Cards

1890? 10 colored French cards (and one extra) picturing scenes from Florian's fables. 2½" x slightly more than 4". No artist or printer acknowledged. Seven for $35 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, March, '01. Three Soury cards from Annick Tilly for 10 Francs each, August, '01. Seventeen further cards, including two duplicates, for $85 from Bertrand Cocq, Sept., '18. And five further cards from Bertrand for $5 each, Sept., '20. In these portrait-formatted small (2½" x 4⅛") cards, a blue border surrounds the full-color picture in the upper three-quarters of the card and the five or six lines quoted from Florian below. The title of the fable itself, with Florian's name in parentheses, is written across the blue bar separating the two portions of the picture side of the card. Most cards have no advertising on either front or back, and include only the text of the fable on the verso. In fact, if one exchanges the blue stripe for a gold one, they are almost exactly like the cards in a set done by A. Billon, though they lack both the numbering and signature we find there. The strongest visual images here might be the lovely picture for "L'Ane et la Flute"; the lively one for "Le Grillon"; and the appropriately awkward one for "Les Deux Chauves." Four cards advertise "La Jouvence de l'Abbé Soury ("C'est la Santé de la Femme"!) on both front and back. One card advertises Chicorée Leroux on both front and back. I present our cards here in alphabetical order according to the first noun in each title. I wonder now how large this series might be.

Below I offer a rather random collection of cards from one distinctive series presenting Florian. But first I offer a newer and more unified set. 1880? 6 cards depicting fables of Florian, including a text of very small print in two columns at the top of the back of the card and a simple colored picture on the front. 4 3/8" x 3 1/8". All advertise "Lebel Derly -- Nouveautés." €45 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23. These cards are particularly well preserved. It is somewhat rare that I can find a set all from the same printer and retail store.

1890? 6 colored cards 3¾" x 2½" on thinner than usual card stock. Five include the fable on the back compliments of Estey Piano Co. The sixth, a repeat of "The Fox and the Goat," includes the fable on the back and advertises Huntington Pianos. Most of these came at $2 each from Inland Empire at the Sacramento Paper Fair, Dec., '96. DM, FC, "The Fox and the Goat," "The Fox and the Leopard" (two copies) and TH. FG is also stamped "Anderson & Thorson" while "The Fox and the Goat" is stamped "Hiram Cornish, Jr." of Newfield, NY. This series seems to coincide largely with my J. & P. Coats series; this set has slightly smaller cards. This series includes three cards that I do not yet have represented in that Coats set: DM, "The Fox and the Goat," and "The Fox and the Leopard." See also Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machines, which has a CP in exactly the dimensions of these cards; that CP design also matches the Coats design. Notice that a "W & W" symbol for Wheeler and Wilson has been painted out of the upper right hand corner of the TH card..

1915? I have found two colored cards advertising the Empire Wringer Company. The first pictures a ram marrying two foxes in a small gathering of animals. The second pictures mother and father fox with their baby fox in a kind of bassinet. The first card comes from an unknown source and the second from William Phillips of Lewiston, ME, through eBay, Jan., '03. Is there a fable behind these illustrations? Is it perhaps from Renard? If so, would people have recognized it without any kind of a title? Of course it is hard to know anyway what a fox marriage has to do with washer wringers! The Empire Wringer Company was in Auburn, NY. Their "Empire"model, pictured on the verso of both cards, was available from A. Page in Wentworth, NH for the first card and from M.B. Potttle of Kingfield, ME, for the second card.

1915? 7 of 8 "Fables of La Fontaine" trade cards. Printed by Ch. Duffit, Paris. One extra of GA. All eight cards from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France: the first for $6 in March of '01 and the further seven for $6 each in Sept., '20. I commented on the first card twenty years ago that it was in many ways the cheapest card in this collection. It is done on poor stock and uses a traditional approach to picturing this fable. There is an unusual uncolored strip across the top of the card. Bouchard specialized in Bala syrups and pills and in bandages. The picture portions of these cards seem identical to those in what I have called "Plain Fables of La Fontaine Cards."

1900? Five colored trade cards printed by Ch. Duffit. 2½" x 4". 2 from an unknown source. 3 further cards for $18 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. Seven further cards presented as "Bon Point" cards advertising DeGuillié Tonic Elixir. €6 each from cpcr958 on Ebay, Sept., '21. The two cards depict "Les deux Mulets" and "Le Loup devenu Berger." Each card is titled "Fables de La Fontaine." Each at the bottom has the title of its fable and the moral. One advertises Francetta chocolate. Another advertises "Chauss? Paul." This firm seems to sell "specialités pour Pieds sensibles" and is a "Maison de Confiance." The three from Bertrand in 2020 bear no advertising. All but one of the cpcr958 cards are stamped on the verso with "Nouveaux Prix" and the new and higher prices. I wonder how big this series of cards is….

1895? 2 full-color cards illustrating La Fontaine's GA with human figures as actors. Just over 2 ½" by 4 1/8". Both backs are blank. 80 Francs each from Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, August, '01. The texts do not follow La Fontaine exactly. This is the first time, I believe, that I have seen the ant dance in any form. The "Aux Deux Passages" is in Lyon and sells "nouveautés." Though I presume that there are six or seven cards in the set, these two complement each other nicely. In the first scene, the cicada approaches the ant; in the second scene, the ant dismisses the cicada. The artist here works with a very traditional approach to the fable: young woman visits matron. I find the artistry very good. The folds of the "cicada" skirt in the first picture, and the vigor of the dance (and the rejection) is telling in the second. Now, in late 2008, I discover that these two pictures are identical with the last two in Liebig's 1892 "Grille und Ameise" series. My comments turned out to be right on the mark, and the dating seems quite close too!

