2010? Brooch. "No act of kindness, no matter how small is ever wasted. Aesop." C. Windle? Composite of various materials, including metal inscription. Signed by C. Windle? Unknown source.
A beautiful composition. Is the saying perhaps taken from a version of LM? I wish I knew how this brooch came into the collection!
1990 Ninja TH. J.P. Rini. The New Yorker, May 7, ‘90. Xerox copy. Unknown source.
By contrast with a New Yorker cover a year later, this tortoise is a Ninja! And it takes the poor hare completely by surprise. Since he is a Ninja, he appears to be supremely confident. Sometimes there is a reason why fables turn out in the their own surprising fashion!
2015? Nine-Piece Picture Puzzle: Le pot de terre et le pot de fer. Fable de Jean de La Fontaine. Imprimerie La Dhuys. Fabrique en France. Unknown source.
The two pots in the foreground echo the scene in the background: the poor man pays while the rich man rides off without paying. A little research suggests that this printer did a series of La Fontaine puzzles in 2015, including at least TMCM. Will I be able to find more of them?
1900? Nine small scraps depicting fables. Source unknown.
These scraps have curious double indentations close to each corner. The illustrations are lively! I do not recall seeing these patterns elsewhere on cards or in books.
1980? Nine champagne muselet caps from Veuve Cheurlin, picturing each a fable of La Fontaine.
Now here is something new – and a new group of collectors, known in France as “placomusophiles.” A muselet is the wire cage that fits over the cork of a bottle of champagne, sparking wine, or beer. The quality of illustration here in a small curved surface is quite high!
1972 On November 23, 1972, the Republic of Niger issued a set of air mail stamps in honor of Jean de la Fontaine, including the three imperforate proof specimens pictured below. $5.95 from Roger Lemieux, Fort Worth, TX, through eBay, August, '05.
First, "Le Corbeau et le Renard," 25 F. Second, "Le Lion et le Rat," 50 F. Third, "Le Singe et le Léopard," 75 F. The stamps in each case seem to include three colors, black, brown, and green. A strong brown foreground seems to stand against a sketchier green background.
1972 Two imperforate stamp proofs for stamps to be issued by the Republic of Niger. Each is marked "Imprimerie des Timbres-Poste - France." 25F and 50F, respectively. In honor of Jean de La Fontaine. $10.75 from Collect+, The Hague, The Netherlands, through eBay, Oct., '02.
The surprise for me in these two proof-sheets lies in the little note in the bottom corner: "Imprimerie des Timbres-Poste - France." Does France print Niger's stamps? These two proofs are as good a printing of the stamps as I have seen. Both stamps seem to include three colors, black, brown, and green. A strong brown foreground seems to stand against a sketchier green background.
1972 On November 23, 1972, the Republic of Niger issued a set of air mail stamps in honor of Jean de la Fontaine, including the three specimens pictured below, each on a first day cover and each in a numbered series of 2000. $30 from Alexandre Przopiorski, August, '99.
The stamps in each case seem to include three colors, one of which is black and one brown. A strong brown foreground stands against a sketchier blue or green background. Are there more in the series?
1953 Eight photographic postcards of the "Carnaval de Nice," each recording a float presenting a fable of La Fontaine with mention of its producer. Les Éditions "MAR," Nice. $80 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
These lively photographs bring back happy memories of a few days on the French Riviera and one very short evening and night in Nice. In good carnival fashion, regular old human beings are on these floats along with the bigger-than-life figures central to each fable. FG tends to be a bit on the racy side. Notice that the photographs were taken generally in front of the "Casino Municipal." A close look at the "main float" will show that characters from many fables have made their way onto that float. The grasshopper and ant are closest to us. And I seem to see two doves perched on the king's hand. And there is a tortoise on the left front of the float.
1950? NIC Ancien Dessin Animé. La Cigale et la Fourmi. Paper Cartoon Movie.
Here is a fascinating surprise! I had no idea how this little offering worked. It came as a spindle containing a roll of paper inside a broken sheath in an old box with a hand-written title. A little work reveals that there is some beautiful artwork and good storytelling on this product itself. And the product is a fascinating, if timebound, product of ingenuity.
I found a website explaining the NIC system: https://www.jouetsanciens.fr/jouets-doptique-6/ The unusual thing about the paper film is that it has upper and lower images. Viewed quickly alternatively, the paired images create a quick repeated action, like walking or working. A rather large and complex projector had a crank for moving this paper movie through. I cannot tell how long the projector would linger on a given pair of alternating images. I scanned the paper in two halves and provide also an image of what a better box and sheath look like. Fascinating! And all of this for €2!
By the way, I found a list of NIC movies and checked to see if our GA is the only fable movie. It turns out that there is a paper movie of FC. Now to find it!
To help offer a sense of the lovely detail in this movie, I offer two detail sections: the ants playing pool and smoking in winter and the grasshopper dying.
