1990 One Olympians FDC Envelope with original Tortoise and Hare art by GreenLee. Postmarked Minneapolis, MN, July 6, 1990. $8.50 from Linda Roberts, Jordanville, NY, through eBay, May, '03.
The five different $.25 stamps present American Olympics winners: Hazel Wightman, Eddie Eagan, Helene Madison, Jesse Owens, and Ray Ewry. The envelope itself has a hare in gray and reddish-brown and a tortoise in two shades of green. The logo is "I accept the challenge." On the back is marked "8/35 Paw Prints #5." May there be other Olympic themes from GreenLee that use fables?
1910? One multi-colored card featuring two women as the dismissing ant and the dismissed grasshopper. Café Joseph Pineau, Chartres.
Lively presentation of the two women. In this case, the ant personage is as attractive and young as the grasshopper figure. Snow is visible around the two characters. "Specialitè de cafès."
1910? One multi-colored card featuring a cow and a bull in a swamp with a farmer watching them. 3⅜" x 5⅛".
This card was billed as a fable on eBay, and it may be that, but I do not yet recognize which fable. It cannot be "The Frogs and the Bulls," since there is only one bull here, and he is not fighting. I will keep it in the collection in the hope that something will turn up to clarify whether this card represents a fable.
1972 One Maximum-Card (Monaco #818) depicting the head of La Fontaine and a large tortoise. Postmarked Monaco, Jan. 18, 1972. Éditions CEF, Nice. A stamp is pasted onto the lower right corner of the picture, and the "Jour d'Emission" stamp is positioned to cover part of both the stamp and the picture. $3.50 from Ausdenmoore-McFarlane, Midland, MI.
Monaco is a new source for a fable stamp. The stamp itself is green and black and includes FC, FS, TH, and perhaps "The Lion and the Ass." The verso of the card proclaims "La Fontaine: 350ème Anniversaire de sa naissance.
One green plate, with the same dimensions and designs as the pink and blue. Its back reads, as does the pink plate's, "The Spode Archive Collection." $9.99 from KeyStrokes, Lebanon, CT, through Ebay, August, '00.
1890? One FS button, ½" in diameter, showing the stork from FS with a long tall vase. $10 from an unknown source at an unknown time.
One of the smallest buttons in our collection. Might there have been a matching mini-button of the fox and a shall dish? I had to scan this little gem, print it, and rotate it for a while before I could make out the tiny figures.
1890? One FS button, ½" in diameter, showing the stork from FS with a long tall vase. $10 from an unknown source at an unknown time.
One of the smallest buttons in our collection. Might there have been a matching mini-button of the fox and a shall dish? I had to scan this little gem, print it, and rotate it for a while before I could make out the tiny figures.
1995 One FDC from Albania featuring "Zhan de la Fonten." Postmarked August 20, 1995. The three full-color stamps used for posting the letter display each a variety of fable characters. Even the postmark is peculiar to La Fontaine. $20.50 John Rydzewski at JR Stamps through Ebay, Feb., '02.
Now here is a surprise! I would not have thought of Albania as a country that would celebrate Jean de la Fontaine. The spiffy design on the envelope, rendered in brown, blue, and violet, slenderizes and stylizes La Fontaine as he almost dances up to a book with pen in hand. The first of the stamps, worth 2 leke, includes TT, BC, WC, and LM. The second stamp, worth 3 leke, features FG, FC, FS, and DS. On the third, worth 25 leke, I think I can make out AD, OR, and perhaps OF. The characters seem to be rendered in pastels of some sort.
