1915? Chocolat Lombart. La Fontaine: Poète & Romancier, Auteur de Fables, Contes & Novelles. La Fontaine portrait flanked by FC and MM. Paris: Chocolat Lombart. $19.50 from Alexandre Przopior, April, '00.
One of the most beautiful and rarest cards I have. Lovely coloring of an unusually young-looking picture of La Fontaine. The moon (or sun?) forms a perfect halo around the crow about to drop the cheese to the fox, and the milkmaid has both arms raised in a gesture of surprise. No writing on the back of the card.
1890? 56 mechanical cards with sliding panels advertising "Chocolat Guérin-Boutron." 2½" x 4". One card for €8 in St.-Ouen, August, '15. Fifteen further cards for $12 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. A third set of thirteen mechanical cards for €321 from olivier9862 on Ebay, July, ’21, including extras of “Cobbler and Financier” and “Lark and Her Young Ones.” A set of 12 for €222 from Chromosetcollections through Ebay, August, ’21. One more from Chromosetcollections through Ebay for €18, Oct., '21. And BC for €19 from la-loutre-curieuse through Ebay, Nov., '21. A set of eight from Benoit Thibault for €140, May, '22. Another group of eight for €200 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23.
Each delicate card includes a sliding panel that replaces the four layers of the original picture with four new layers making up an alternative picture. Bertrand noticed that I did not understand how my first card, bought in '15, worked. I am still hesitant to dismantle that card to bring it back to its original state. Almost all of the fifteen further cards that he found for me are in good working order. I have made a short Youtube video to illustrate how each card works: https://youtu.be/UKmo_YkcsEI. I went out onto the web to see what I could learn about these cards and, though Guérin-Boutron made a wealth of different cards, I could find only two references to this form. Both of those references are to our collection! I present the last of these cards below in both its first and its second scene. I also include one verso.
1920? "Les Fables de La Fontaine." Four slender (3" x 5½") portrait postcards with FS image and text. Collection du Chocolat de Royat. 1re Serie. One for $7 from Darren Cioffi through eBay, May, '10. Three as gifts of Bertrand Bauvais, July, '15.
"A la Marquise de Sévigné." The image of FS has the fox slinking away while the stork reaches into the tall vase. WC, WL, and WS all have nicely colored small pictures, and all have the verse text of La Fontaine underneath. I am not sure that I have seen a card as narrow in one direction and as long in the other. One can probably date this card because it allows half of the verso for "correspondence." Earlier cards left the whole verso for the address of the recipient. These cards represent a crossover in that each is a postcard, a chocolate card, and an advertisement.
1900? Thirteen – out of a numbered series of 20 – small (about 2" x 3") cards by "Chocolat de L'Union" in Lyon. Each is labelled as a "Chromo-Cadeau." One extra of #20, "Cobbler and Financier." $5 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
An unusual feature of these cards is that one could cut off the bottom portion of each card and return it to Chocolat de l'Union, I gather for some prize. Thus the numbering of each card is given twice, once just above the cut-off demarcation and once below it. We thus have some of the cards before and some after the bottom portion was removed. Now to find the other seven cards!
2013? 5 card set of photographs presenting WL with animals and a photographed young woman and man. "Procédé au Chloro-Platine." "3142" is on the front of each card. Blue and red coloring. Printed in France. Plus more heavily worn duplicates of Cards 1, 3, 4, and 5. Dated and apparently stamped in 2013. $40 for the set from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
Each picture in this set plays out in front of the same photographic background of trees at a riverside. At the top of each card is a literal artistic picturing of the animal story, from the lamb's drinking to the arrival of the wolf, to a threatening confrontation, to the lamb's answer, and finally to the forceful dragging off of the lamb. The title serves as a marker between this drawn scene above and the photographic human scene below. Do I understand correctly that she is washing clothes and that he is a hunter? In the last scene, is the woman resisting? This set of photographic postcards is curious for its red and blue coloring. I suspect that the "Chloro-Platine" process advertised has something to do with that coloration.
1982? Chinese story-blocks of Mercury and the Woodman. Salamanca, July, '86.
All six pictures are three cubes by four cubes. The six scenes are coordinated: get one and you have the key to getting them all.
1985? Chinese story-blocks of "Race of Tortoise & Rabbit." Chinatown, Yokohama, July, '96.
