since they are neither as hardy nor as small as a card. No artist or printer seems to be acknowledged. Both have suffered a tear in the upper right corner as one views the image side.
1948 Three paper scenes to cut out and mount. Sponsored by "Calscorbat enfants a la framboise." 9½" x 12½". WL and FS for $8 each from Bertrand Cocq, Sept., '20. LM for €6 from Mathys2004 through Ebay, Sept., '21.
Apparently three of seven sheets that came in a booklet "J'apprends les Fables de La Fontaine en m'amusant" published by Editions Brunier in 1948. About five elements have tabs that one places through slots in the elliptical base to make the fable scene. A text of the fable and instructions for the scene are on the front of each broadside. Lovely coloring! I am not sure that the cardstock is quite firm enough to handle young fingers manipulating the tabs. The nearby farmer in FS and the extra layer for the lion's muzzle are lovely touches! The pages are identical with those in a book "J'apprends les Fables de La Fontaine en m'amusant."
2022? Paper pad 8" x 8". Twelve double-sided papers, many featuring Aesop's fables. Italy: Ciao Bella Paper. Card stock. $10.95 from ASC Supplies through Etsy, July, '22. One extra set.
Here is again something new to me: I am not sue what one is to do with these sheets, bout they are beautifully produced! Cards present the six scenes pictured below, as well as FC. There is also FC and a page of fable characters. Versos and one card feature old, slightly deteriorated wallpaper.
1937? Paper bookmark "Äsop" from Olleschau, "Das Beste von Allem!" Lesezeichen Nr. 601. With verso offering information on his life and work. 5½" x 2¼". €9 from Bartko-Reher, July, '21.
My, a collection of over 600 bookmarks! Olleschau seems to have been a producer of cigarette papers. This series was published apparently between 1936 and 1938. I have guessed therefore at a date of 1937. What a strange thing to find! Aesop gets around!
1956 Paper book cabinet for the 12 books "Fables de La Fontaine." 5" x 2¼" x 8" high. Paris: Presses de la Cité. $50 for the set from Dany Wolfs, Roesalare,Belgium, April, '01.
The cabinet has suffered from its travels. It has two sets of doors. Around the outside we see WL, FC MM, and "The Cobbler and the Banker" together with a circular melange on the back of the cabinet. Inside the doors are LM and "The Hare, the Weasel, and the Cat." The back illustration is signed " Andrépec." Click on the picture to see a larger version.
1933 Two handbills of La Fontaine fables illustrated by M. Lemainque: 2P and "Le Gland et la Citrouille." 5⅜" x 7⅜". Printed by Louis Bellenand et Fils, Fontenay-aux-Rises, Advertisement on verso. €2.59 each from la fee chinette through Ebay, Sept., '22.
Dragees are candy-like. Would we call them "dietary supplements" now, 90 years later? Both of Lemainque's illustrations are pointed and engaging. The human pots are fun! There is a clever printer's seal at the top right of the image side of the handbill.
1920? Sechs Fabeln. Palmin-Post-Sammelbild. 144. Folge, Bild 1, 2, 5, 6. Four cards (of 6?) advertising "Palmin, das reine Cocos-Speisefett, nur echt mit dem Nameszug Dr. Schlink."
These four cards are in quite a different style from Palmin's other set. DS, LM, CP, BC. I am guessing that the cards show an art deco style. The German text is all in Gothic letters favored in the twentieth century up to 1945. The edges are rough cut and may have been part of a larger page. The verso has a prose fable text with no indication of a fabulist or visual artist or card printer.
1890? Fabeln von LaFontaine. Five cards (of 6?) advertising "Palmin, Feinstes Cocosfett zum Kochen, Braten und Backen." 2¾" x 4 3/8". I have cards #1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. F. Schoen. Hamburg: H. Schlinck and Companie, sole producers of Palmin. F. Kunstdruck, Niedersedlitz bei Dresden. Gift of Heinrich von Fuchs, July, '00. FS (card #2 completing the series) for 9.19 from Heidi 31.7.70 through Ebay, Feb., '19. Extra of "Bild 4: Das Hündchen und der Esel" for $9.48 from heidi31.7.70 on Ebay, August, 20.
A colored circle stands under a red title and over a shadowy white-and-gray scene from the same fable. The interplay between the two scenes makes these some of the loveliest fable trade cards I have seen. Perhaps the best of them shows the horse and the exhausted ass in the colored circle and then, in the larger picture, the horse carrying the hide and burdens of the ass. It is no surprise that the driver raises his whip now to the beleaguered horse! Where, I ask, is that second card in the set? The fables included here are:
1950? Painted wood nodder. 1½" in diameter around the base and 5" high. $11 from Auction, Plantation, FL, through Ebay, August, '00.
The crow is balanced on a slender twig. He thus moves with any movement of the base, and so he appears ready to drop the cheese as he displays his prowess in singing. Might this little piece be either German or oriental?
1960? Painted plastic statuette of Jean de La Fontaine. 2½" high. Mokarex deposé. Unknown source.
This statuette adds color to the other exemplar in the collection. I would guess from what I see online that the painting has been done not by Mokarex but by an amateur hand, which may have had trouble both with the the poet's face and with Renard. Are there black foxes?
1885? A Booklet of 7 black and white fable illustrations advertising Painkiller produced by Davis & Lawrence Company, NY. $26.01 from Jacquelilne Lazusky, Pinehurst, NC, through eBay, June, '15.
Though the cover is colored, the internal pictures on each right-hand page are black-and-white reproductions of cards used for J. & P. Coats Spool Cotton, McPhail Pianos, Emerson Pianos. The surprise is all the greater because I have found a booklet in the same format that does use colored versions of the pictures: Wright's Pills.
1850? 13 separated pages from a set of (La Fontaine’s?) numbered fables. 4.25” x 7.2”. €50. Unknown source.
I wonder if I will be able to find this edition in our collection. And I wonder if these really are separated pages. There are (page?) numbers besides the individual fable numbers. Is that Fable CXXIII not “La Discorde”? The illustrator has the traditional problem in presenting the face of a lion, presumably because he had never seen one.
2020? Page mark with illustration of FC. $14.98 from La Fee Bulleuse, Besancon, France, through Ebay, Dec., '20.
Fine work typical of Etsy craftspersons. This is our first bookmark with a cabochon!
2010? Four supersized (4 ¼" X 11 ½" X 1") matchboxes featuring details of Fraipont's 1888 illustrations along with La Fontaine's text for FS, WL, FG, and MM. Made in France. Allumettes Seita.
