1928? February, 1929 calendar with a maxim from Aesop and a Milo Winter illustration. Advertisement for Wilkens-Anderson Company, Chicago, IL. 4¾" x 10". St. Paul, MN, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario: Brown & Bigelow. $7 from Sandyscottage through Ebay, Jan., '25.
I am particularly happy to add this calendar to the collection since it repeats one already in the collection as February for the year before! The conclusion seems to be that Brown & Bigelow had designs ready to go that were not tied to a specific year. Fascinating! As is true generally for the Brown & Bigelow series, it is not clear, to me at least, which fable is presented or alluded to here.
1961 FDC Monaco 48411: Envelope featuring a "Respect for Life" stamp and a cartoon of the grasshopper and ant in black, blue, and red. $3 from Topical Covers, Netherlands, through Ebay, Nov., '20.
Once again, the artist has fun with the well known fable. The cicada is a dancing singing guitar playing artist, while the ant runs a grain shop and is busy at work sweeping. Well done!
I also learned that there is a "Postal Service Bulletin" presenting this series of stamps. It was offered together with an FDC envelope of the three stamps by csts-trade on eBay, July, '18. It puts the parable teller underneath a tree with a book and offers both versions of each stamp.
2021 FDC Envelope from the Hungarian Post Office featuring the four commemorative stamps and a cameo of La Fontaine. $13.77 from empirefondation1965 through Ebay, Dec., '21.
The cancellation mark is a crow with a piece of cheese in his beak. Clever! The return address clearly marks this envelope as an FDC. As mentioned above, there is some creativity at work in these stamps' images!
2001 FDC Envelope with the four pairs of cancelled stamps and a design on the front of the envelope. The verso of the envelope reads " The First Day Cover carries an artist's impression of Vishnu Sarman, the author of Panchatantra telling the stories to his pupils. Department of Posts, India. Accompanied by an extra pair of the TT stamps. Unknown source.
This envelope seems larger than many and thus offers room for all eight stamps and the design. Every phrase on these stamps is done in Hindi and English. I do not know what the "Hafnia 01 Danmark" symbol in the lower right corner means. Is it a Danish stamp collecting outfit?
1904 10 postcard series featuring one child playing out FC. O.E.P. One dated September 11, 1904. One other with an address on the verso. $65 for the set from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
This is a curious set, first of all for its size: most sets of photographic fable postcards include six members, while this set has ten. It is curious next for using a single child to play both parts in this visualization of the fable. Fable depends so much on interaction of two parties; it is a surprise to see each card in this whole series picture just one character. Finally, it is curious for an inversion in Verse 10: Card 5 has "Le Corbeau à ces mots ne se sent plus de joie" whereas the usual texts have "A ces mots le Corbeau ne se sent pas die joie." Is the character on the last card playing the shamed crow or the actor taking a bow?
1920? Postcard presenting La Fontaine's FC text beside a colored illustration. A. Storck & Co. Deposé. 50 Francs from Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, July, '02.
This card is like another illustrated here, the parody of FC that I have guessed was published around 1932, in that it uses all of one side for an address and takes up almost all of the other side for its illustration and image. The illustration in this case dresses the fox as a gentleman and gives him eyeglasses on a cord. The figure of the crow looms as large as the figure of the fox. There is no writing at all on this card.
1986? French colored postcard of FC with figures pasted onto an outline. Postmarked December 29, 1986. 15 Francs from P. Bresch, Clignancourt, August, '01.
I do not think that I have another card like this. Various portions were apparently cut out and pasted to a card with the appropriate outlines. The branch of the tree is loose on the trunk end.
1932? Parody of La Fontaine's FC by l'Abbé Forichon with a black-and-white illustration of FC. Néris-les-Bains, France: Edit. Picandet. 50 Francs from Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, July, '01.
The front of this card contains a black-and-white illustration of FC alongside a parody of La Fontaine's version. Here is how the card itself introduces its text: "72 Allier. L'Agrôle et le Rena, Parodie de la fable du Renard et du Corbeau par M. l'Abbé Forichon." Forichon died in 1879, and this card is postmarked in August of 1932, so that the card must have appeared somewhere during the period framed by these two dates. The verso of the card is completely given over to a written message, without an address or postmark.
1910? FC pictured in portrait format above a medallion and signature of "De lafontaine." 60 Francs from P. Bresch, Clignancourt, August, '01.
This small (just over 3" x 5") postcard reduplicates in slightly larger form a card I have listed and displayed under "Stock Singles." That card advertises Joseph Lervilles' moka and chicoree. This card was never filled out or sent. Now two weeks after first cataloguing the card, I see it offered on Ebay with markings from Bensdorp Cocoa in Holland and described there as very scarce.
2010? FC necklace and pendant. 1.5” in height. Gold finish with a pearl. Unknown source.
The open side of this pendant makes it unusual. Is the pearl the crow’s “cheese”?
A dapper fox in bow tie holds out a paw to catch the cheese he expects to fall. The crow in snappy hat and vest is holding the cheese firmly in his wing as though it were an arm. A lovely scene!
1973 Postcard celebrating the "International Cheese Fair" in La Capelle, with an image of FC. $3 from Topical Paradise Limited, May, '20.
This card is an official souvenir of the festival. The cancellation design is the same as the three-color design on the recto of the card: fox and crow appear to be contending over a round of cheese. Fables show up in many places! I checked the fair out on the web. It looks like just the sort of thing we Wisconsinites would love!
1920? Ceramic plate of FC by "Jars, France pour F & S." 10" in diameter. Scalloped rim. Tan with green edging, script, and illustration border around a circular full-color illustration of FC. "Le Corbeau et le Renard" and "Fables de la Fontaine" on the plate front. $5.95 from Charles W. Turner, through eBay, June, '04.
This colorful plate has the crow leaning down to hear the fox's compliments just before he drops the round of cheese. A light colored stream edges the field in the background, with pleasant reeds, leaves and grasses filling out the scene. The fox, though his back is to us, looks up expectantly.
2000? FC? Arabic postcard with gold overleaf. Rannenberg and friends, Hamburg. Nisamis Foto AKG-Images. RGF 007.
This crow does not hold cheese or anything else in his mouth, but there are objects pictured near his beak. And is that a flattering fox? Does FC get into the traditions of fable books like K&D? A lovely feature of this card is the gold around the edges and at several points in the image.
