GA by PL and RPI · Carlson Fable Collection

Title: GA by PL and RPI
Description: 1905? Ten card photographic postcard series of GA, using the whole text of La Fontaine's fable. Numbered I-X. "P.L" and "R.P.I." on each card. $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, Sept., '20.

This set is unusual for including ten cards rather than the usual six. It has every scene working from the same stage, and that arrangement may violate the fable for the cicada's summer singing, which here needs to be before the ant's window. Where did the ant get that fancy headdress? The ninth card looks as though the ant may be inviting the cicada into her protection in her cape. For me, the final scene is pictorially not clear. I believe that we are seeing the back of the ant as she walks away, rejecting the cicada and leaving her to the onslaughts of winter. The versos of all ten cards are blank. As so often, in French presentations of this fable, we see the cicada as a lovely young barefoot woman with a guitar.
Date: 1905?
Source: $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, Sept., '20.
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