1998? Jean de La Fontaine: 6 Fables de toujours. 20 cubes en bois. Fabriqué en France. St. Germain-en-Montagne, France. Jeujura. 155 Francs at Le Bon Marché, Paris, August, '99.
Six cartoon pictures in 5x4 form in a sturdy wooden box. The packing advertises "100% Fabrication en France" against a red, white, and blue background. A "livret" gives all six pictures. The pictures on each cube are in a sequence; rotate all one turn and revolve all one turn, and you have a complete image. Twenty is a high number of blocks for a puzzle of this sort. Sudden arrangements for a quick trip home for a funeral gave me an extra afternoon in Paris. What a nice surprise to find this set as I bummed around!
1950? Jean de La Fontaine présente...Maitre Corbeau. Paris: Edition de L'Office Central de l'Imagerie. $10 from Nicholas Gulotta, Sharon, WI, through eBay, June, '14.
Here is an ingenious piece of ephemera. One opens a brochure somewhat smaller than 10" x 4". As one opens, scenes open and succeed each other, each with a portion of La Fontaine's "Fox and Crow" on a facing text page. There are two double panels, five single panels, and a final double panel. The first double panel opens a curtain on a crow with a piece of cheese perched in a tree. The second double panel first shows a fox approaching and then, as one opens further, shows him beneath the crow. The first single panel has the crow holding the cheese high. In the next, the cheese is out of the crow's beak, and the tongue is out of the fox's mouth! The next panel shows tears -- or saliva? -- falling from the crow. One more panel shows the fox holding the cheese below an expressionless crow. In the final single panel, the fox is exiting, and the crow seems to be reading a bible on his branch. The last double panel provides a curtain call for the two characters. The fun lies in folding open one panel at a time and finding the appropriate verses and scene. Lovely use of red, brown, black, and green. I am not sure whether to list this lovely piece as a book or a brochure, so I will do both!
1992 Jean Claval "L'Aventure Carto: Les Fables de La Fontaine." One title-card and 37 of 40 portrait postcards offering humorous interpretations of La Fontaine's fables. #AC 92001 through AC 920041. $120 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
This is one of the liveliest sets of illustrations of La Fontaine's fables that I have encountered. Card after card has surprises! The ass who has crossed the river with salt holds onto a bush with a fingered hand in #2. In #9, the angler is wondering about the small fish he has caught just as a huge Jaws-like shark is ready to break the surface just below him! In "Acorn and Pumpkin" (#15), La Fontaine is walking away from and looking back at the bumpkin about to get hit on the nose by a dropping acorn. In OR (#25), for some reason, Marilyn Monroe is letting the breeze attacking the oak and reed blow up her skirt! In FC (#30), the cheese box is a particular brand, "Caprice des Dieux." On the wall of the bedroom of the dying laborer telling his sons that there is a treasure in the family field, there is a calendar from "The Friends of Mona Lisa" for the year 1695. For me, the first of the two most enjoyable scenes is "Fox and Goat" (#16), with a wild array of objects covered underground from previous eras. The other is "Cobbler and Banker" (#32): so much is going on in the village, including perhaps the artist hawking his cards! TB (#23) may be a specific contemporary political satire; the faces of the two human figures are so specifically portrayed. In GGE (#27), is someone about to kill the rich old hen? Enjoy these cards, especially in their enlarged form, occasioned by clicking on a specific card.
1972? Jaymar Tortoise and Hare Puzzle. Ages 4-6. 12 pieces. Copyright Drawing Board Greeting Cards. Jaymar Specialty Company, Brooklyn, NY. $11.99 from glass-eye-industries through Ebay, May, '19.
This puzzle fits together very tightly. I learned how difficult it is to put a puzzle inside its frame onto a flatbed scanner! There is also a puzzle of TMCM in the same series of six puzzles for ages 4 to 6. Hmmmm.....
