Fable Cards

1953 Danmarks Serie: Dyrefabler. Vilhelm Grandt? Illustrations by Frederik Bramming. Introduction by Kai Friis Moller. Hardbound. Kopenhaven: Udgivet af Aktieselskabet Kaffesurrogatfabriken Danmark. €23 from Bartko-Reher, Berlin, July, '21. Appearing among books here. Complete. 32 pages. Color work seems to me to be of very high quality. This collection seems somewhat rare on the web. The scenes are the same as those depicted in individual cards catalogued under "fable cards," where this book and one set of stamps are illustrated. The booklet seems identical with “Dandy Serie: Dyrefabler,” though the languages there seem to be the Belgian pair rather than the Danish here. Very engaging artistry throughout, with plenty of humor! Aesopic fable material includes at least these: FG; BW; FS; TMCM; DS; WL; FK; "Mice in the Cream"; and OF. OF may be among the best illustrated.

1950? Colored cartoon card of MM. No editor or publisher acknowledged. $5 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20. Here is an unusual representation of MM! Perrette seems, as she steps on a banana peel, to be completely out of whack! Even her tongue is sticking out of her mouth. For a copy that landed elsewhere in the collection, see "Cartoon-Like Prizes." Here in any case is a very creative presentation of the fable! The verso has the fable text and nothing else.

1950? Full-colored cartoon card of FC. Lyon: Volumetrix. No artist acknowledged. $4 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20. A little research suggests that Volumetrix expanded to include a Paris location and that they produced many cards for collection. The two different fable series found on the web seem to include titles on the illustration side of their cards. There is no such title here. It is hard to know whether this is a trade card or simply a “fable card.” With no evidence that it was used to sell a product, I will include it with fable cards. There is a stamped set of purpose letters at a 90 degree angle to the fable text on the verso.

1940? Full-colored cartoon card of GA. No acknowledgement of artist, printer, or advertiser. €9 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23. This card, 2¾" x 4¼", emphasizes the insect-character of the two actors in this story. Apparently they are meeting in the summer in the open. Perhaps the grasshopper is inviting the ant to work less and play more. Blank verso.

1950? Five cards identified only as #2-6 of Serie 5340. €14 for the set at St. Ouen, August, '13 These cards can be identified by their "instepped" borders, which always have a jagged central inside portion of the border. The five scenes represented include standard fables. #2 presents "Renard Ermite," complete with papal bulls to show what a pilgrim he is! #3 shows Renard at a well ready to bid farewell to the wolf, whom he will leave in his bucket in the well without help. #4 switches to WC. #5 returns to Renard to show him with the snake whom he has outwitted as he freed the human who was silly enough to believe the lying snake. The final card again moves away from the fox to show the horse who uses his hoof to teach the wolf something. Nice chromolithography on cards 4¼" x 2¾".

1887? 72 cards (of a set of 72) lithographed by Vieillemard et ses Fils, Rue de la Glaciere 16, Paris. Gold-bordered circular-scene lithographs, apparently signed in 1887, on one side and verse texts on the other. 2¾" x 4¼". Most are without advertising or numbers and are marked here "VF"; some, with numbers in a set of 72, advertise Chocolat Guérin-Boutron (CGB) on the image side of the card. A few of the VF cards advertise Bourcheix & Fils (BF) on the back of the card, where all others have a fable text on the back. If there are no initials with a card, it is a VF card without a Bourcheix back. One VF card advertises above its picture Musculosine Byla (MB) without numbers. Generally good condition. $50 from Doris Frohnsdorff, Rosslyn, March, '92. Additional individual cards have come from Bertrand Cocq, Spring, '01, from both P. Bresch and Annick Tilly, Clignancourt, August, '01, and from Ann Filipowich, Toronto, Feb., '15. Two more from Bertrand Cocq, August, '15. Six additional cards from Michel Lanteigne, Montreal, through eBay, May, '12. Two later cards for $14 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Fourteen "Chocolat-Louit" cards from Chromoset Collections for $13.06, Sept., '20. Extra of "La Vieille & les deux Servantes" advertising CGB for €5 from Simon Rodrigues through Ebay, June, '22. Excellent and witty art. Often an animal story is rendered in a human scene, as in FG (a thin man walks away from a butcher shop), DW (a bum walks with a dog-leading burgher), 2P (a rich man throws money, while a poor man has to dig into his pocket for it), and TH (a legless beggar beats a legged one!). The art seems heavily dependent on Grandville (note the face of the bumpkin in "The Cock and the Pearl"), with perhaps some influence from Doré. 68 cards, of which ten feature fables of Florian and the other fifty-eight present fables by La Fontaine. I have some twenty doubles besides. I long imagined that some such set must exist, and I am delighted at last to find one! And now I am further delighted to have completed the set. Good work Bertrand! I have followed the orthography of the card fronts in writing the titles of the fables.An extra copy of FK has "Chocolat-Louit" stamped right over "Chocolat Guerin-Boutron." There may well be a story behind that second stamp imposed on the first. That card also seems to lack a series number found on the other CBG card.

