1890? Three extra-long colored magic lantern slides showing La Fontaine's fables. Two fables per slide. 10½" x 2½". $32.04 from nanicohen through Ebay, June, 21.
Again, the color work in these slides is strong, even after all this time. The two titles are in cursive in a text-box to the left, and the two fable scenes to the right play out almost as two aspects of one scene. Beautiful craftsmanship! And very fragile!
Monkey and Dolphin/Man with Wooden Idol
FM/Horse and Stag
Shepherd and Sea/Fly and Ant
1959 Extra copy of Reel 2 of View-Master Packet No. B 309: “Aesop’s Fables.” Portland, OR: Sawyer's Inc.
Stories on this reel include TMCM: four images. FC: one image. SW: two images. I am cataloguing this little piece seven years after we received it! Cataloguing it gives me a chance to show the interior packaging.
1987 Lois Carlson's scenes in baked clay of exploding frog. 3½" high. Gift of Lois Carlson.
This is the final scene in a series of about five or six scenes to depict OF. What an ingenious way to show an explosion!
2018 Thirteen laminated exhibit guides for the exhibit "I See That Fable Differently." Together with a duplicate set. 8½" x 11" descriptions of each of the artworks in the exhibit, grouped according to the thirteen fables represented. Gift of the Joslyn Museum, April, '18.
Two years after the exhibit I discovered these cards and found them a lovely souvenir of a lovely experience. In fact, they spurred me to put up two different ways for visitors to our website to experience the exhibit. One of those ways was to follow, fable by fable and artwork by artwork, with the appropriate portion of these guides visible under each of the artworks on the work's own page. The text was originally drafted by students. I did considerable editorial expansion and emendation before the texts went to the Joslyn. They were so professional about every aspect of this exhibit!
1980? Collection "Les Fables de la Fontaine." Five brightly colored blotters, all from "Serie D," advertising Biscottes Excel. 5 3/8" x 6 5/8". Imp. G. Elipret & E. & A. Dourdin, Lille. Pub. A. Dourdin, Lille. $5 each for four from Dany Wolfs, Roeselare, Belgium, Nov., '01. OF for $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '02. Extra copy of " Le Chat, la Belette et le petit Lapin" for $5 from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, May, '03.
Bright four-color (yellow, green, blue, and orange) work distinguishes these four blotters, each marked clearly "Buvard a Conserver" (blotter to keep). Beneath a large rectangle illustrating a fable from La Fontaine is a smaller rectangle advertising Excel biscuits from Lille, including the logo of a capped country-woman's head within a circle. OF is slightly thinner than the other cards and has smaller margins, especially on its sides. Within the illustration is the series and fable title, "Series D," and an individual number:
27: OF
37: FC
43: FG
44: WC
47: Le Chat, la Belette et le petit Lapin (two copies)
1940? "Le Renard et le Cogogne." Ets Artistiques Parisiens. €5 from Bartko-Reher, Berlin, Feb., '25.
The artist does an excellent job with the pose and expression of the departing fox. He has been bested! The card has a full message on its verso.
1768 A set of pages removed from Volume III of Etienne Fessard's edition of La Fontaine's fables. Pages represented are 1 (the beginning of Book V: Fable LXXXIII) – 14; 17 – 24; 31 – 32; 35 – 42; and 51 - 56. $49.99 from Biblio Emporium through Ebay, August, '20.
Here is a set of pages taken from Volume III of Fessard's monumental six-volume edition of La Fontaine's fables, according to Bodemann the first fully illustrated volume. The pages were sold as coming from 1768, but the name mentioned in its advertising was Charles Monnet and the description was "chapbook." I gather that the difference between Monnet and Fessard represents the age-old tension between artist and engraver. In any case, I was so delighted with these illustrations that I scanned them all and present them here in smaller and larger versions. Not every fable represented here has both its full title illustration and its endpiece.
1890? 6 colored cards 3¾" x 2½" on thinner than usual card stock. Five include the fable on the back compliments of Estey Piano Co. The sixth, a repeat of "The Fox and the Goat," includes the fable on the back and advertises Huntington Pianos. Most of these came at $2 each from Inland Empire at the Sacramento Paper Fair, Dec., '96.
DM, FC, "The Fox and the Goat," "The Fox and the Leopard" (two copies) and TH. FG is also stamped "Anderson & Thorson" while "The Fox and the Goat" is stamped "Hiram Cornish, Jr." of Newfield, NY. This series seems to coincide largely with my J. & P. Coats series; this set has slightly smaller cards. This series includes three cards that I do not yet have represented in that Coats set: DM, "The Fox and the Goat," and "The Fox and the Leopard." See also Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machines, which has a CP in exactly the dimensions of these cards; that CP design also matches the Coats design. Notice that a "W & W" symbol for Wheeler and Wilson has been painted out of the upper right hand corner of the TH card..
1905? Twelve numbered postcards in a series of twelve published by Lingvo Internacia. €5 for one from Akpool, Netherlands, August, '20. $144 for a full set of 12 from Bertrand Cocq, Oct., '20. €11 each for four from Bartko Reher, Berlin, April, '21. €5 for one card from Akpool, August, '20. Extra copies of #3, #6, #9, and #12 (two extras).
Here is an unusual set of cards! I was unaware that there would be something like postcards done in Esperanto. The collection already had a pamphlet and a short book in Esperanto, but I was surprised to find a postcard in 2020. I wrote then "I notice of course that this card seems to be in a series 'L'Esperanto par la Fable.' Oh, to find the whole set!" Then Bertrand found a full set! Thank you, Bertrand! Here is another unusual group of artifacts that this collection saves from the fireplace! The illustrations come from Oudry. Cards 1 through 3 present FC, 4 through 6 WL, 7 through 9 OR, and 10 through 12 MSA.
