1890? 17 colored French cards picturing human scenes for La Fontaine's fables. Just over 4¼ " x 3 ". Titles are printed in block letters, often in a circle or in unusual spaces within the illustration. Five cards advertise Delorme-Gauthier (DG) on both picture and--with the fable's text--verso. One card advertises New Home (NH) sewing machines on both picture and--with the fable's text--verso. Two blank-backed cards (B) lack the red border stripe, have a white border, offer no fable text, and are printed on thinner cardboard stock. Five DG cards for $40 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, March, '01. The remaining three for 60 Francs each from Annick Tilly at the Clignancourt flea market, August, '99. Two more for €1 each in St. Ouen, August, '13. Six further cards advertising “Biscuits Pernot – Dijon” for $10.28 each from S.O.L. on Ebay, Jan., ’21. One further "Pernot" card from S.O.L. for €9, Sept., '21. "Ass and Robbers" for €9 from s.o.l* through Ebay, August, '22. Four slender cards advertising Belle Jardinière Chicoree at C. Beriot in Lille for €1.50 each from pier-mont through Ebay, Spt., '23: one new (Fox and Goat); and three with differently placed title-circles (Lion in Love; GGE; AD).
These cards choose dramatic moments, especially in fables featuring human actors. In one of the two exceptions, "Les Deux Chèvres " is translated into a dramatic human scene of two men fighting each other on a narrow bridge. (The other exception is DJ, mentioned below.) This card has several other interesting points. One of them is that a French card advertises an English (or American?) machine in French. Another is that it gives a terminus post quem for the card. The front proclaims "Il faut dans chaque famille la Machine Type New Home Standard. Adoptée dans les Écoles de France. Médaille d'Or Paris 1889. " Like three other cards, this card presents the fable title in the form of a circle. The verso includes the text, various advertising, and "Imp. de l'Agence Générale, Standard, Paris. " This is the only indication of a printer of any of the cards. The two B cards-- "L'Ivrogne et sa Femme, " and "Le Berger et la Mer "--have lighter paper, smaller images, and larger margins. Delorme-Gauthier seems to be a cloth merchant in Vichy. The DG cards feature a MM in which the woman has fallen, a dressed-up human cock who waits while the jeweler assesses what he has found, a lion having his nails clipped, a traveler struggling in mid-river, and a standard presentation of the divided oyster. The five “Biscuits Pernot” cards indicate as publisher ”Courbe-Rouzet a Dôle (Jura).” One translation here from the animal to the human sphere strikes me as inept: is the ass who doesn’t care who is his master like a playing child? That ass may be quite smart! See "L'Avare qui a perdu son Trésor " under "Stock Singles." It may well belong to this set.
1982 Kundenkreditbank. Heidelberg. Artist unnamed. (Two copies.)
Delightful, playful illustrations in contemporary vein, with characters dressed in human clothes. May has FC, June a very good FS, July "The Dog and the Rabbit," August LM, and September "The Horse and the Ass." To see some months of this lovely calendar, click on the image below.
1930? "Der Kuckuck und der Esel." Scheerenschnitt. Message on the image side and in the image section of the verso. Dated 10.8.31. €5 from Akpool.de, July, '20.
I am aware of a fable in which an ass praises a nightingale for her sweet song but says that the cuckoo does it better. Mahler in fact seems to have incorporated a Wunderhorn song, "Lob des hohen Verstands" (that uses this fable?) into the finale of his Fifth Symphony. Whatever the source, this is a fine Scherenschnitt, unfortunately written over. Similarly, the production information on the verso is written over by the eager writer in old German script.
1930? Five postcards featuring colored images of Krylov's fables along with a short title and citation from the poem against a white background. €5 from Bartko-Reher, Berlin. June, '24. Three more for €5 each from Bartko-Reher, Berlin, Nov., ''24.
1948? Postcard of WC by Krylov. Leningrad: Glavpolygraphizdata. About 4" x 6". Gift of Susan Carlson, Dec., '23.
The paper is thin, the coloring good, the eyes of both principals emphasized. The artist seems not to be acknowledged. I wager that there are more in this series of postcards!
