1900? Glass magic lantern colored slide of Gustave Doré's TMCM. 7" x 3 7/8". Labeled on the lower rim "Class 29. Series 11. Fables of La Fontaine. No. 2. The City Rat and the Country Rat. B. 1 F. 9."
The coloring of the image here is surprisingly strong. The image is about 3" in diameter.
2010? Glass block with 3-D engraving of FG. 3" x 2" square. $14.99 from ellenmagpie through Ebay, Dec., '24. One extra copy.
My, what one can find if one only looks! And now, years after finding this little treasure, I had no recollection where I found it, but I finally found one on Ebay. Beautifully executed!
1982? "Mr. Fables Family Restaurants" gift certificates. Grand Rapids, MI. $16 from anythingeverythingandmo through Ebay, Oct., '22.
There are five packets here. Two each contain three $W1 gift certificates. Three contain ten $1 gift certificates. The back of each booklet lists the eleven locations of Mr. Fables Family Restaurants. See also our Mr Fables travel mug.
1920? 8½" cream-colored plate with a blue-green colored design depicting WL. The plate reads "Fables de LaFontaine" and "Le Loup et l'Agneau." The smudged back stamp reads "Porcelaine opaque de Gien." $25 through an unknown source prior to 2007.
The block lettering is typical of Gien work. The wolf is looking up and even seeming to look beyond the offending lamb. It is hard to know whether this is a normal plate that a clever person has made into a wall decoration -- or whether Gien did the piercing of the glass back of the plate. As I say of the larger colored plate of TT done by Gien, it was apparently made from the start to adorn a wall rather than a table.
1920? 7 7/8" cream-colored plate with colored design and raised edges depicting the fall of TT. The plate reads "Fables de LaFontaine 12" and "La Tortue et les Deux Canards." The back reads "Porcelaine opaque de Gien." $25 through Myrtice Stratton and Ebay, April, '99.
A charming plate. It depicts the fall just after the tortoise has let go of the stick. The countryside is beautifully pictured, though the seller found it somewhat discolored with age. There is a string through two holes in the bottom rim of the plate. Apparently it was made from the start to adorn a wall rather than a table. Click on the image to see an enlarged version.
2000? Gien Fables Mug Fox And Stork. Faience. Fait main. Made in France. $35 from jdwyl0 through Ebay, Oct., '21.
Here is yet another approach to fable illustration by Gien.
2000? Gien Fables Salad Plate. Fox and Crow. Faience. Fait main. Made in France. F. Balducci. 8.5". $40 from kara_kat through Ebay, March, '25.
Again, I am impressed with the distinctive style and coloring. Here the anthropomorphized fox waits with open hand while the crow sings on. The fox wears sporty trousers.
2000? Gien Fables Dessert or Salad Plate. Fox and Stork. Faience. Fait main. Made in France. Unknown source.
What a distinctive style! Here the fox is particularly well done, especially in his pose and facial expression. I have seen four such plates illustrating fables on the web, as well as other tableware items in the Gien Fable series. I would love to include more of them in the collection!
1920? Eight cream-colored plates with colored designs. Each plate reads "Fables de LaFontaine" at its top, with the individual fable title at the bottom. Each back reads "Porcelaine opaque de Gien." €200 from entrepot*d on Ebay, Jan., '21.
I was sure that we had some of the plates in this series; it turns out that we have plates from at least four other series, but not from this series. We have a similar but smaller plate for hanging depicting TT. I picked up from the kind seller that the plates have numbers, though I could not find them at first on the plates themselves. We have, from what seems to be a set of 12:
#3: "Crow and Eagle"
#4: BF
#5: "Fox and Goat in a Well"
#7: FC
#8: FK
#9: OF
#10: "Rabbits and Frogs"
#11: WL
Ebay.fr has revealed to me that #6 is CJ. From our other holdings, it seems that TT is #12. The other two (#1 and #2) seem to be FS and BC.
