1950? Three French dust-jackets, 9½" x 7", apparently for a school book, with art signed by Maurice Parent. One advertises "Costes, 36 et 38, Boulevard Richard-Wallace, Puteaux." 25 Francs from Annick Tilly at the Clignancourt flea market, August, '99. The other two lack advertising and present WL, one on green and one on red paper stock. Each for $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '05.
These dust-jackets are unusual in providing oversized flaps on both sides of the inside, one offering the text of the fable and the other a bust-portrait of and a few lines about Jean de La Fontaine. On the cover of the FS exemplar there is an invitation: "Dear Children" should tell their parents for Christmas to address themselves to Costes. The back covers show a multiplication table nailed to a tree. Around it a crow flies with cheese in its mouth, while a fox runs up underneath. In the foreground are a tortoise and a hare.It is possible that the artist is Maurice Parenti, with the letter " i" on the end of his name.
1935? Five dust-jackets, each with a duochrome illustration of a La Fontaine fable by Maurice LeMainque (1893-1942). 7" x 9½" overall, with illustrations 6⅜" x 4⅝". Papeteries du Sentier. €5 each from kam-oulox through Ebay, Nov., '22.
LeMainque may be at his best here when he shows humans, as in 2P and MSA. As it happens, those two are different from the other three in having large interior flaps, which are used to present the fable text. The book-cover presenting "The Lion and the Hunter" seems to come from a different series. It contains an advertisement and frames its illustration. Each illustration has a specific model number:
"Lion and Hunter": 101
2P: 103
OF: 104
MSA: 111
"Gardener and Bear": 112.
1818? 35 Lithographs by LeComte, Vernet, Engelmann and Mauraisse from about 1817 through 1820. Mostare 14½" x 10½". $80 from jordanb2011 through Ebay, Jan., '21.
Engelmann seems to be the engraver for many of these. I have assigned him authorship for those not signed by LeComte or Vernet. These seem to be pages from a book in our collection, "Fables choisies De La Fontaine ornees de figures lithographiques" from 1818, published by Engelmann.
1820? Matted presentation of four fables of Le Bailly with engravings. $20 from Barense at Foster City, Feb., '97.
Madame Barense had this ready for me as soon as I asked for fables on my first stop at this show. The four fables presented are "L'Enfant et la Noix," "Le Loup et le Herisson," "Le Pecheur et les Brochets," and "Le Cheval et le Taureau." The texts are slightly stained at their sides. The illustrations are small (1½" x 2") but strong.
1870? Matted hand-colored illustration of DW, a page from an edition of Charles Bennett's fables, engraved by Swain. $20 from John and D'Ann Stone, The Bay Window Print Locker, Florence, OR, through Ebay, July, '99.
The colors are excellent, down to golden buckles on the natty dog's shoes. The red-polka-dotted golden scarf of the Wolf is also well rendered here. Painting a Bennett scene brings up some good questions. I have, for example, noticed the hands of both animals for the first time. Might I be noticing them because they are the only flesh-colored items in the picture?
1930? Malt Kneipp cutout domino game. 13½" x 9¾". €15.50 from olivier9862 through Ebay, Oct., '22.
This light cardboard piece could have appeared here under "Advertisements," "Printed Material," or "Games." I chose the last of the three. The sheet includes instructions to cut out the 28 dominos, each of which pictures a well-known La Fontaine fable. The seller guessed a printing date between 1928 and 1940. It is curious that "Kneipp" is spelled with two p's at the end at the top of both parts of this sheet. The printer, however, is "Malt Kneip."
2000? Russian matryoshka set of 5 dolls representing GGE. $45 from shisa-630 through eBay, May, '22.
This is a beautiful matryoshka. The three largest dolls are particularly well executed. I may be missing something, but I do not believe that the sequence of dolls is meant to tell this fable. They seem rather to isolate the characters involved and present them individually. The tragic note of the fable comes in in the axe in the farmer's hands in the second doll. Might the last doll suggest something like the result of the fable: we have a golden egg, and that is all that we have?
1950? Fables et Contes Adaptés par Materne. 2 cards with La Fontaine's French and a Dutch translation on the back. "Fabels en Vertellingen Aangepast door Materne." Alcover. On the front of each is an illustration involving Materne food products. $8 apiece at Foster City, Feb., '97. TH for $5 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept. '20.
On the first is a fox who seems to have got a jar of candied fruits from the crow in the tree. On the second, a stork cannot get the jar of jam out of the vase; a fox looks on. In TH, the hare is busy eating something (jelly? fruit?) from a jar of Materne while the tortoise passes in the background. Curiously enough, the picture side of each card speaks of "De Sprookjes en Vertellingen" (my emphasis) rather than, as on the back, "Fabels en Vertellingen."
2020? Set of five fable matryoshka dolls. St. Petersburg: Marzipan.