At first, I found "Elephant and Pug." Just a month later, I found two more numbered members of this series. Do all in the series represent Krylov? The cards in this series are all numbered, besides their other numberings, "2124281." Let us see how many more I can find!
1977 Colored postcard representing GA by Ivan Krylov. Artist: E.M. Rachev. #6. Sovetsky Hudozhnik. $13.50 from postcardsworld through Hippostcard, March, '23.
Rachev has his own series of 1961 Krylov postcards in this collection, not including GA. There are surprising things in this representation of the fable. Most of all, the grasshopper has no instrument. She is decked out for spring, and there are still at least some leaves on this tree. Are those drops of rain hanging from leaves and branches? Is it fair to say that the transformation of insect into human in both cases shapes the artist's main interest here?
1956 Portrait of Ivan Krylov. Black-and-white oval portrait surrounded by olive-colored background including laurel leaves. Signature below. $9.99 from Vladimir Pronin, Brooklyn, NY, April, '00.
In case anyone needs testimony to the love Russians have had for Krylov, a postcard like this one suggests it.
1956 Set of 10 colored Krylov postcard illustrations by M.A. Taranova. $9.99 from dron7770 through eBay, Dec., '05. A second set for $12 from migrace, Ukraine, through eBay, Dec., '11. Another set prior to 2021. Extra copy of WC from Susan Carlson, Dec., '24.
These cards, about 4" x 6", all are portrait and have a white strip at the bottom of their picture side. Though the cards – and perhaps the paintings as well – are not of the highest artistic quality, I enjoy seeing Krylov's fables put into pictures. Look below to find the thumbnails of the ten cards, and then click on them.
1967 Krylov's Fables. Three colored cards clearly belonging to one series and two cards (earlier) by the same artists, M. Alexeyev and N. Stroganova. Respectively 3a - 1327, 1330, 1332, and 1339. $8 each from Vladimir Pronin, Brooklyn, NY, April, '00. FS for €5 at St. Ouen, August, '13. Extra copy of "Quartet" for $5 from Igor Dalinin, Minsk, Belarus, through Ebay, June, '16
Lovely full-color work showing four of Krylov's most popular fables: FC (I 1), "A Quartet" (IV 1), "A String of Carts" (also called "A Train of Carts," (II 20) and--in slightly different format--"The Wolf in the Kennel" (II 8). The latter card has no English translation included. Its color printing is especially effective. Notice for example the red nose on the lone human in the scene. The more access I find to Russian goods, the more I see that the Russians love their Krylov the way the French love their La Fontaine. The result is the same: they keep on producing lively images of his work! The last card found in this series, FS, is delightful for both the salivating fox and the frogs hanging from the line!
1986 Set of nine fable cards illustrating Krylov fables. 4" x 7½", with the photographic picture occupying the left 5½" segment and the title occupying the remaining right section. Photographs of staged animal mannequins. The Russian text of the fable is on the obverse. The artist is G. Kyprijanov. Pravda, Moscow. $8 for the set from Valentaua Kudinova, Kharkiv, Ukraine, through eBay, Nov., '12. Extra set with picture-wrapper, FC, from VintageIhorUA for $10, August, '19.
The surprising thing about these illustrations is, I believe, the elaborate staging of the animal figures in often rustic settings.
1971 Twelve cards displaying black-and-white drawings of Krylov's fables by B.A. Serov. 4¼" x 6". Moscow. $5 each from Vladimir Pronin, Brooklyn, through Ebay, May, '00.
At first, these images may seem rather dull. Give them time. Several are very good. Among my favorites is "Three Townies" (VIII 23), in which one clever man eats the soup while the other two argue how to apportion it. The victim bull about to be seized upon by all the animals in "The Plague of Beasts" (II 4) is also well suggested by the light lines against the heavier lines of the other beasts. The lion in "The Lion and the Wolf" (V 14) lets the wolf know that puppies can get away with things not allowed to wolves. Trishka's caftan (IV 8) may only be suggested, but the laughter of others at his expense is clear. Notice that there are two different renditions of "A Quartet" (IV 1).
