1987 Hidden Pictures Series 2. Highlights for Children, Columbus. A reusable screen-folder encloses sixteen two-sided pictures, with hidden images contained in them. Among the pictures are "The Fisherman and His Fish," FC, MM, and "The Big Race" (with other contestants besides the tortoise and the hare). These pen-and-ink drawings are by various artists.
1935? Three advertising handbills for Heudebert products “Pour avoir de beaux enfants.” Numbered 1, 3, and 4. 11.5" x 8.75". €10 each from a bouquinist, Paris, June, ’25.
Very attractive colored work of 4 to 6 panels carries through the fables. The fourth panel of FS has the fox walking by the work at work on a big pot of food. He leaves his hat on a branch but then, in Panel 5, he is served a tall vase. In the sixth panel he walks away with his hate on his head. Perrette’s daydreams in MM of chasing a fox away from the chickens she has acquired. Then she will buy a big and jump for joy over her acquisition. Not a smart jump! “The Laborer and His Children” carries its message well in just four panels. The last panel has the three sons looking at a tall harvest. Heudebert seems to have offered a wide variety of products. The verso of each handbill here specifies products from normal flour, from refreshing flour, and from anti-diarrheal flour.
1960? Three fable postcards signed by (Henry) Morin. TT, FG, and WL. $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
Morin published his great book of fables around 1904, and these scenes are presumably taken from there. WL, certainly is, with the white rectangle here used for a title there used for the text of the fable. The double scene of TT is lovely, as is the facial expression of the fox in FG. One wonders how many there might be in this set…. An added lovely feature of these three cards is that an eager sender scribbled a long message extending across all three cards and a first card before these three. And the set was never sent through the mail. There are lots of capitals and exclamation points!
1935? Jean de La Fontaine. Nine landscape format postcards by Henri Mirande. "Etendard" Petrole and "Touriste" Essence Spéciale. E. D. Paris. €8 each from Dominique Delage, St. Ouen, August, '13. Then eight cards from the same series but as "Edition de Montre Zenith," including both LM and "Le Milan et le Rossignol." A last card picture "The Little Fish and the Angler" for $7 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Extra of that card for €5 from Simon Rodrigues, June, '22.
I am surprised that I have not before run into any members of this strong set of cards. Of the six listed in French Wikipédia, only "Le Milan et le Rossignol" is not included among these nine. Might it have been a set of ten? The artistry is strong on caricature, and the style might best be characterized as "cartoon." Each image makes room for the handwritten fable or important portions of it. Fables are visually transposed, where necessary, into human terms. Thus the tale of the two mules becomes that of the rich man robbed, while the poor man is untouched. A rich judge holds moneybags where the one contestant has empty pockets and the other wears a nightshirt. A policeman chases the shadow of the gunman who is behind him. A rustic man leaves the groaning table behind but, like the weasel, cannot exit by the door through which he entered. A dinner jacket is not enough to get a street person into a high-society party (BF). A paraplegic rolls on ahead of a wrecked car (TH). A child cannot reach the dried raisins on the shelf. Is that a doctor carting off all the possessions of the man sick in bed? These cards are highly enjoyable! Are they really advertisements for gasoline? Now, with the second set, I have eleven different cards and wonder how many may have been in the set originally. The back of the Zenith cards transforms the first lines of La Fontaine's FC and has a design of the crow holding a Zenith watch in his beak. The last card, bringing the total to twelve, may complete the set.
1944 Lithograph of La Fontaine fable “The Ass and Lapdog” by Henri Deluermoz.
This lithograph leapt out as I reviewed the set and compared them with the published version of the portfolio of Deluermoz’s lithographs. The work in this lithograph is finer than that in either the portfolio or the set of illustrations. Might it be the artist’s original conception? It differs, I believe, clearly from the final product. Notice, for example, the object – a ribbon perhaps? – at the back of the woman’s head. This lovely illustration is a surprise gift!
