1913 An Edison Blue Amberol " cylindrical record, "Fables Roberts" (#1632 G-324). Lyrics by Jeff Branen. Music by J. Fred Helf. Sung by Bob Roberts. With the lower part of its cylindrical cardboard storage chamber.
Now here is a surprising find! One might expect, as I did, a telling of some fables. What is actually here is a song just short of four minutes in length that makes fun of "stories meant to deceive," the kinds of things husbands and wives tell each other. The repeated refrain is "In the olden days they called them fables, but they're nothing but doggone lies." This Youtube video presents the full lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEiBPWIS7LU&feature=youtu.be. This theme is of course not original. It goes all the way back to the most curious element in the description of a fable by the Sophist Theon: a fable is a "lying story that images the truth." Bob Roberts had a long career of making recordings for various companies. This was apparently his last recording for Edison. I appreciate the research work of Susan Carlson in finding helpful information about this specific cylinder, and I appreciate Sonja Carlson's good advice about handling this extremely fragile object. Click on any image to see it enlarged.
1975? Ed-U-Cards Junior Classics Picture Puzzle: "The Tortoise and the Hare." 10" x 14" picture. Aesop's Fables with Story Booklet (booklet and two pieces missing). Over 100 pieces. Series No. 3901. NY: Ed-U-Cards Mfg. Corp. $9 from Tony Niehart, Vermilion, OH, through Ebay, Jan., '20.
I needed to see how many pieces were missing, so I did the puzzle myself. The artist seems to be "Aliki." And now I wonder: Are there more fable puzzles in this series? And now, one day later, I have found one of the two missing pieces! Maybe I'll still find the other one!
1975? Ed-U-Cards Junior Classics Picture Puzzle: "The Raven and the Swan." 10" x 14" picture. Aesop's Fables with Story Booklet (booklet missing). Over 100 pieces. Series No. 3901. NY: Ed-U-Cards Mfg. Corp. $2 from Barb Girt, North Canton, OH, through Ebay, Nov., '00.
The picture is rather simple and static: a swan and raven face each other. The artist's signature seems to be either "Alihi" or "Aliki."
1990? One page of stamps titled "Fiabe e favole," apparently album folio 92 from Meraviglie dei Francobolli. Twelve stamps from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. "Album e Taschine Brevettati Bolaffi Torino." Fratelli Fabbri Editori. $5 at the Porta Portese flea market, July, '98.
The page includes the Hungarian stamp of MSA and the Polish FC stamp featured elsewhere here. Go to the Porta Portese flea market, and you never know what you will find!
1905? "Easter Greetings" card featuring not only a hare but a tortoise! $4 from McCormick at the Sacramento Paper Fair, Dec., '96.
What, one might ask, does TH have to do with Easter? Does the fact that a one-cent stamp carried this card help to date it? The pencil-written message seems to be one asking for some reconciliation. There are some crazy things in life!
1980? East German wood carving of FG. 3" high.
This is an exquisite composite of carved elements. The delicate leaves set off the grapes and especially the fox well. The fox looks straight up attentive to the grapes.
1995? East German whittling of FC. 4" high.
The same attentive fox is back from the earlier (1985?) wooden presentation of FG. Now he looks up at a crow with a slice of swiss cheese in his mouth. The crow is perched on top of a elaborately shaved tree.
1890? Twelve long colored magic lantern slides showing La Fontaine's fables. Two fables per slide. 7½" x 1½".
The color work in these slides is strong, even after all this time. The titles in the upper left are sometimes obscured by the framing of the glass. Might the glass have been originally without a frame?
Fox and Bust/Dream of the Mongol
Man and His Image/Fortune Tellers
TB/Gout and Spider
Retired Rat/Eye of the Master
FC/Wishes
Two Parrots, Monarch, & Son/Man's Ingratitude to Luck
Martin/Women and Secrets
Wolf and Fox/Wise Man and Fool
The Lark and Her Young/CJ
FS/Old Man and Three Youths
Monkey and Dolphin/Man Running after Luck and Man at Home
FK/MSA
1900? Black-and-white postcard presenting LM. "Patience et longueur de temps/Font plus que force et rage." Illustration after Geeraerts? €4 from ABC de la C.P.A., Lyon, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05.
The verso of this card has room for only an addressee. I would love to be able to identify exactly the source of the illustration. My first guess was Hollar, but that seems not to be the case. Perhaps someone in the French tradition?
1927? "Le Lion devenu vieux." G. Klein (?). Editions E.D.F. From Linda Kelly, Lincolnshire, UK.
Highly colorful and unusually designed card. The characters extend beyond the L-shaped section for the picture. Longhand presentation of the fable, signed by J. de La Fontaine. Verso is not written upon at all.