1920? Eight cream-colored plate with colored designs. Each plate reads "Fables de LaFontaine" at its top, with the individual fable title at the bottom. Each back reads "Porcelaine opaque de Gien." €200 from entrepot*d on Ebay, Jan., '21.
I was sure that we had some of the plates in this series; it turns out that we have plates from at least four other series, but not from this series. We have a similar but smaller plate for hanging depicting TT. I picked up from the kind seller that the plates have numbers, though I could not find them on the plates themselves. We have, from what seems to be a set of 12:
#3: "Crow and Eagle"
#4: BF
#5: "Fox and Goat in a Well"
#7: FC
#8: FK
#9: OF
#10: "Rabbits and Frogs"
#11: WL
Ebay.fr has revealed to me that #6 is CJ. From our other holdings, it seems that TT is #12. The other two seem to be FS and BC.
1990? Boxed set of six dessert plates "Fables de la Fontaine." On the back of each plate is "Musée de la Faiencerie de Gien." Gien: France. $90 for the set from Eric Zimmermann, Quebec, Canada, Nov., '00. One extra exemplar of "Le Renard et la Cicogne" for $9.99 from the same source through Ebay, Nov., '00.
This lovely set combines busy central images with a uniform "leaf, grape, and vine" decoration around each plate's border. They choose well when they put FC on the cover of the box. My second prize goes to "The Crow Trying to Imitate an Eagle." In both of these, the open spaces make reading the plate's central image easier and more enjoyable.
1929 "Les Fables de Gibbs." Signed "Erel." 11¾ x 15¾". GA (Feb. 9), WL (Feb. 25), and MM (May 4).
Clever parodies of La Fontaine. "Le Chat et l'Oiseau" is a parody of WL: whatever explanations the little bird makes, the cat will eat the bird. GA is composed in particularly idiomatic slang verse, but I think it comes to something like this: a rogue having knocked about all summer comes to an old haunt and asks for a few rounds, offering only a brush in payment. The innkeeper asks what he did all summer and then responds that he can brush now. A barber snoozes and dreams that he has established a high-class shop in Paris and makes lots of money. He is awakened to give a local a shave. As La Fontaine wrote, we all construct castles in Spain. The mountain brings forth a little tube that later becomes famous worldwide.
2010 Get Fuzzy. Darby Conley. UFS. Unknown venue. Unknown source.
I apologize to viewers and readers. “Fable” gets used so broadly that I often do not know whether I should include materials that I think do not pertain to this collection. Sometimes I decide to err on the side of caution before I hand the object on elsewhere. The malaprop here is, I believe, a real groaner, far fetched and not worth the fetching.
1900? A metal coin slightly over 1" in diameter showing the fox and the crow on one side and German verse on the other.
The verse reads "Wann Dein Spiel der Gegner preiset,/ Dann gieb doppelt auf Dich Acht,/ Und erinn're Dich des Raben,/ Den zuletzt der Fuchs verlacht." That is, "When your opponent praises your play, pay doubly close attention to yourself and remember the crow, on whom the fox had the last laugh." I am tempted--but afraid--to clean and polish up this old coin. Who knows what circumstances ever gave rise to the distributing of a coin like this!
1920? Coordinated set of nine tin tableware implements. German? $80 from Claudia and Waltraud Pressler, Ellhofen, Germany, Sept., '01.
There is even a strainer to hang on the wall rack. The set, with a grey background, features three motifs in red-and-black coloring:
TH: The hare reads the paper while the tortoise trudges by.
FC: The crow in a tree holds a large cheese suspended above the fox's mouth.
FS: The fox raises a paw to a tall bottle in which the stork has his beak.
1928 23 "Fables in Slang" comic strips by George Ade. Many signed "Art Helfant." Unknown source.
I have enjoyed books of George Ade's fables. Those were text narratives. These cartoons are fun. They involve gentle social critique. Online commentators note that they present vernacular rather than slang. Ade was an accomplished playwright. Apparently these cartoon strip fables were syndicated nationally. I include them as a strong example of a popular use of the word "fable." Besides, they have their own charm!