1944 84 lithographs of La Fontaine fable illustrations by Henri Deluermoz. €100 from librairie-raijepointcom through Ebay, July, ’25.
The seller writes “certainement des suites d'une édition de luxe.” That for me touches on the great question of this great acquisition. Is this a set of added “illustrations only”? Or perhaps a test printing for the artist or others? The tailpieces are correctly positioned for their place with relation to the texts. The lithographs are strong. By contrast with the published portfolio already in the collection, the images here are not accompanied by text or page numbers. They are printed on only one side. At what is page 56 in the portfolio, the images move from deft brown ink to much less deft black. Among the full-page illustrations, I appreciate “The Thieves and the Ass” (page 7 in the portfolio). The endpieces are particularly impressive, especially the exploding frog (6); the spider-web in the tree (16); SS (21); WL (24); “Fox and Goat” (38); the monkey adrift (45); and the tethered horse (52). What a terrific addition to our collection! Do not miss the apparently original drawing of "The Ass and the Lapdog" included in the portfolio. It is listed under "Paper" in "Original Art."
1908? Three numbered black-and-white photographic postcards (out of a series of ?) offering a milder version of GA. Cards 2-4. Nantes: Héliotypie Dugas et Cie. Cliché Audiard. $30 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
The ant in this version seems much friendlier. She is sharing food from the start. On Card #3, she asks what the cicada did all summer. The cicada has a hat that is wonderfully outrageous! Her dress seems to depict her as living at a level beyond that of the peasant ant.
1910? 2 photographic postcards by “Héliotypie Dugas et Cie, Nantes.” “The Worker and His Children” and “The Fool Who Sells Wisdom.” $8 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’21.
These cards present “folksy” attempts to portray the fables. The sons of the dying worker are rather advanced in years! A surprise on the “Fool” postcard is the slight coloring of many elements: red flowers, blue garments, pink skirts and headdresses. Were the colors, as I suspect, part of the original publication? If so, why are there not colors on the other card? The application of the fable to the scene is not entirely clear to me. Is the card picturing religious veneration? Is that a matter of a fool selling wisdom? The question is especially pertinent because, in the view of the fable’s wisdom figure, the fool is justified in selling the wisdom of people’s being convicted of foolishness. He is justified because people foolish enough to buy it and can learn from buying it. The verso of both cards is simple and identical.
1910? Magazine excerpt featuring a line engraving of Heinrich Möller’s sculpture group of Aesop with two children. Unknown source.
Researching this piece has been fascinating. First of all the attribution here is highly misleading, since Heinrich Müller was a prominent Nazi, while Karl Heinrich Möller died in 1882 after producing this sculpture. Reproductions of this very engraving are available on the web. I feature one below the magazine excerpt.
1880? Three framed Renard engravings by Henrich Leutemann. $40 from magnolia.boudoir through Ebay, March, '24.
Two of these three steel engravings are easy to identify and enjoy: FK and "The Ass and the Lapdog." The seller identifies the scenes as coming from La Fontaine. The third image puzzled me. It is identified as "Reynard and Merknau/Reineke und Meiknau." I could not identify who Merknau is until some searching through German sites brought me to "Merkenau" the talkative crow. This illustration faces page 200 in an edition of Reineke composed by Julius Eduard Hartmann and published by Payne in Leipzig. In Canto VII, Merkenau describes to King Noble how he and his wife came upon the apparently dead Reineke. Merkenau's wife came close to his snout to see if there were some sign of life. Reineke snapped off her head!
1960? Heavy cotton fabric with several fable scenes among whisteria. 9 yards x 17" x 56" wide. $99.99 from Rennae Philllips, Issaquah, WA, through Ebay, March, '99.
Rennae is right: this is impressive fabric. The repeating scenes include FS, TH, "Two Cocks," and "The Lion, the Wolf, and the Fox." Click on the upper portion for an overview and on the lower portion for a detail of FS.