1903? English-language satiric presentation of FC. Postmarked in Southhampton in 1904. Series 41. Printed in Bavaria. Ernest Nister, London. £1.75 from Mole Postcards, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, through Ebay, Jan., '01.
The fable starts in traditional fashion. The crow replies to the fox's flattering request by saying that she has a cold and never sings without her music. She also mentions that she has read Aesop, and she places the cheese in a safe place in the tree. The fox on leaving remarks that Welsh rabbits never agreed with him. There are four morals drawn, including "that Invitation is not Always the Sincerest Flattery" and "that the Aim of Art is to Conceal Disappointment." Nister's colored presentation of the crow is very good.
1903? English-language satiric and humorous presentations of fables. Series 41. Printed in Bavaria. Ernest Nister, London.
FC. Postmarked in Southhampton in 1904. £1.75 from Mole Postcards, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, through Ebay, Jan., '01.The fable starts in traditional fashion. The crow replies to the fox's flattering request by saying that she has a cold and never sings without her music. She also mentions that she has read Aesop, and she places the cheese in a safe place in the tree. The fox on leaving remarks that Welsh rabbits never agreed with him. There are four morals drawn, including "that Invitation is not Always the Sincerest Flattery" and "that the Aim of Art is to Conceal Disappointment." Nister's colored presentation of the crow is very good. One extra copy postmarked 1906 in Sydney.
"The Kind-Hearted She-Elephant." Postmarked 1906 in Sydney. An elephant carelessly steps on a mother partridge and feels so bad about orphaning her young that she sits on them too. Nister's color portrayal is again very good.
"The Prudent Tiger." Postmarked 1906 in Sydney. A wise tiger refrains from devouring a funeral procession. He lets the deceased become a martyr and has a regular supply of pilgrims for breakfast for the rest of his days. Moral: "Beware of Breaking the Egg that Hatches the Golden Goose."
1940? Six card set of Erdal Kwak landscape cards illustrating scenes from Reineke Fuchs. "Serie 55. Deutsche Märchen: Reineke Fuchs." $5.99 from sarmagetia through Ebay, Oct.' 22 Extra set of all but the first card from an unknown source, July, '19.
Each card's verso contains a paragraph of the story in prose. In this version, He starts by eating chickens. Next we see Isengrim the wolf profiting from Renard's dropping fish from the angler's cart. The third scene is Renard's trick against Braun the bear, sent to bring him to court. In the fourth scene, Braun and Isengrim are ready to execute Renard but he talks his way out of it by recounting treasure. King Lion forgives him. The rabbit Lampe was to accompany Renard as he starts on his pilgrimage to Rome, but Renard ruthlessly kills him in his home Malepart. In the last scene, Renard conquers Isengrim before the whole court.
1950? Three cards advertising ERA Margarine aux Fruits d'Orient. GA, MM, "Cobbler and Financier." "Breveté S.G.D.G." Printed by H. Bouquet in Paris. €5 each from kam-oulox on Ebay, Nov., '23.
Each card has clear lines on its verso for cutting the scene out from the surrounding card. There is also a line to score so that the scene stands up from its base. "Breveté S.G.D.G." has to do with the patent of this product. Each scene includes either a container of ERA margarine or an advertisement for it. Good color printing!
This episode of Glories of Stories focuses on Great Categories in Collecting: Rare and Reasonable, Surprising, Parodies, and Recent and Creative. Fr. Greg discusses works featuring a host of people, places, and things, including the Silver Spring Book Fair, Pierre Barboutau, Bartleby's Books, Gustave Dore, Libros Fugitivos, Samuel Croxhall, Menier Chocolates, Benjamin Rabier, muselets, Hugo Gellert, James Thurber, Dominique Pelletier, Nicolas Millet, Barbara McClintock, and Robert Coover. It is a smorgasbord of rare treats served up by the master fable gourmet himself, Monsieur Fable!
1982 Print of four Pellerin of Epinal Devinettes (Brain Teasers, or Hidden Object Puzzles). Gift of UneMadeleineDeProust through Etsy, Oct., '22.
I had encountered one of these before; it is on this page: https://www.creighton.edu/aesop/artifacts/cards/hiddenpicturecards/. Other such brain teasers are in this collection at https://www.creighton.edu/aesop/artifacts/desktop/blotters/claveriepuzzleblotters/ and https://www.creighton.edu/aesop/artifacts/otherprintedmaterials/hiddenpicturesalbums/. Click on the illustration to see a larger version. You can again click on that larger version to see solutions and click again there on the identified portion for upright views of the hidden objects.
1980? Six plates of La Fontaine's fables using images of Épinal de Pellerin. $36 from Mrs. Jack B. Frymire of Elkhorn, WI, through eBay, Sept., '05. These plates measure just over 8" in diameter.The Épinal coloring is typically brilliant! The six plates include "Le Héron," "Le Petit Poisson et le Pecheur," OF, TH, LM, and FC.What a lucky find! Click on any plate to see a larger version.
1992 Engraved copper brooch of a dancing camel after Lisbeth Zwerger by Brigit Viksnins. 1¾" x 2¾". On verso: "Seeking popularity is the fastest way to lose friends."
Brigit told me after class one day that she did not understand one text we had read that day: "The Dancing Camel." The next class I brought along for her Zwerger's wonderful illustration of the gangly-looking camel so contented with himself as he dances. She not only "got" the fable; she went to work producing this lasting memory of it. I recognized Zwerger's illustration in Brigit's brooch immediately.
