Here is a delightful set of cards. They use fables to offer an initial description of romantic moments, apparently always between soldiers-in-uniform and beautifully dressed young women. Then there is a little poem to advise the participants in the fable's scene. If I read these poems correctly, they at least sometimes urge maidens to gather rosebuds while they may.
1980? Eight Amora mustard jars. Usable as drinking glasses. Amora: Le Moutarde de Dijon."
The yellow of the mustard would have brought out the color of at least most of these jars. Amora pushed this series, following up with blotters and dust jackets.
1950? Amora. La Moutarde de Dijon dans son Verre Décoré "La Fontaine." Buvard and Buvard "EFGÉ." 5¼" x 8¼". Opéra Publicité. $5 each for two blotters from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, Feb., '02. One extra blotter from the same source, August, '09.
These are among the most colorful blotters I have received. Apparently the glass jar containing Amora mustard is decorated with characters from La Fontaine's fables. One recognizes, e.g., TT on the glass pictured at the forefront of one of the blotters here. Many other characters from the fables appear on the rest of this blotter: tortoise and hare; fox surrounded by crow, grapes, and goat; wolf and lamb; deer, dove, frog, fish, beetle, snail, rat, and butterfly--with a nice bust of La Fontaine in their midst. And the other blotter shows the variety of glasses offered showing various characters from La Fontaine's fables. Might I find the whole set somewhere?
1963 Postcard "Jean de La Fontaine, Amicale Philatelique Chateau-Thierry, "Le Chat, la Belette et le Petit Lapin." The cancellation gives the dates of June 22-23, 1963. The stamp is a French stamp worth 55 centimes. $3 from Topical Paradise, May '12.
The same cancellation is used on the back of the card. I am not used to seeing stamps on both sides of a postcard. I wonder if such celebrations were the start of what became the "Fetes Jean de La Fontaine" at Chateau-Thierry. The image on the card, signed by the artist, R. Munier, shows the weasel and the rabbit before the much larger and very malevolent cat.
1990? Matchbook advertising "Aesops: Riverside's Finest." Unknown source
This matchbook features an image of a fox looking up at Aesop, who holds a staff. The restaurant advertises itself as "Riverside's Finest." A quick check in Google seems to indicate that this restaurant, however fabulous it was, no longer exists.
