1900 Exposition Universelle 1900 "Le Meunier, Sons Fils et l'Ane." Six slightly larger than 6½" x 4½" cards printed by Courmont Frères, Ch. Rousseau Sr, Paris. Each scene signed by F. Cap (?). 70 Francs each from Annick Tilly at the Clignancourt flea market, August, '99. Extras of cards 1, 4 (cropped), and 5 (cropped) for a total of 110 Francs from Annick, August, '01. Extras of cards 1 and 3 for €2 each from Paris Postcard Exhibit, Jan., '05. Extras of cards 1 and 3 for €5 each from St. Ouen, August, '13.
Each of the six scenes here has a four-to-seven line segment of La Fontaine's long fable. Again, as in the GA set, "Au Bon Marché" and the title of the fable are to be found somewhere on the picture side. The back has the same information as there including mention that this store is "comme l'une des plus remarquables curiosités de Paris." Several of the cards show crease-marks or the residue of a scrapbook on their backs.
1960? Bronze medallion of "Le Lion et le Rat," signed by Alber(t) de Jaeger. Slightly over 2¼" diameter. The title of the fable is above an illustration of the netted lion, below which are the first two lines of the poem. The verso contains the fable from lines 5 through the end, with the second moral around the rim of the verso. $20 from numispechincha through Ebay, April 18.
I am surprised not to find this heavy medallion represented somewhere on the web. I feel like I have looked at hundreds of de Jaeger medallions, but not one representation of this one. The stylization of the net as absolutely symmetrical is perhaps the most unusual feature of this medallion. I wonder if it might be rare! Do not miss the tiny rat at work in the upper left corner of the net. Reading the tight presentation of the fable text on the verso is difficult! Might the medallion have come from some series?
1950? "Le Lièvre et la Tortue." Biscottes L'Angevine. Angers. 5¼" x 6¾". $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, May, '03.
The upper three quarters of this colorful blotter are a simple illustration. The hare is eating a carrot while the tortoise, looking back and smiling, nears the goal. This blotter seems to have doubled as the label for the package, since the blotter gives a net weight at the time of their packaging.
1988 Le Lièvre et la Tortue. Les Fables de la Fontaine. 150-piece picture puzzle with poster and bilingual text. 31.5 x 41.5 cm. Paris: Jeux Nathan S.A. Found in a toy store on Jackson Square in New Orleans.
Perhaps the most memorable feature of the picture here is that the tortoise is sweating!
1960? 'Le Lièvre et la Tortue,' Buvard #2 d'une collection illustrant les 'Fables de La Fontaine.' Gri-gri, le vrai jus de fruits aux vitamines naturelles. Illustration signed by Polotec. Red and black on white. 8¼' x 5¼'. $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, May, '02.
The sketch takes up two-thirds of this blotter. The hare lies by the roadside with a book in his hand and a flower in his mouth. The tortoise crawls up to the goal line. Of course I would like to know how many blotters there were in this collection and get hold of the rest!
1950? Le Lièvre et la Tortue. Puzzle env. 500 morceaux. $20 from Dany Wolfs, Roeselare, Belgium, Dec., '00.
There is a pleasant "finish of the race" scene on the cover of this oblong portrait-formatted box. It is signed by "collet." I have not tried the puzzle yet. Sorry!
1930? Jeu des Fables. Jeu novo. 12 cards 6.75” x 3.8” each featuring three titles and a corresponding scene from the fable itself. Also a title-card with rules on the verso. Emmanuel Cocard. €40 from dienbienphu01 through Ebay, July, ‘25
The title-card of this game played with two different sizes of cards is slightly cut on the right edge. Emmanuel Cocard is well known to our collection for his large paperbound pamphlets of La Fontaine. His lively colored work continues here. What we have is the title-card and twelve cards featuring each 3 fables through a title and a sample scene. Ten fables are given two images each. The image of the exploding frog in OF gives a good sense of the liveliness of these images! Other strong images are both for OR; both for “Fox and Goat”; and WC. The title-card speaks of smaller cards with verses, which have apparently been lost.
1815? Le Jeu des fables, ou fables de LaFontaine mises en action. Avec figures coloriées et découpées, dessinées et gravées par Lambert ainé. Paris: Lambert. Received in trade from June Clinton, March, '93.
This set includes a small oblong booklet with fifteen of La Fontaine's fables and a concluding set of as many pictures. These latter give the pattern for use of a postcard-sized background-board with several small pocket-like openings for inserting figures--like the peacock and elephant here. There were originally some thirty-three figures, of which seventeen still remain in this set. Four of the scenes can still be reproduced entirely: 1, 2, 8, and 12. The figures are enclosed in a marbled envelope the same size as the booklet. There is a slip-case for the whole ensemble. My favorite private collector gives a date of 1820 and makes the publisher Alph. Giroux.
1895 "Le Jeu des Fables." (The game of fables.) Publisher Leon Saussine. Complete with 9 cards 7" x 7½" and 72 tokens. $216 in a French auction purchase mediated by Bertrand Cocq, August, 2020.
This is the most complete presentation of French La Fontaine Lotto games in our collection. The nine cards include each eight fable titles and lottery numbers, with two of them illustrated at the top of the card , with a palm tree separating and arching over them. The 72 "tokens" offer a fable moral with the mention of one or two points "won" or "lost."Apparently, each player received a number of the lovely cards. The paper tokens involve a quotation from the moral of a specific numbered fable, with a gain or loss of one to three points each. Were players challenged perhaps to guess the fable of origin for this short quotation? The instructions I received suggest that the appropriate card holder had only to read the title next to the number to receive the card – and then had to pay or collect. That part of the game remains mysterious to me. It seems likely that the player first to cover all eight of the numbers on one of his cards is the winner.
2003 Five cards presenting La Fontaine fables humorously, all designed and signed by André le Guilloux of Louvres. They appear to have been created for various groups or competitions, including "Les Fables de la Fontaine: victimes du progrès" and "Les Fables et le Progrès." Another contains the caption "En Hommage a Jean de la Fontaine." Another is simpler: "Fable de la Fontaine." Yet another appears to have been done for a series sponsored by Crédit Agricole of Strasbourg and to have been presented at the 2e Salon de l'Image et de l'Écrit, as was the series by Claude Coudray on "Le Coq et le Renard." Oversized: over 4" x just less than 6". €12 for the group from the artist at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05.
See my remarks on each card. These cards show a great deal of wit and imagination! I was surprised when the seller started to write on the back of each, and I asked him why he was doing that. He explained that he is the artist and that he was signing them for me!
1962?/90? Le Grande Moose. Volume 5 of "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle." Burbank, CA: Buena Vista Home Video. $9.95 at Washington Video, Georgetown, Dec., '91.
The "Aesop & Son" portion here is the story of the dumb mule who gets the last laugh on two jokester jackrabbits (5:30). The mule is a water-serving innkeeper in the desert. The jackrabbits run up huge bills with him but manage to get him three times to smoke exploding cigars. When they return from having spent all their riches in Paris, they fall down his well. This section comes about thirty-five minutes into this forty-six minute tape, after and before Rocky and Bullwinkle are depth-charged at sea. I am not aware of an Aesopic original behind the story.