Here is a lovely set of matryoshkas illustrating five of Krylov's fables. Found by chance for about $50. I presume that it is one of a kind because the "Livemaster" website now marks this item as "sold." FC is well known to us, as is WL. The third doll features the ass and the nightingale. The ass tells the nightingale in the third that he could learn a few things from the rooster! In the fourth, a clever pug gets his reputation as courageous by seeming to take on a fight with an elephant that he knows will never happen. The elephant will not have anything to do with him! The last is the monkey with spectacles on the top of his head instead of in front of his eyes.
As the signature on the bottom of the largest doll indicates, this set is handcrafted. A large oval scene in the largest part of the doll presents scenes from FC; WL; "The Ass and the Nightingale"; "The Elephant and the Pug"; and "The Monkey and Spectacles." The stupid ass asks the nightingale to sing, and the bird's song enraptures every creature in the forest. The ass praises his song and then tells he could learn something from the rooster's beautiful singing. The knowing nightingale simply leaves without answering a comment so ludicrous. The little pug barks at the huge elephant with impunity because he knows that the elephant will not bother to retaliate. The elderly monkey is advised that glasses could help her failing vision. She gets several pair and puts them all over her body but finds that they do not help and dashes them against the wall. Here she seems to have them on upside down.
1999 Marvic Textiles "Les Fables De La Fontaine" Toile Printed 100% Cotton Fabric. 18.3" x 23.3". Unknown source.
This is a smaller section of the same pattern as just above, including only the basic pattern of eight fable scenes. The hue here has more red than the larger section's brown. Someone has hemmed this segment very nicely with gold thread. This smaller segment lacks the identifying signature of the larger piece above.
1999 Marvic Textiles "Les Fables De La Fontaine" Toile Printed 100% Cotton Fabric. 2 Yds+35.5". F-231.
This is a serious piece of cloth and a wonderful addition to the collection! The repeated pattern includes eight fables, four to a column, with one column featuring ovals and hexagons, and the other circles and octagons. The eight fables are, in one column, "Elephant and Pug"; "The Fox and the Bust"; BS; and "Two Bulls and the Frogs." The other column features "The Oyster and the Litigants"; "The Horse and the Ass"; "The Man and the Satyr"; and "The Lioness and the She-Bear." The cloth is beautifully executed and in excellent condition. My guess at its age is pure speculation! My thanks to the seller for providing a rich array of views of this impressive cloth! Click on the cloth to see some various views of this lovely piece!
1950 "Les Fables Célèbres." Two thin-paper handbills illustrating four fables of La Fontaine and advertising La Marie-Rose, "La Mort Parfumée des Poux!" 5" x 7½". $3 each from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, May, '03. One illustrating TB, apparently earlier, for $5 from the same source, May, '05. FG from Marie-Rose for $6 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
"Handbill" is my best guess as to what these two very lightweight sheets are. The first presents FC, TH, LM, and MM, while the second has WL, "Le Laboureur et ses Enfants," GA, and OF. I never thought of using fables to advertise medication to kill lice! One should use La Marie-Rose on one's children every Thursday, so that one can send proper children to school. The quips on the back touting the virtues of La Marie-Rose are a riot! The earlier handbill illustrating TB proclaims that Marie-Rose Lotion is not greasy and does not stain. It wards off the insects that bring all sorts of diseases!
1955 Marianne Moore Reading Her Poems and Fables from La Fontaine. NY: Caedmon TC 1025. Unknown source.
Fables are the second side of this record: FC; DS; GGE; “The Farmer and the Adder”; “The Fox and the Goat”; “The Scythian Philosopher”; and SW.
1990? Three Margot de Paris Needlepoint Patterns: TH(#271); FC (#272); and LM (#274). Plus two extra copies of FC. 9.75” x 23.5”. Unknown source.
Lively presentations of each fable. They follow the same pattern in arranging the characters horizontally. One can see one example of TH completed in our collection under “Cross Stitch” and the other two under "Canvas Tapestries."
2006 Mardi Gras dubloon showing TH. Mobile: Order of Myths. "The Fables of Aesop."
A very happy tortoise crosses the finish line while a hurrying hare tries to catch up. The verso offers a fascinating scene. Folly has been chasing Death; at the end of Mardi Gras parade, Folly defeats Death. The Order of Myths was founded in 1867, though the maker of this coin thought it was 1868. The Order of Myths was the oldest order to celebrate Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama.
1950? Märchen-Postkarten zum Ausmalen. Pamphlet-portfolio with twelve cards, six as patterns and six to color. Only both "Tortoise and Hedgehog" cards and the colored version of Cinderella (?) remain. M. 1017. Offsetdruck Walter Mainz. Jos. Scholz Mainz Verlag, Wiesbaden. €5 in Dresden, July, '24.