1988? Aesop's Fables. Eight cards of black-and-white illustrations reproduced by the Gennadius Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Gift of Kathryn Thomas, Spring, '88.
The eight include "Zeus and the Snake" (Venice, 1644), FC (Venice, 1644), FG (London, 1828), "The Woodcutter and Hermes" (Lille, 1809), SW (London, 1828), TH (London, 1828), DLS (Venice, 1819), and "The Stag and the Lion" (London, 1828). With illustrations ranging over almost 200 years and four editions, this little collection gives a nice suggestion of the illustrated fable books you might find in a good classics library.
2018 "Frog and Scorpion." Silhouette art print by GeekyGamerGirls on Etsy. 17" x 11". $21 from GeekyGamerGirls on Etsy, August, '18.
"A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: "I am sorry, but I couldn't resist the urge. It's in my nature." Wikipedia, which offers this version, says that the fable is not known in this version until the 20th century.
1993 Three cards in a series of Jean de la Fontaine's fables. "Les Deux Mulets," FS, and "Le Singe et le Dauphin." Conseil Général de l'Aisne: Bibliothèque Départementale de Prêt: Association des Amis de la Bibliothèque Départementale de Prêt. All three are marked "Gedge 93." €3 apiece from Gérard Crucy at the Paris Post Card Exhibit, Jan., '05.
These illustrations--lively, colorful, and contemporary--are taken from the Exposition "Quand la Fontaine rime avec le rock." "Les Deux Mulets" is postmarked in 1996, while the other two are postmarked two years later. The former card shows one mule driving a tractor in front of another mule dapperly clad as a chauffeur in a large vehicle. FS has a sporty stork sitting across from a primitive fox with sunglasses on his forehead. The fish-laden beakers are transparent. The monkey in "Le Singe et le Dauphin" looks like a jockey, and the dolphin looks as though he is having a great time! I would love to see more of Gedge's work in this style. The only reference I could find on the web speaks of the exhibit this way: "Les saveurs de La Fontaine remises au goût du jour, mijotées sur les fourneaux de l' illustrateur Gedge et assaisonnées avec quelques épices de Rock and Roll."
1880? Two fables of Florian. Broadside. "L'Enfant et le Miroir" and "L'Avare et son Fils." 15” x 12.5.” Metz: Gangel. €20 from chcestampnet through Ebay, Jan., '22.
Lively reds and blues render these two fables. The second is among Florian's wittiest: the miser father deserves his smarter talkback son! What will this son become when he becomes the miser?! Because people tend not to know the plots, I will summarize them briefly here. In "The Child and the Looking-Glass," a child first smiles and then grimaces at a mirror, and gets angered by the grimaces he sees. His mother catches him in his rage. "If you smile, it will smile back. Whatever you do, the image will do the same to you." In the second fable, a miser buys apples and locks them away but likes to look at them. Alas, some rot, and those he eats. His famished son gets the key and eats a lot of them with two little friends. "Give them back!" his father demands when he finds them out. Son: "Don't worry, Dad. We're all decent fellows. We leave the bad apples for you to eat; we ate only the healthy ones."
1977 “Gamzat Tsadas: Fables (Russian).” Complete set of seventeen colored cards featuring the fables of Gamzat Tsadas. Artist: C. Asheroorov Ekhepov. 4¼” x 8¾”. $20.17 from RareSoviet on Etsy, Dec., ’20.
“The first national poet of Dagestan.” Islam, the Revolution, creativity. Wrote poems, fairy tales, and fables for children. I can recognize perhaps five of the fables pictured here. I put them first here. The card size is unusual, with title, colored image, and a few lines on the front and a full text in Russian on the verso. Soon enough, we may be able to use OCR technology to make more sense of the texts. Till then, I have to be happy to enjoy the pictures and wonder about the story!
To my surprise, I have found two sets of "guessing game" cards, one multicolored French cards and the other duochrome Dutch cards. The missing figure may not always to be easy to find in these cards! Click on either the picture here or the link below to go to either set.
