1985 Bespectacled turtle reading book with "Slow and steady wins the race." 2" high. Pat Lane Diaz, Wausau, WI. West Allis Craft Fair.
My mother and I met this artist and asked her if she ever fashioned fable characters. She asked us to return to the next craft fair with a book of fables from which she could work. At each fair over the next several years, she kept bringing for us a new one-of-a-kind character. Here the tortoise has the fable-book open to the moral.
1955 Postcard playing humorously on La Fontaine's moral for LM: "On a souvent besoin d'un plus petit que soi." $5 from an unknown source, Feb., '22.
The middle-aged couple has gone out leaving grandpa, their child, and three dogs at home. The child has used his car to pull a pulley around the lamp to raise grandpa up so that he can get at the jar of sausages on top of a cabinet. I wish I could make out the rest of the artist's name after "Jean du." Nice use of color! I am surprised at the English translation of La Fontaine's moral.
1950? Humorous play on LM: "On a souvent besoin d'un plus petit que soi." I. Foggia. P-C Paris. $5 from an unknown source, Feb., '22.
The older hunter with his rifle, outfit, and gear pays a child to bring down the prey with a slingshot. Good humor and lovely color!
1890? 20 colored French cards (from a larger series?) picturing scenes from La Fontaine's fables and apparently just one, "Les Serins et le Chardonneret," from Florian. Just over 3½" x 5½". All advertise Bergougnan on the verso, though in five different forms, including one postcard. Clermont-F - Imp. Joachim. €6 apiece for 16 cards from Brie Comte Robert at Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. Six duplicates and three further new cards from Pierre Augereau, Vancouver, BC. Four additional Bergougnan cards and two Thérèse Boutigny et Soeurs cards from Imago Libri, St. Ouen, August, '15. Another nine cards for $63 from Bertand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. "The Tightrope Walker," perhaps completing the collection, for €5 in St. Ouen, June, '19. Extra copy of WC for €12 from Bartko-Reher, April, '21. Five duplicate cards for $1.10 as part of a set bought on Ebay from yvrl, May, '22. WL for €6 from thecollector061317 through Ebay, Dec., '22. TH for €10 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23.
Each of the colored pictures here includes a quadrangular text of the fable from La Fontaine or, in the one case noted above, Florian. It also includes five circles arranged in relation to a major illustration of the story. Bergougnan seems to have been a major seller of rubber products, especially for automobiles. The cards frequently advertise Caoutchouc. Thérèse Boutigny is advertised as "Marchande de Mode" in Amiens. The two Boutigny cards were printed byi PaulVallier, Clermont FD Paris. This group may set a record for the number of advertisers -- and the number of forms one advertiser used -- to advertise his rubber products!
1960? Four tiles, each marked as "Inspired by 18th Century Aesop's Fable Tiles." 6" x 6". Blue-and-white designs of BW, GGE, LM, and TH. Libertyville, IL: Berggren Trayner Corporation. Designs B-70 through B-73. $21 from Kay Hofman, Floodwood, MN, through Ebay, June, '00.
These tiles show lively modern designs inside a circle with a rope border enclosing four smaller circles at the compass points, with pleasant floral patterns in the corners. The wolf in the first tile has his jaws around the crying boy's leg! The ears are lopped over the sleep hare's head in the last tile. Each tile has felt backing, a cut-out hanger, and label suggesting some of the history of tile work. Each label claims that the tiles are hand screened. The TH tile has a separated corner that has been reattached.
1901? A. Bergeret Phototypes. Two cards each using one or two photographs of human beings to suggest a La Fontaine fable. GA, "Le Serpent et la Lime," GA, or "The Oyster and the Litigants." The message on two is dated October 21, 1902. Nancy: Phototypie A. Bergeret et Cie. 30 Francs each from P. Bresch, Clignancourt, August, '01. The two further cards cost €5 in St. Ouen, August, '15. Extra copies of WL and FG for €1.30 each from Collecman through Ebay, Jan., '23.
The verso of each card is given entirely to the address. The note in each case is thus written on the picture side of the card. The GA adult card presents a traditional view of the fable: a girl holding a guitar reaches out for help to the woman at the spinning wheel. A pastoral background is added behind these photographed figures. Is it not winter in the fable? "Le Serpent et la Lime" pictures an outrageous fusilier/pistolier against a wary bandolier. Which is the serpent and which the file? These cards are among the more unusual La Fontaine things I have found.
