2014? Braided Bread Snake Offering a Rose to Zeus.
Clever creation of a student who went on to oversee a popular Omaha bakery. Mikaela? If only her professor had a better memory for names! Preserved for so many years, I believe, because an outer layer of some sort was applied.
1980? Three pair of brass wall hooks showing the fox looking down into the stork's vase. His raised tail forms the hook protruding more than an inch from the metal fixture. 3¼" x 4¼" high. Through Ebay. Further particulars seem lost!
Here is another great example of Aesop showing up in unexpected places. How many people know what a fox is doing looking down into a vase? Click on the image to see it enlarged.
1990? Brass statuette of FC. Wooden base. 4" diameter, 5" height.
Here is another unusual creation! The creator either made or found the two brass figures and matched them with each other by means of a single metal strip. They attend to each other perfectly. Is that a begging stance we see in the fox, with one leg folded over his chest? The swoop of his tail completes the round of this lovely piece!
1950? Twelve large (9½" x 6") sets of puzzle pieces to cut out and assemble to make the central picture. "Les Fables de Nestlé." Numbered 1 through 12, with two sheets together in each case. Seven signed by Benjamin Rabier and five (#2 and #4-7) signed by Maurice Toussaint. The signatures may include dates. At least one of Toussaint's seems to be "1919." The title for each page of pieces is "Concours Casse-Tête Nestlé." 1re Série. $144 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
This is a curious find! Apparently a child was to study the image from Rabier or Toussaint, cut out the pieces, and put them together. Was there then a competition to see which child had assembled them best? These sheets came apparently in a wrapper entitled "Les Fables de Nestlé," as the title continues, with twelve compositions in colors presented as puzzles. Several of the "fables" here take liberties with their stories. Is that a monkey substituting for Little Red Ridinghood in #10? Of course, Nestlé's products show up delightfully in the illustrations!
1920? Set of 20 six-sided picture cubes illustrating fables. Slightly larger than 1½" on each cube's side. In the original box? "Wolf in Shepherd's Clothing"; "Horse and Mule"; "The Fox and the Goat"; GA, FS; and an image involving a grasshopper and a rabbit. $34.36 from vali51000 through Ebay, July, '20.
This set of story blocks involves several stories. It makes use of a common set of chromolithographs from the early 20th century. One of the blocks has been extensively redone on one side. One of its images does not immediately bring to my mind a fable: Which fable presents a grasshopper and rabbit? I made a serious mistake concerning this set. Shipments from France cost a great deal these days. I was asking Bertrand Cocq if he would purchase several Ebay.fr offerings for me and send them all together with the many cards he was assembling for me, and he graciously agreed. When his shipment arrived, I missed finding the story blocks I had been looking forward to for many weeks. They were not there. I got in touch with the seller to ask what had happened, and the seller immediately wrote back and asked what had happened to payment and the address to which they were to send! I had mismanaged the deal and was lucky that I could still get this lovely old treasure!
1920? Set of 15 six-sided picture cubes illustrating fables. Slightly larger than 1½" on each cube's side. In the original box? "Wolf in Shepherd's Clothing"; "Horse and Mule"; "The Fox and the Goat"; GA, FS; and an image involving a grasshopper and a rabbit. €35 from choupette-fr through Ebay, March, '24.
This set is particularly fascinating because it is so similar to a set, probably contemporary with it, that features four columns of five blocks, not three columns. The pictures are identical. These sets make use of a common set of chromolithographs from the early 20th century. One of its images, as I mentioned there, raises a question: Which fable presents a grasshopper and rabbit? Shipments from France cost a great deal these days. This was a case in which the shipment cost more than the item.
1926 Box of Juvenile Stationery. Copyright B & B (Brown and Bigelow). 4" x 4.75". Two copies, one with stationery still inside. Unknown sources.
The stationery is a single lined folded sheet with an image of Brer Rabbit stealing cabbages, pursued by a farmer. There are also eight miniature envelopes and a cardboard frame filling out the box. The box's cover-image is one that B & B used similarly on an advertising calendar in this collection. There as here, one wonders which fable is intended between the fox and the bear.
2011 Box of Chinese characters with pen and booklet. "Fables Selected Enlightenments for Reading." Ben She. Hubei Children's Publishing House. 5¾" x 6". $6.50 from World Books through Ebay, May, '22.