1930? Two cards using images found in several other series but offering a different typeface for the title. 1 FS colored card. No publisher or artist indicated. "Horse and Ass" for €15 from Albert van den Bosch, Jan., '23. Grouping these two cards together is a sheer guess. Each has only the text of the fable and its title on the verso. The block-print title on the image is larger than the print on the other cards. Two nice looking cards! FS presents a pleasing view of the two animals approaching two tall slim-necked vases. The full text of La Fontaine's FS fable is on the verso. Nothing else is on the verso. It turns out that this card's image is identical with the image -- though not the title font -- on the card in the series by Alcide Picard

1935? Der Wolf und das Schaf: 10 Fabeln für unsere Kinder. Ten pages in an envelope. Black-and-white images signed by "Gerd." About 4" x 6". €12 at Antiquariat Deinbacher, Vienna, August, '19. I presume that we found these at Black Swan in Oakland. I found an offer on German Ebay guessing that these were done in 1935-40. The surprising things in this set include the German "Fraktur" Gothic script, hard for many of us to read. A further surprise is the ultra-thin paper used for these ten "cards." I have debated whether to list them as pages or as cards, and finally decided to list them under cards – because, though they are not on cardstock, they do what cards usually do – and to offer a link under printed "fable pages." The third surprise is the way these ten cards integrate known fables with other events. As I look through the pages, I notice these traditional fables: "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"; WL; and WC. These three are something of a trunk for branching out to other stories. I am not even sure that one can know the exact order of the ten "episodes." The images are well defined and strong. Vanity Punished Herda, the loveliest of sheep, is seduced to see how lovely she is in the river's water. Not a good idea! While she admires herself in the water, the wolf devours her. The Curious Little Lamb Little Hans, a young sheep, decides to encounter the wolf, whoever he is. Hans escapes, but only with a wound, since the dog and the shepherd intervene after he has been wounded. Do not be a curious young lamb! The Wolf as Liberator A vulnerable sheep has a thorn in its hoof. The wolf proclaims "I will free you from your pain." The wolf promptly tears this lamb apart. False Sympathy A farmer's barn burns down, and the wolf sympathizes with him and observes him rebuilding. Once a stall is ready for young sheep, one of the sheep goes missing! The Black Sheep Peter is the black sheep—and he acts accordingly. He gets flour spilt and whitens himself in the flour. The herd leaves him behind, the wind blows away his whiteness, Peter stumbles in the white cloud, falls into the stream, and ends up dying. Exuberance seldom helps! The Wolf in Sheepskin "Hütet Euch vor dem Wolf im Schafspeltz!" Protect yourselves from the wolf in sheepskin! The Aging Wolf The old wolf's teeth are not what they used to be. He tries to make a deal with every farmer – for always less recompense. No deal! Do not let the wolf become the shepherd! The Dying Wolf The dying wolf remembers that he saved one victim, but the stork remembers that this day was when the wolf had a bone in his throat. "The enemy has good intentions only when it is hindered in the execution of its evil intents." The Heroic Wolf A young wolf recalls the 200 victories of his heroic father, who died just yesterday. The fox replies that his 200 victories were against sheep, but his 201st encounter was against perhaps his single worthy opponent, a bull, and he lost. The Wolf's Monument Animals are unsure what to memorialize about the wolf. The sheep suggest that he conquered only sheep, not other wolves. The best memorial would be the skulls of his victims.

