1950? Pendant 1½" in diameter illustrating WL by Jean de La Fontaine. Artist: Jean Vernon.
This heavy pendant is identical with and perhaps created from WL in the set of 1½" medallions by Vernon. There is nothing on the verso. The pendant, like the medallion, gives not only the title but the moral of this fable. Who wears a pendant showing a scene like this?
2000? Pen-and-ink drawing of “The Man with Two Mistresses.” Student work. Unknown date and artist.
I regret not being able to read the artist’s signature on this lovely work. Wonderful shadow technique! Effective caricature! Bravo!
1900? 4 Dust jackets ("Couverture Cahier") "Fables de La Fontaine" featuring colored work presentations of individual fables and texts on the back covers. Perhaps all from Pellerin of Épinal? €6 each from Chromosetcollections on Ebay, Nov., '20.
I have been unconvinced and then convinced – mostly – that these four dust-jackets were published by Épinal of Pellerin. They are so much in the style of that firm that I simply presumed that they were the publishers. Unfortunately, there is no marking on them to indicate the publisher except the symbol on the front of all four jackets: a coat of arms "P S" and "Propriété des Editeurs." The least likely to come from Pellerin, it seems to me, is "Le Lion et le Chasseur."
1890? Twenty-two printed sheets, 12½" x 16¼", each featuring either an individual fable of La Fontaine or a set of four fables. Each is numbered in an apparent set of 25. Now I have found the whole set of 25 gathered in a book, Fables de la Fontaine, for which I have guessed a date of the same year. Matted on white cardboard. Missing are #3, #7, and #20. There is one extra copy of #14. Each is marked "Série Supérieure aux Armes d'Épinal, Pellerin & Cie, imp. -édit." and "Fables de LA FONTAINE (Hors Groupes)." I bought 21 of them as a group from a Buchinist along the Seine, August, '99; individually they were priced between 70 and 120 Francs each, but we settled on a group price of 1150 Francs for the twenty-one. I found two others at another Buchinist stall just a few minutes later and paid 75 Francs each for them. Click on any image to see it enlarged.
I had long thought that Pellerin, whose beautiful printing work I had seen elsewhere, must have done a set of fables. What a great surprise to find them! On almost all, the color work is still lively; on several it is brilliant, especially MSA (#8), "Le Coche et la Mouche" (#9), "L'Oeil du Maitre" (# 10), and "La Besace" (#22). Each page includes a title at the top. Somewhere on the page, the text of the fable appears. The first, WL, is bleached, perhaps from standing out at the front of the group too long under the Paris sun!
1870? Now, in 2022, I am gathering together our 25 broadsides, including three duplicates, from L'Imagerie d'Épinal. These were found in groups at various times. There seem to be two sets of publications. I list a more recent set, differently numbered, under "Pellerin 1890," though I am as unsure of that date as I am of this earlier set's date. A set of 12 from Ramses for €20 each through Ebay in Sept., '20 and another set in Nov., '21. A set for €16 each from Istrilene through Ebay in Oct., '21. A set of seven on heavier stock from an unknown source.
Some of these broadsides look more like pages torn from a book, and one can find those Pellerin books scattered through the collection. Several are duplicates bought in different groups. As with the illustrations in earlier Pellerin book publications around 1910, each broadside here is numbered either between 400 and 455 or between 3007 and 3088.
1880? Brown Westhead Moore and Co transferware pedestal dish illustrating “The Two Doves.” 13” in diameter, 7” high. Unknown source.
Beautiful work well preserved. The handling of the image is consistent with the other excellent things we have from BWM. Cream color with blue transferware. One handle has been repaired. Grape vines surround the central scene. One dove feels the need to travel while the other waits at home. Travel goes very poorly, and the traveling dove is delighted to make it home wounded and battered. The scene is sometimes portrayed as a romantic scene of human lovers reunited.
1907 "The Tortoise and the Hare." Print of a drawing originally created by Henry Jarvis Peck. 7” x 9.5”. $2.74 from Steven Morawiec, August, '03.
The illustration features an old man apparently tugging a boat of younger men through the ocean. The title of the image implies a moral behind the story depicted in the drawing. The slower fishing boat of the old man has to tow in the speedy sailing boat with its broken mast and several riders. Slow and steady wins again!
1926?/98? Aesop's Fables (Volume 3). Eight Paul Terry Aesop's Films. Commonwealth Pictures. 2274. $18.50 from Nostalgia Family Video, Baker City, OR, through Ebay, June, '00.
This tape lists only its name and number on the label. At least there is no mistake!