This set has puzzled me for some time. I can understand some things about it. It offers children a set of some 30 sturdy cards for learning Chinese characters. There is also a sponge-tipped writing instrument. Also inside the box is a 30-page booklet with TH on its cover; this is the same image on the box's cover. As far as I can tell, there are seven stories. None of them seems to be TH or any other fable I know. Strange! I will keep this with printed materials. I would be happy to catalogue the book with other books, but I cannot decipher enough of it!
2011 Box of Chinese characters with pen and booklet. "Fables Selected Enlightenments for Reading." Ben She. Hubei Children's Publishing House. 5¾" x 6". $6.50 from World Books through Ebay, May, '22.
This set has puzzled me for some time. I can understand some things about it. It offers children a set of some 30 sturdy cards for learning Chinese characters. There is also a sponge-tipped writing instrument. Also inside the box is a 30-page booklet with TH on its cover; this is the same image on the box's cover. As far as I can tell, there are seven stories. None of them seems to be TH or any other fable I know. Strange! I will keep this with printed materials. I would be happy to catalogue the book with other books, but I cannot decipher enough of it!
1880? 20 cards (plus 10 extras) with a picture side showing a small animal scene and a larger parallel human scene. 4.5" x 3.5". 7 of the cards are marked "Au Printemps" and were done by Bouillon, Rivoyre et Cie. Dangivillé et Cie, rue de l'Industrie, 17, Paris.
The human scenes are provocative, as when a prince, living out WL, condemns a handcuffed human being to the executioner in the presence of some natives. "Le Lion Amoureux" uses Samson and Delilah for its human scene, just as OR uses David and Goliath. In FG, the amputee on crutches can only look at the beautiful well-dressed woman as he passes by. The text of La Fontaine's fable is on the back side of the "Au Printemps " (AP) and other Bouillon & Rivoyre (BR) cards. Several with " L. Villain " (V) on the picture side feature advertisements for Bon Marché on the back. The other cards tend to feature either advertisements for the sponsors mentioned on the picture side, or they are without a name on the front and blank in back (B). Sponsors include Modes Mercerie a Saint Augustin in Paris (MM), "Aux Armes de Belgique" (AA), "Mon Bonneau" (MB), "A Saint Joseph " (SJ), "Au Chapeau Rouge" (CR), and "De la boutique de Peabody " in Salem (P).. The titles are printed in blue above the illustrations for AP, CR, and BR cards; in red for MM; in black for V and AA; and in brown for blank-backed and the other remaining cards. On the "Au Printemps" cards, the printer has a clever sense about where to insert "Au Printemps" into each picture. Look for it! The artist has likewise been clever in integrating the human and animal scenes into the design. The three cards from Mon Anthoine -G. Broteau" have calendars for 1880 on the verso.
2017 Bottom strip of four "Literature Heritage of Russia Fables" stamps. 35p apiece. FG, TH, CJ, and WC. $4.23 from VarGur Stamps through eBay, April, '18.
Here is a lively set of large, colorful stamps. The author of each is different: I.A. Krylov for the first and C.B. Mychalkov for the second. The third seems to be by a B.K. Treduakovsky, and the fourth by A.P. Cymarikov.
1975? Twenty cards in a package "Les Fables de La Fontaine: Vingt Cartes Postales d'Art, Images de A. M. Bossaert." Each marked 4402. Made in France. Etab. Artistiques Parisiens. $75 from rhetlyn from Carolina Shores, NC, through eBay, Dec., '03. Extra copies of four of the cards for $30 from Betty Jette, Eaton Park, FL, through Ebay, Feb., '00.
Excellent, vibrant color work! Cursive titles underneath the pictures serve as a distinguishing mark for this set. My favorites include "Le Gland ete la Citrouille," which features wonderful striped stockings and wooden shoes on the philosophical bumpkin. The hare's bugle and ball on TH suggest that he may not have been entirely focussed on this race! The cat as monk ready to devour both the hare and weasel is all the more sinister because his face is completely black except for the pince-nez, gray whiskers, and green eyes. LM uses two shades of green, one of blue, and three of tan to make a dramatic statement. Two other spectacularly colorful pictures are those for "Le Coche et la Mouche" and MSA. Well done! Unfortunately, three of the extra cards--"Le Chat, la Belette et le petite Lapin," "Le Gland et la Citrouille," and TH--show a mark at the top of the picture where some tape has been applied; only LM is without it.
