Hidden Picture Cards

1920? Hidden Picture card of TH without artist or publisher. $5 from an unknown source, April, '22. Even the verso gives no help here. The card quotes the first two lines of La Fontaine's TH in French and then asks where the hare is.

1950? Four monochrome hidden-picture cards featuring La Fontaine fables from Teinturerie Bonnin in Nantes, France. Light paper with orange coloring. 4” x 2½”. Two are signed by an artist with a name something like “Sluston.” €14.99 from place-nette-nantes on Ebay, August, ’21. The seller identifies these as ”DLG Benjamin Rabier.” Though they remind one of Rabier’s style, I do not believe they are his work. Three clearly present fables. I am not sure what the commerce of the two fish is meant to relate to in La Fontaine. Two of the puzzle-answers were so easy that I wonder if I am not missing something obvious in the other two, which I find hard. The opening statement on the verso seems clever, but I sense that they are playing with a verb other than “aller.”

1950? Six monochrome cards 2½" x 4¼" displaying La Fontaine's fables with bilingual titles and hidden-picture questions. Each advertises "Mono Poeders" in Dutch. $7 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. And 11 cards advertising "Speculoos Edelweiss" from Ann Filipowich, Toronto, through eBay, Feb., '15. These cards use the same designs as the polychrome hidden-picture cards here titled "Colored French 'La Fontaine' Hidden Picture Cards." As I found there, the solutions are not easy! Again here, I offer not only an enlarged "light box" version but a solution, with a normal view of what I believe is the hidden object. Several still elude me! "Speculoos Edelweiss" are apparently a type of shortbread cookie. Two among these use blue; the others, like all in the “Mono Poeders” group, use reddish orange.

1950? Two full-color hidden picture fable cards presenting DW and "The Robbers and the Ass." "La Fontaine." $14 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Six more cards from Bertrand for $5 each, all advertising "Chichorée Extra "A la Menagère" from Duroyon & Ramette in Cambrai. Printed by L. & A. Nisse, in Croix (Nord), Sept., '20. Ten further cards, including several extras, for €10 from Grenadines Sari, Paris, through eBay. FC and "Rabbit and Frogs" for €4.66 each from Bernard Majdecki, Dijon, Jan., '22. Each card has a fable title and "La Fontaine" at the top, a full-length colored image, and a question at the bottom, asking "Where is the wolf?" and "Where is the ass?" I did not find these easy! There is nothing on the verso. Click on the card to see a bigger version and on "Resolved" to see a solution. This series seems to overlap in its designs with the our "Mono Poeders Monochrome Hidden Picture Cards." 2½" x 4". French apparently knows these cards as "Les Belles Devinettes."

1890? Two blue hidden picture fable cards presenting MSA and FS. Title and question are written in cursive script. $14 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Each card has a fable title and question within the image portion near the top. "Where is the son?" and "Where is the stork?" There is nothing on the verso. I did not find these easy! In MSA, it is tempting to take the mill, with its resemblance to a human face, as the easy answer. Click on the card to see a bigger version and on "Resolved" to see a solution.

1890? Two monochrome hidden-picture trade cards advertising "Incroyable de Paris" stitched shoes for women and men. 4⅜ x 3". Paris: Imp. F. Hermet. $14 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. TH and "The Old Man and the Ass." I think I have found the hidden picture in these; click on the separate link-opener to see it resolved. At first I thought these were most likely stock trade cards, but reflection on the fact that the advertisement takes the complete verso and two parts of the front of either card, I decided that they more a particular creation of Incroyable de Paris. Incroyable offers very inexpensive stitched shoes. Might these contrast with wooden shoes?

1930? Three colored "hidden picture" trade cards featuring fable titles and pictures with hidden elements. Fructines-Vichy Delicieux Bonbons. One extra of "The Spider and the Lark." $15 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Five more cards and three duplicates, all from Pharmacie Bouchez in Amiens, for €6 from chromosetcollections through Ebay, August, '22. My attempts to solve these three pleasant cards ended with two of three easy successes and one tougher experience. Each card front defines what is hidden in its picture. Thus for WL, we read that the lamb's mother is not far away. Click on the image to see a larger version and on "solution" to see where I believe the solution lies in each case.

1915? Five monochrome hidden picture fable cards advertising Chocolat Roval from Les Fils de J. Vernet, Dijon. "La Fontaine." $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. Printed by L. & A. Nisse, in Croix (Nord), Sept., '20. Like the colored series "Colored French 'La Fontaine' Fable Cards," each card has a fable title and "La Fontaine" at the top, a full-length image, and a question at the bottom. The series also seems to overlap with the bilingual Dutch series "Mono Poeders Monochrome Hidden Picture Cards." I still do not find these easy!

1910? One colored "Fox and Geese" card advertising The Beaham Mfg. Co. of Kansas City, Mo., makers of "Faultless Starch." A bit less than 2½" x a bit more than 4". $3 somewhere, 1999. I doubt that this is really a fable card. It is a hidden-picture card, with a fox to be found by the clever observer. The back makes an offer "Mail us 10 for Comic Pictures, Mail us 25 for Beautiful Pictures." I take it this is one of the former, cheaper variety! Browns and reds. A small symbol at the lower right of the picture says "N 718."

1900? 3 small (2⅝" x 3") cards with four-color images including a hidden picture. Each has a statement identifying the hidden character. $5 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. Part of the challenge with hidden-picture cards, as I am learning, is "Am I looking for an abstruse image or a terribly simple one?" The scale of expectation can vary even within a small set, as I believe it does here. The clue-statements here are "Look for the rat!" and "The wolf is looking for the lamb" and "The wolf is not far away!"