1885? A Booklet of 7 colored fable illustrations advertising Wright's Indian Vegetable Pill Company of New York. $40 from Becky Peach, Waterbury,CT, through Ebay. Feb., '99.
Six of the seven pictures match those on cards used for J. & P. Coats Spool Cotton, McPhail Pianos, Emerson Pianos, and other advertisers. CP is not used. OF--of which I do not have a separate advertising card--is used. It is called, as in the reference to it on the Butler and Kelley GGE card there, "The Frogs and the Bull." We read of the frog that "he kept on swelling himself until he bursted." The morals of the fables are tied into Wright products in surprising fashion. Thus after "The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle" we read "Crow only with good reason, which is the case when you use Roman Eye Balsam for weak and inflamed eyes and eyelids." After FC we read "Had the crow used Wright's I.V. pills for her indigestion and Anodyne for her teeth, the fox would not have succeeded in his purpose." How so? What was wrong with her digestion? After "The Swan and the Cook" we read "The swan saved his life by his song; you may save yours by using Peery's Dead Shot Vermifugre, a 'dead shot' against those foes to health--worms." Other fables include GGE, LM, and TH. Very good condition. A real find!
1997 "The Fables of Aesop." Eight cards by World's Greatest Minds Ltd, England. Each card has a window opening on a reproduction of a classic fable illustration. The outside of the card, around the window, presents the text of the fable. The inside presents the application. Stories and applications are taken, in slightly edited form, from Croxall. Gift of Maureen Hester from the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, August, '97. Several extra copies. Click on any card to see a larger image.
1932 Aesop's Fables. W.H. & J. Woods Ltd., Cigarette Manufacturers. Preston. Series of 25. $20 at Noah's Ark, Milwaukee, June, '87. Second set for $13.50 from Colin Fawcett, Wisbech, England, through Ebay, Sept., '01.
This was my first set of cigarette cards. I went on to find a great deal more, including two different renditions of this same set in color, done by Gallaher in 1931 and Anstie in 1934. These cards are in very good condition. The copies here of the earlier colored work are unspectacular. The texts repeat those of the Gallaher original.
2020? Wooden tortoise and hare figures. 3½' x 1¾" (tortoise) and 3¾" x 2¼" (hare). The Wooden Storyteller, Spokane, Washington. Gift of Maureen Hester, Dec., '19.
Beautiful woodworking. Simple figures. Lovely grain. And a great feel in the hand! Aesop lives!
2020? Wooden puzzle featuring characters from LM and TH. Four pieces. Deep inlay. 10" x 10". Characters up to 6". Source unknown.
The woodworker artist has arranged the characters well, with three of them being composites of two pieces of wood and the simpler mouse in the center. I had a puzzle like this as a child and had lost one piece. Oh, the pain of it!
1962 Wooden purse signed by Enid Collins. Titled "Pretty Foxie." 8½" x 11" x 2¾". Cream leather, cream plastic handle, and brass hardware. $37 from Ginny Chenowith, Las Cruces, NM, through Ebay, Sept., '00.
A painted fox with rhinestone eyes sits beneath a bough of purple cabochon grapes. Some of these are missing. Inside the lid is a mirror and "The Original Box Bag by Collins of Texas hand-decorated for You! Copyright 1962 enid collins." The lid has "ec" in the lower right corner. Click on either image for a fuller view of the bag.
1900? Wooden music box with crank, picturing the fox and one other character. Circular crank. 3" x 2.5" x 1.75". Unknown source.
I suspect that I bought this because an overzealous seller advertised it as illustrating a fable. The figure on the left looks to me like the pilgrim Reynard, but I am unsure who the figure on the right might be. I have looked through many Reineke Fuchs illustrations but found nothing similar. Alas, the music no longer plays. The circumference traced by the crank is clear on the top of the box.
1930? Wooden box "Les plus jolies fables de La Fontaine." Six scenes: WC; "Bertrand and Raton"; FC; "Two Mice and an Egg"; TMCM; and FS. 10½: x 7¼". 2" high.
It is tempting to see this shallow box as made for cigars, but I lean rather toward the theory that it housed a set of six-sided picture blocks. This box is well worn! Two of the scenes are rare choices for a small selection of La Fontaine's fables: "Bertrand and Raton" and "Two Mice and an Egg."
1980? Photograph of a pair of manuscript pages from the Herzog August Bibliothek's copy of Ulrich Boner's Edelstein of 1461. Wolfenbüttel, Germany. DEM 1 from the library, July, '01. One extra copy at the same time.
Here we see three phases of the delightful story of MSA: first the father rides, then the son, and finally both. Aesop, the wise story-teller, points to the scene (and to every scene) to direct us to pay attention to what we can learn. As the verso points out, this manuscript is 16. 1 Ethica 20 (1). It was unfortunately the only item not immediately available during my two-day visit to the library. Here is a reason to return!