1977 “Gamzat Tsadas: Fables (Russian).” Complete set of seventeen colored cards featuring the fables of Gamzat Tsadas. Artist: C. Asheroorov Ekhepov. 4¼” x 8¾”. $20.17 from RareSoviet on Etsy, Dec., ’20. “The first national poet of Dagestan.” Islam, the Revolution, creativity. Wrote poems, fairy tales, and fables for children. I can recognize perhaps five of the fables pictured here. I put them first here. The card size is unusual, with title, colored image, and a few lines on the front and a full text in Russian on the verso. Soon enough, we may be able to use OCR technology to make more sense of the texts. Till then, I have to be happy to enjoy the pictures and wonder about the story!

1995 Story Cards: Aesop's Fables. Compiled by Raymond C. Clark. With Illustrations by Hannah Bonner. Large-format pamphlet. First printing. Printed in USA. Brattleboro, Vermont: Pro Lingua Associates. $14.50 from Pro Lingua Associates, June, '97. Extra copy at the same price from the publisher at the same time. Here are forty-eight fable cards, four to a page, to tear from the 8½" x 11" book. On the back of each card is the appropriate title and story. The color cartoon work is well done. The whole dead donkey is loaded onto the uncooperative horse (#3). "The Lion and the Fox" (#7) is done in terms of written invitation and written response. I am not sure I remember ever seeing "The Men and the Chameleon" (#38) before. "The Donkey's Brains" (#47) shows the hole in the donkey's head quite graphically! Human dress is ancient. I will also list this under "Fable Cards." I will also include with each copy a copy of the Pro Lingua catalogue for 1997, featuring WC on its cover.

1965? "Set of 56 Fables of Aesop on Individual Cards" A Superb Collection of Favorite Fables by Aesop, Magnificently Illustrated." Illustrations from Percy Billinghurst, not acknowledged. No. 1880S. Printed in Hong Kong. Shackman, NY 10001. Four sets in varying condition, one with a box without a label, another in a box missing one side. $25.07 from JoAnn Jeffreys, Overland, MO, through Ebay, July, '00. $15 from Frank Scott, Elizabeth City, NC, through Ebay, August, '00. $9.95 from Dorothy Buhrman, Cambria, CA, through Ebay, Feb., '01. $20 from Lee Shepherd, Lake Mary, FL, through Ebay, March, '01. These sets all look much older than the 1960's, but there is a card with each deck providing Aesop's history and a sense of the fables. It includes at its bottom the ZIP code I have included above, and that gives us a terminus post quem. I almost believe that Shackman had someone "antique" the boxes by throwing them around and roughing them up! Some of the narrower Billinghurst designs have an added symbol or ornament outside the picture, like DS at the right. At first, I thought that these cards constituted a game to play, but I see no hint of that within the package. Now that I have at last had a chance to catalogue these cards and learned that the sets are all the same, I can stop buying them!

1935? Set of twelve postcard-size (5½" x 3½") cards titled "12 Cartoons for Tapestry by J.-B. Oudry (1686-1765)" by Artext Cards. The twelve are individually labeled as "Artest - A. XXI.1" through " Artest - A. XXI.12." Made in France but titled in English with the general heading "La Fontaine's Fable." $46.05 for the set in a fragile envelope from Heartsdeesire on eBay, Sept., '03. These are satisfactory renditions of Oudry's work. The seller has the same question I have, namely, "Are these postcards?" I find it unusual that they were printed in France but marketed somewhere in English speaking territory. As the seller also points out, the envelope is torn, but the cards themselves are in very good condition.