1961 Twelve cards displaying colored paintings of Krylov's fables by E.M. Rayev. 4⅛" x 5⅞". Moscow. $24.99 from Andrey Nosov, Narva, Estonia, through Ebay, Jan., '06. I have long been an admirer of Rayev's work. Here are twelve of them gathered in a wrap-around cover with details from two of the images: "Cock and Pearl" and "Geese." The images included here are, as far as I can surmise from the pictures and titles:
1955? Two polychrome cards by A. Panmes: "Quartet" and FC. Perhaps painted in '55 and published in '56 in a quantity of 500,000. #3-39 and 3-40. Riga.
The characters in both scenes are highly lively – except the crow, who will be persuaded by the liveliness of the fox. The quartet's bear is particularly aggressive. Well done! Now how many are in the set?
1956 Colored presentation of Krylov's "The Swan, the Pike, and the Crab" by V. Arbekov. $5 from Raigo Kirss, Kuressaare, Estonia, through Ebay, Feb., '02.
The style in this card is highly reminiscent of that in the postcards of A. Bazhenov et al, but there is already a depiction of this scene in the Bazhenov cards that I have. The harnesses on all three figures here are worth close examination and enjoyment.
1944 Colored postcard representing “The Ass and the Nightingale” by Ivan Krylov. Artist: A. Zhaba. Circulation of 5000. Leningrad. €5 from Bartko-Reher, Berlin, April, ’21.
This card has fascinated me for two reasons. First of all, who was producing postcards in Leningrad in 1944? Secondly, it has been hard for me to find other members of this series. Etsy presents an image of FG but the card is no longer available. Then I got lucky. The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library has an image and a record of WL from the same series. They seem to add a second artist, Alphonse Konstantinovich Toad. They offer a good archival image. A further look reveals that they have eight cards in the series, all using the second name above and all illustrated: https://www.prlib.ru/en/section/1176153. The verso there, as here, has an image at its top of something like “The Great Patriotic War.” The challenge now is to go after the whole series!
1970? Ten cards displaying lively colored illustrations of Krylov's fables. The artists for these cards are A. Bazhenov. At least some of them seem to have been produced in Kaliningrad. Unknown source, July, '03. Extra copies of "A Quartet" (IV 1), "The Industrious Bear" (VI 23), and "Swan, Pike and Crab" (two copies, IV 5) for between $8 and $10 each from Vladislav Pronin, Brooklyn, through Ebay, Feb., '00 and April, '00. Extra copy of "The Monkey and the Mirror" for $5 from Igor Dalinin, Minsk, Belarus, through Ebay, June, '16
The image for IV 5 gives a clear sense that the three are pulling in different directions (up, down, and sideways); thus at least the former two cancel each other out. The industrious bear is trying to make bowed carriage harnesses in one action; the point is that this sort of work needs patience. Other great images here include the envelope's strong composite image, "The Cat and the Cook" (III 8), and "A Train of Carts" (II 20).
1971 Twelve cards displaying black-and-white drawings of Krylov's fables by B.A. Serov. 4¼" x 6". Moscow. $5 each from Vladimir Pronin, Brooklyn, through Ebay, May, '00.
At first, these images may seem rather dull. Give them time. Several are very good. Among my favorites is "Three Townies" (VIII 23), in which one clever man eats the soup while the other two argue how to apportion it. The victim bull about to be seized upon by all the animals in "The Plague of Beasts" (II 4) is also well suggested by the light lines against the heavier lines of the other beasts. The lion in "The Lion and the Wolf" (V 14) lets the wolf know that puppies can get away with things not allowed to wolves. Trishka's caftan (IV 8) may only be suggested, but the laughter of others at his expense is clear. Notice that there are two different renditions of "A Quartet" (IV 1).
2015 Krewe of Bacchus 2015 Aesop's Fables Beer Can Koozie. $7.95 from Beanstalk New Orleans through Ebay, July, '24.
This was a part of Mardi Gras in 2015. It is unusual at this late stage in the development of this collection that we have to create a new category. Well, this is new! The printing work seems exceptionally good!