1895? Nine full-color cards illustrating La Fontaine's fables in landscape format with children as actors. The backs of eight, uniform in format but not content, all refer to "Dépot Central, 41, Rue Richer, à Paris." $50 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne, Ricouart, France, March, '01. None of the pictures on these cards is well coordinated for colors. Perhaps the best of the colored images is the bespectacled child playing the teacher in "L'Enfant & le Maitre d' École." The most curious feature of this set lies in the unusual relationship between picture side and verso. The latter seems to go its own way, to have a series of scenes of its own, independent of the picture-side. The cards on this reverse side offer six different numbered black-and-white scenes (with doubles of #1 and #4) advertising Alcool de menthe de Ricqlès. In each, one character recommends to another the virtues of this product. This product also produces white teeth and good breath for young women, according to #1. Perhaps she is getting ready to meet her fiancé, who in #5 is also taking some to get ready for her. In #2 it will revive a woman who has fainted. In #3 it is the ideal substitute in the café for the dangerous absynthe. Maybe the most persuasive is #4, where the issue is sea-sickness. In #6 a traveller gets a recommendation on a guide-book, but an even stronger recommendation for Ricqlès as the cure for every least sickness. Two of the cards use people to fill animals' roles: " Le Chat, la Belette & le petit Lapin" and "Le Loup, la Chèvre & le Chevreau." MSA seems to put the fable into the background of the picture. For other cards using the same images, see Bouillon-Rivoyre et Cie Children.

1890? 4 full-colored cards almost 4¼" x 2¾" and showing La Fontaine's fables. Each card has a block-print red title and "Deposé" on the picture side and nothing on the verso. Three full-sized cards for 150 Francs from Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, August, '01. One cropped card (MM) from Annick two years earlier. An additional GA card marked "A la Madeleine, Béziers." The haughty crow in FC is paying the bowing and scraping man in the red coat to praise him. I think these are excellent illustrations! FG is a classic, as the unhappy old man turns away from the pretty young women. Note the grapes in the left background. The faces on both figures in GA are well done: judgmental and rejected, respectively. The MM card, though cropped, presents a lovely picture of a disappointed young woman. She is in fancy attire to take milk to town, including roses on her slippers! Notice the animals galloping away from her. Well done! While "Deposé" probably indicates only that the publisher or design is registered somewhere, it is the only identifying mark I can find. I believe that these cards were ready for imprinting as trade cards, and so I have included them here.

1885? 8 colored cards (apparently from a series of 8) used for J. & P. Coats Spool Cotton (unnumbered, with advertising and the fable text in various formats on the back), McPhail Pianos (each marked with the same simple number "32" and only the fable text on the back), Emerson Pianos, Eureka-Maryland Assurance and other advertisers (with various numbers introduced by "No."). Some also appear blank. 3" x 5". Multiple copies of each card, and reverses of three, as seen below. Between $3 and $12.50 from various dealers. There is an advertising booklet for Wright's Indian Vegetable Pill Company that uses seven of these eight fables and their illustrations, excluding only CP. Curiously, I purchased a set of seven "J.P. Coats" cards from Sherry Sonnett, Los Angeles, in May, '11, and CP is again the one missing card.

1890? 5 cards beginning a set presenting La Fontaine's MM. The cards follow the fable's text up to a natural break preceding a reflection ("Do not all of us daydream?") by La Fontaine. Perhaps there is another card or two in the series. Paris: Imp. Clamaron, Rue St. Jacques. $20 for the five from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Nov., '00. Extra copy, cropped, of Card 3 for 40 Francs from Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, August, '99.

1890? 10 large (5½" x 7") cards presenting La Fontaine's fables. Text is set into the picture in a rectangle. Advertisers on the verso include Les Grand Magasins du Printemps du Paris and Chicorée Bleu-Argent Arlatte from Cambrai. Printed by Publicité Bascoul-Olmer Vincennes. Extras of four of the cards (DW, FG, GGE, and "The Heron"). €30 at the Paris Postcard Exhibit, Jan., '05. A full set of twelve advertising "Au Camélia," with many duplicates, from Malesherbes Antiquités for €40, August, '13. The pictures are colorful and impressive traditional scenes. Often they include a second reference, as when DW shows the dog animals meeting in a circle at the upper left, while the bulk of the picture shows a scene of a poor old man (the wolf) conversing with a plump man in uniform (the dog). FG has both a fox and grapes in the foreground and then, slightly set into the background, a courtier looking up to damsels in front of a castle. Other fables, like WL, GGE, and "The Heron," are presented simply in one scene. Besides DW, my favorite among these cards is BF. People point smiling at a dowdy gentleman who stands alone away from the crowd. Other fables as yet unmentioned include FS, GA, MM, and "Le Laboureur et ses Enfants." The verso of the Arlatte exemplars presents no nore than "Chicorée Bleu-Argent Arlatte Cambrai." The Printemps versos all show the same picture of a child with a balloon inscribed "Le Printemps est l'ami des enfants." A curiosity here is that the "Au Camélia" card for DW has the title "Le Chien et le Loup," while other DW cards have the title "Le Loup et le Chien." The illustrations on these cards are identical with those on Paris prize cards.