All six pictures are three cubes by four cubes. The six scenes are coordinated: get one and you have the key to getting them all. The six pictures are on the paper cover. In this search, the surprises never cease to amaze me. Shoji and I found this on a random dip into Chinatown! Click on the image to see all six images.
1980? Further Chinese story-blocks #2. This second set of story blocks in the same format, with the same nice wooden box, features WC; WSC; FG; "The Raven and the Swan"; "The Cat and the Fox"; and "The War Horse and the Ass."
You have seen above, in the "#1 Picture Cubes" from China that there are two versions. As for the second in this series, there are three different formats, and we have two or three of each format. I will list and picture the formats and then indicate what copies we have of each. It might help to point out that, first, this toy has been a favorite of mine to invite students to play with in end-of-semester parties, and students have shown their inclinations by taking up the challenge of arranging the pictures or preferring not to do just that. Secondly, this has been a favorite toy for others – and me! – to pick up as it appears in auctions like Ebay. So there are in the collection seven copies of this delightful toy.
One form, perhaps the earliest, has no Chinese characters on the lid and no number. We have two copies. I was surprised to find this second set for the first time in the toy department in a Singapore department store. It cost $3.35! The designs in this version are more symmetrical – and a little less wild – than those in the first sets. The craftsmanship is again fine. A second set found somewhere is lacking one cube.
A second form adds Chinese characters along the bottom line along with "WB 245" and "Made in China," both of which were already in the first form. Both come from an unknown source.
A third form adds a Chinese title at the top of the cover and a circled "2". All three are from unknown sources.
1970? Chinese story-blocks, including FS, "The Deer with Beautiful Antlers," CP, DS, TH, FC. $22.80 from Lipmeister, Los Angeles, through Etsy, Jan., '19.
This is the same set of blocks as in #1 above, but notice the simpler cover, without Chinese characters or a number. Pick up a rock and you will be amazed at what you find!
1980? Chinese story-blocks #1, including FS, "The Deer with Beautiful Antlers," CP, DS, TH, FC. The collection has four exemplars of this version of picture cubes. One found in a small-town Minnesota toy shop with Linda Clader. Another for $8.95 from Sandi Shaw, Concord, CA, through Ebay, Jan., '03. The third for $5.50 from Timmy Sisung through Ebay, April, '04. The last from T. Stanford, Neptune Beach, FL, through Ebay, Dec., '12.
I first found this set in a small-town toy store somewhere in Minnesota while toy shopping with Linda Clader. Now, years later, I am still impressed with the quality of workmanship and the ingenuity of the designs, which never form a simple rectangle.
And now I have found a brochure signed by the artist explaining his sense of fable, in sometimes imperfect English. Directorate General of Posts, Republic of China. Unknown source, July, '18.
The brochure comes in an envelope dedicated to this stamp, with features of its artistry on both front and back. "Through the issuance of postage stamps, the magnificent fables may plunge into the thick of life of the modern people.
1980? Chinese Picture Cubes "Aesop's Fables." T 303. Made in China. $9.50 from Sally Cook, Renfrew, Ontario, Canada, through Ebay, Jan., '00.
This smaller set has nine blocks in a square paper box, with separate pictures for four of the six images. This is definitely a "cute" rendition of the fable of the "The Stag and His Antlers." The six images are numbered. In 1, the young deer gazes at the side of a pool at his image in the water and especially at his small horns. In 2, a bird in a tree is telling him something and may be pointing. In 3, the deer is visibly weeping as it looks back at one of its hind legs while it seems to stand in a puddle. Hmmm… In 4 it looks up to see a lion (whose face looks more like that of a walrus!) perched in the mountains. In 5 its little horns get caught--somewhat unbelievably--in the trees. In 6 it looks down smiling on its shadow. Might the order be 6, 1, 3, 2, 4, 5? Or for a happy ending, put 6 at the end. Throughout, there are pastel flowers, meadows, and mountains. The images are well matched from block to block. Several images show considerable wear. Click on the image to see all six images.
1998 Set of four "Chinese Fables Postage Stamps" on an envelope devoted to the series and marked with "First Day of Issue" postmarks: "Taiwan, ROC, 25.9.98." The verso of the envelope gives the title of the stamps' four scenes. FDC Designer: Rolland Chang. Directorate General of Posts, Republic of China. $4 from Don Alexander, Norman, OK, through eBay, Dec., '03.
What a beautiful envelope! A fisherman seems to run into a snipe, a clam, and a tortoise. This overall picture thus represents two of the fables well.