1930? One postcard featuring "Der Hase und der Igel." Karl Geitz. Kunstlerkarte. Betriebs-Nr. E 3756. Verlag: Karl Geitz, Bruchsal. €6 from Akpool, March '
The card features some gold, especially in the sun shining down on the two. The card is strong on contrast: the low class hedgehog in coveralls with bare top and big belly by contrast with the tall Prussian soldier in uniform. I have sometimes wondered whether this story is a fable at all, especially because of the phases it goes through. In the end, I am happy to accept it as a fable.
1998 Harmony Kingdom "Mutton Chops" WSC Box Figurine. Detachable top. Handmade in UK. Perhaps $30. Unknown source and date.
At first one may not notice the sheepskin tied onto the back of the wolf. Search on "Google Images" helped to identify this object.
1950? Handbill with nine panels illustrating "The Fox and the Goat." Extensive advertising on verso. Laboratoires Valda. Signed "Robichon." 7⅜" x 9⅜". $5 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
Valda seems to be offering liquid, paste, and tablets, especially for ailments of the throat. The texts accompanying the nine panels are literally La Fontaine's version, but without acknowledgement. I find such presumption surprising! I notice that La Fontaine's version is different from many in this respect: the two jump in together."En toute chose il faut considérer la fin." The illustrations are heavy on red, brown, orange, and green. The narrow left margin shows some sloppy handling by the printer.
1930? Handbill offering La Fontaine's "The Thieves and the Ass" in four panels. Gaze Unita. Printed by Delrieu in Paris. 5¼" x 7½". €10 from wickedthing through Ebay, Oct., '23.
This is a lively presentation of La Fontaine's I 13 by "Unita Gauze" with its advertising for medicinal uses. The artist signs the last panel with something like "RJ." The size of a handbill like this makes me wonder how it would have been used and distributed.
1910? Hand painted solid brass brooch of fox and grapes. $13.50 from "casajewelry" on Ebay, June, '00.
Soldered joint and catch pin assembly. "Stamped by tooling from the early 1900's," according to the Ebay seller's description. An "old gold" finish has apparently been applied to a 14kt gold plating.
1975? Hand-painted colored picture of WL. About 4" x 7". €28 from Daniel et Lilli, Marché Dauphine, Saint-Ouen, France, June, '19.
Here was one of two surprises in a blisteringly hot weekend foray to the Marché aux Puces! "Daniel et Lilli" is basically a button shop on the first floor of the Marché Dauphine. I did find buttons, but I found more brooches and drawings. The helpful attendant just kept bringing me more things! These lovely finds made up for an otherwise not-so-successful day. I enjoy the wolf and the lamb here, but I wonder what the wolf holds in his left paw. Again, what a lovely "save" from the fate of most ephemera for this one-of-a-kind object!
1975? Hand-painted colored picture of TH. About 3½" x 7⅛". €30 from Daniel et Lilli, Marché Dauphine, Saint-Ouen, France, June, '19.
Here was one of two surprises in a blisteringly hot weekend foray to the Marché aux Puces! "Daniel et Lilli" is basically a button shop on the first floor of the Marché Dauphine. I did find buttons, but I found more brooches and drawings. The helpful attendant just kept bringing me more things! These lovely finds made up for an otherwise not-so-successful day. The bunny sleeps blissfully against a tree while the tortoise passes by. What lovely work, and what a lovely "save" from the fate of most ephemera for this one-of-a-kind object!
1880? Hand-Held Fire Screen Showing FS. Embroidery 8.5" long; handle adds 7". Silk backing. Unknown source.
What beautiful ornate work! Is the fox laid onto an otherwise sewn work?
1880? Hand-Held Fire Screen Showing FC. Embroidery 8.5" long; handle adds 7". Silk backing. Unknown source.
What beautiful, ornate work! Are the fox and the stork laid onto an otherwise sewn work?
