Anonymous Eleven-Card Photographic Series La Cigale et la Fourmi · Carlson Fable Collection

Title: Anonymous Eleven-Card Photographic Series La Cigale et la Fourmi
Description: 1900? Ten (of 12) photographic postcard presentations of "La Cigale et la Fourmi." $120 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.

Various series of photographic postcard presentations of GA have flirted with the presentation of the grasshopper as a human pinup girl. This series may go furthest in the direction of conflating a set of fable cards with notorious French picture postcards of nude women. This series, rare and larger than the usual series of five or six cards, has an unusual feature of using a one-noun description of each of the phases of the story. Wanting to give a sense of the cards we have without giving scandal, I have slightly censored some of the cards. A trademark in the lower left corner of each photograph offers a clue – but a hard one to decipher – about the publisher of the cards. I show images of the two missing cards to help visitors to see the complete series, including the dire ending.
Date: 1900?
Source: $120 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
Subject: Cards See all items with this value; Postcards See all items with this value; Postcard Series See all items with this value; The Grasshopper and the Ant See all items with this value