1901? "La Cigale et la Fourmi." A. Bergeret Phototypie Nancy. Five cards using children to illustrate five phases of La Fontaine's GA. Gift of Bertrand Bauvais, August, '15. One previously found card #2 for €3 in St. Ouen, August, '13. Extra copies of cards #2 and #5 from Gabriel Somobyi, Floresti, Romania, Dec., '08.
The five scenes in these postcards, acted by children, communicate a severe handling of the cicada. In the last scene, she is lying disconsolate as the "ant" directs her to go dance in winter. Spinning wheel and guitar characterize these two. Each card's front contains a few verses of the fable in red. I am amazed to have found a full set of these cards through the generosity of Bertrand and his family. Bergeret apparently moved out to present one fable in a series of photographs after offering a series of fables with one view each.
1900? Complete two-card photographic postcard series by "Prototypie A. Bergeret et Cie." $5 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
Here again we get a child acting out the fable in a rather simplistic scene. The series is unusual for taking only two cards and thus jumping from start to finish of the fable.
1900? Complete set of 5 "Cigale" photographic postcards. "Phototypie A. Bergeret & Cie, Nancy." Unnumbered. All sent to Camille Cerras, Cote d'Or, in 1903. $4 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20.
I have sometimes hesitated to include materials identified simply as "Cigale" since I have wondered if they necessarily refer to La Fontaine's first fable in Book 1. I am happy to accept Bertrand's judgment on this curious set. Is this something of a French "girly" photograph crossing over into a fable category? Can one really play the mandolin in all those different positions?
1992? Four fables and illustrations from The Fables of Aesop and Others: Translated into Human Nature (c.1860), with hand-colored illustrations by Charles H. Bennett. Boxed set of three each, with envelopes. Berkeley: Peaceable Kingdom Press. $12.95 from the Pierpont Morgan Library, Aug., '95. For a larger reproduction of any card, click on it.
1920?Ten knife rests or porte couteaux, about 3½" inches long, representing Benjamin Rabier's presentations of La Fontaine's fables. Extras of FC and "Two Mice and an Egg." Silvermaker: Devouge Dupont. $350 for ten from paintingmorningstar through eBay, Nov., '05. Two for $89.95 from Nina Lindzon, through Ebay, Oct., '01.
I first saw these—and was delighted with them--in the Clingnancourt flea market several years ago. I believe that the full set includes twelve. Each knife rest has been individually cast and is stamped with the signature, "Benjamin Rabier" and with the mark of the silvermaker in the form of a rectangle with the initials "P + a Spoon + D". The knife rests catch both something of the Art Deco era and of Rabier's continuous wit. In TH, the connection of the fencepost to the ground at the bottom of the hare's back paws is loose.
1910? Two colored menu forms for Hôtel du Maine, Angers. FS and WL. Printed by and for Bénédictine D.O.M., "Liqueur préferée des gourmets." $14 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonee Ricouart, France, Sept., '18.
The detailed color work on these menu forms is outstanding! There is plenty of room on the page for "Goussé," the host at the Hôtel du Maine, to write the day's menu on the page. Both menus offer a short quotation from La Fontaine's text under the image, like the wolf's snarling retort "If it wasn't you, it was your brother!"
Earlier I had found two menus without the extra local printing for the Hôtel du Maine in Angers. €8 each.
1909? "Mr de la Fontaine à la Bénédictine." Five of the loveliest cards I have found all feature accommodations of La Fontaine's fables to the monastery that produces Bénédictine brandy. The detail and color work especially on the monastery buildings are outstanding! DOM is still a mark of Benedictine, and their website still shows buildings in Fécamp, on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, like the gorgeous ones on these cards. Visit their website at www.benedictine.fr/anglais/homepage.html. Two cards seem to be dated April 13, 1909. Four for €6 each from Haon Cartophilie, Begues, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. TT for €6 from François Magnin, Paris, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. "The Two Rats" a gift of Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, August, '15. Click on any card to see it enlarged.
