2000? “Merry Christmas from Mickey Mouse: Advent Calendar Pin Series, Days 17 through 20.” Limited edition of 1500. Max Hare, Toby Tortoise, Orphan, and Horace Horsecollar. Overland Park, KS: Disney Direct.
I cannot believe that I am cataloguing these pins over seventeen years after getting them! The two fable pins are particularly well done. Heavy jewelry! Did Disney actually market sets of pins for every four days in December?
Once again the advertisement honors the fable's lesson well. Each of the three men sees the city in his own terms. Such a confined view will always be dangerous in life!
Danger comes from the direction you least expect it. Now Walter is in Department S-32. In another ad, he was in S-44. I hope all those inquiries found him!
The advertisement understands the fable well as about quality versus quantity. These ads generally direct an inquisitive potential client to the same person, Walter Scholl. Did Walter get a lot of mail?
Here there are three parts to the illustration. The story is told as I like to tell it, about daydreaming and a dress. "Keep your mind on your business and don't go day dreaming about profits -- especially paper ones…. What's the best source for that kind of information and guidance? Your broker, of course."
The point drawn is that of the traditional fable. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as the nightingale tells the farmer -- after the farmer has released him to reveal a priceless truth.
Since one man's meat is another man's poison, each of us should consult Merrill Lynch about how to invest our money. Here the artist signs his work. Is that Van Schreiber?
The point drawn is not far from that of the fable this time. People walk away from investing because they cannot raise the necessary money, as the fox walked away from the grapes he could not reach. Merrill Lynch has a program that allows you to save up a little bit at a time. Do not go away! Start saving now! 50 cents a day will do it! There may be a helpful cultural tip in this advertisement. It starts “Nearly everybody knows this one….” Could we say that now 65 years later?
The point drawn is not far from that of the fable this time. People walk away from investing because they cannot raise the necessary money, as the fox walked away from the grapes he could not reach. Merrill Lynch has a program that allows you to save up a little bit at a time. Do not go away! Start saving now! 50 cents a day will do it! There may be a helpful cultural tip in this advertisement. It starts “Nearly everybody knows this one….” Could we say that now 65 years later?
1941? Mercury advertisement “Here’s The Simple, Sensible Idea That Makes MERCURY Different! Get Yourself A Flying License!” 8.35” x 11.5”. Unknown source.
There is a simple illustration of the tortoise and hare in the upper left. “Fleet-footed, nimble and alert, the hare can beat the turtle every time – no matter what the fable says!” The advertisement, found several times elsewhere on the web, seems to spread to the very end of the page left and right. Google recognized this ad immediately and correctly deciphered it as comparing the car to a fast airplane.
1927 Merchant Box and Cooperage Company of Gloucester, MA. Brown and Bigelow calendar for October, 1927 with illustration by Milo Winter. $16.99 from The Jumping Frog through Ebay, Jan., '25.
The formatting and approach of this blotter is remarkably similar -- and by the same artist -- as our various calendars designed by Winter and printed by Brown and Bigelow. The design has a boat operator emptying water out of his boat. After the highlighted maxim, the calendar asks "Are your sales of bottled goods sinking?" I have trouble identifying a known image or story.
2000? "La Fete du Citron de Menton: Les Fables de La Fontaine." Landscape colored postcard for €2 from Cpaphil, Saint-Fargeau, France, through eBay, August, '13.
Lemons and oranges go to make up this splendid float of the Hermit Rat" who rejects the pleas for help of his fellow rats. He is holed up and happy in a Dutch cheese!
Album cards for "Les Fables de La Fontaine: Collection des Vignettes du Chocolat-Menier." 13 missing cards from Album 2 for $2 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
Bertrand noticed that I was short just thirteen of the cards to complete one of my albums, and so he went out and found those thirteen! One recognizes the familiar stories of "Stag and Vine"; DLS; "Beetle and Eagle"; TB; and "Wagon Driver and Hercules."
1950? Les Fables de La Fontaine: Collection des Vignettes du Chocolat-Menier. Vignettes Nos 1 a 90. Album including 90 numbered cards pasted in around La Fontaine's text. Puteaux: L'Isle de France. 240 francs on the Quai de la Seine, May, '97. Extra copy with taped binding and considerable interior staining and foxing for 100 francs elsewhere on the Quai at the same time. A third copy with about half of the cards pasted in for €9.99 from Bertrand Beauvais through eBay, August, '04.
Both of these albums are complete. Each fable has six colored cartoon-cards, except for the centerpiece, "Les Animaux Malades de la Peste," which has twelve cards. The animals are dressed and playful. The exploding frog makes a "pouf" sound (#29). The fish rejected by the picky heron wear women's hats (#68)! The inside of the back cover gives a history of chocolate. Of course, in this history Jean-Antoine Brutus Menier stands out. The good copy belonged to a Georgette Lerche when she was in the sixth class. The first extra copy spent some time in someone's wet basement! 1950?
Menier Chocolate Card Advertisements
1950? Here is a curious set of three cards, with one duplicate. They are brown-and-white advertisements for the colored cards that are suitable for pasting into one's album. They show "The Cat, the Weasel, and the Rabbit," "The Cobbler and the Banker," and – with a duplicate – DW. The text for each includes "This image is the reproduction of one of the colored images of the new collection 'Les Fables de La Fontaine.' There is even an address for "Service Vignettes" in Paris.
I have found not only two Menier Chocolate albums and loose cards to be pasted into the albums. I have also found monochrome advertisements for the cards.