Another complete instance on the web of this set of postcards to color has convinced me that it includes fairy tales rather than fables. I have made an exception for "Tortoise and Hedgehog" and so I include what is left of this publication. The color work presented is strong. A former owner of this pamphlet started to color but got only as far as the hedgehog's red pants and the green grass upon which he is sitting.
1950? Märchen-Postkarten zum Ausmalen. Pamphlet-portfolio with twelve cards, six as patterns and sic to color. Only both "Tortoise and Hedgehog" cards and the colored version of Cinderella (?) remain. M. 1017. Offsetdruck Walter Mainz. Jos. Scholz Mainz Verlag, Wiesbaden. €5 in Dresden, July, '24.
Another complete instance on the web of this set of postcards to color has convinced me that it includes fairy tales rather than fables. I have made an exception for "Tortoise and Hedgehog" and so I include what is left of this publication. The color work presented is strong. A former owner of this pamphlet started to color but got only as far as the hedgehog's red pants and the green grass upon which he is sitting.
1935? Eight chromolithographed trade cards advertising "Fabrique de Chocolats, Conserves Alimentaires, Maison Salmon in Nantes." 2¾" x 4". €12.90 from nantes-antiques through Ebay, Jan., '23.
This set of cards uses the illustrations of two other sets, those I have associated with "Alcide Picard" and with "Verger-Haquet." These differ from the Picard cards in that the titles at the bottom of the picture side of the card are here all in capital letters, whereas the fable titles in "Picard" have only initial capital letters. Verger-Haquet has identical illustrations, like "The Miser Who Buried His Treasure," but has only five cards. Three are trade cards using capital letters, while two are cards without advertising. There are also some twelve less substantial slips featuring these illustrations. "Alph. Babotte" also belongs to this group of images.
1890? Twenty-five printed sheets, 10¾" x 14½", each featuring an individual fable of La Fontaine. The sheets themselves give no identifying trademark, but these posters are identical with individual pages in two volumes, Imagerie Artistique: 20 Fables de La Fontaine I and II, listed under "1890?" and estimated by Bodemann to have been printed in 1888-90. The artists include H. Vogel, Gaston Gélibert, Mangonot, Godefroy, Firmin Bouisset, (Anatole Paul?) Ray, Job (=Jacques Marie Gaston Onfroy de Breville), and Gustave Fraipont. (I am indebted to Bodemann for the deciphering and spelling of these.) A frequent engraver's mark is "Michelet sc". One is dated 1888. Listed individually at 80 and 100 Francs, the set cost 1200 Francs from a Buchinist along the Seine, August, '99. Two extras from Bailly, Paris, June, '17, for €24. And 18 from Anne-Marie-Kucharski for €234, June, '17. "Shepherd and the Sea" for €3.25 from antikobjet 84200 through Ebay, Dec., '23.
Each page includes a title in caps at the top, with "Fable de la Fontaine" in smaller caps inside parentheses just below it. Somewhere on the page, the text of the fable appears. The colors are strong in many but may be misprinted somewhat in others (like "Le Rat et l'Huitre"). Among the strongest images are "Les Deux Coqs," "La Mort et le Bucheron," "La Cigale et la Fourmi," and "La Grenouille et le Boeuf." My highest prize goes to the complex composition of "Le Renard et les Raisins," complete with a poor man pointing to a palatial manor. "Conseil Tenu par les Rats" shows children protesting with placards (for example, "Vive les Vacances") outside the school. "Les Deux Chèvres" features two little girls plunging from a bridge into some water, with picnic basket, bottle, and shoe falling with them. One sheet is unfortunately cropped (by the publisher?) right through the title : "Les Oreilles du Lievre"). I found this set just after I had found a set of Pellerin large-format colored sheets of La Fontaine's fables. A genuinely surprising find was "Le Berger et la Mer" six years after finding other members of this group! I again experienced that making out Firmin Bouisset's signature is not easy!
1900? Set of 16 La Fontaine Fable Slides. Paris: Maison de la Bonne Presse. Unknown source.
I have had a good time trying to get good scans of these lively magic lantern slides. At times they remind me of the Liebig series that employ children, and at other times of the Liebig series that employs signs. In each slide, there is a clear comparison between the fable and a real-life situation. I would love to try viewing these through a good strong magic lantern projector!
1969? Magnetic patch with Jacob Lawrence's "The Council of the Mice." 3" x 3.75". Unknown source.
Here may be a first: As I tried to research this item online, what I found immediately was our own Archives' reference to it on the web. "A rectangular magnet with a black and white image printed on it. The image printed depicts a group of mice enthusiastically talking to one another. Under the image depicted there are words that read: "Jacob Lawrence 'The Council of Mice,' 1969." I would add a comment or two. Notice the older mouse with an umbrella in the lower left. He is the one who will "call the question," a question that will find no one volunteering. I suspected that this was an Etsy product, but extensive searching has not come up with a clue, there or elsewhere.
