Creighton University Archives and Special Collections

Carlson Fable Collection

Item Set

Items

• Paris-Vêtements
  1920? Two large (10½" x 8⅛") sheets presenting each two fables (WL and WC; LM and DS) in four colors. Paris-Vêtements. $20 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Thin paper and vivid color mark these pages. It is hard to imagine where in life they would show up, since they are neither as hardy nor as small as a card. No artist or printer seems to be acknowledged. Both have suffered a tear in the upper right corner as one views the image side.
• Pan Maltine
  1933 Two handbills of La Fontaine fables illustrated by M. Lemainque: 2P and "Le Gland et la Citrouille." 5⅜" x 7⅜". Printed by Louis Bellenand et Fils, Fontenay-aux-Rises, Advertisement on verso. €2.59 each from la fee chinette through Ebay, Sept., '22. Dragees are candy-like. Would we call them "dietary supplements" now, 90 years later? Both of Lemainque's illustrations are pointed and engaging. The human pots are fun! There is a clever printer's seal at the top right of the image side of the handbill.
• Orange and Black
  1935? Two handbills, executed in mostly orange and black, depicting LM and "Fortune and the Young Child." $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. The artist here has the usual difficulty in depicting a lion. This lion ends up to be more like a human being in his face as well as his body. Elements of these two apparently monochrome handbills may have also had colors that have faded.
• Marie-Rose, Mort des Poux
  1950 "Les Fables Célèbres." Two thin-paper handbills illustrating four fables of La Fontaine and advertising La Marie-Rose, "La Mort Parfumée des Poux!" 5" x 7½". $3 each from Mme Denise Debuigne, Rennes, France, May, '03. One illustrating TB, apparently earlier, for $5 from the same source, May, '05. FG from Marie-Rose for $6 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '20. "Handbill" is my best guess as to what these two very lightweight sheets are. The first presents FC, TH, LM, and MM, while the second has WL, "Le Laboureur et ses Enfants," GA, and OF. I never thought of using fables to advertise medication to kill lice! One should use La Marie-Rose on one's children every Thursday, so that one can send proper children to school. The quips on the back touting the virtues of La Marie-Rose are a riot! The earlier handbill illustrating TB proclaims that Marie-Rose Lotion is not greasy and does not stain. It wards off the insects that bring all sorts of diseases!
• Paul Colin for Lesbroussart & Fils
  1930? Two black-and-white handbills by Paul Colin presenting FG and “The Old Man and the Three Young Men.” Stamped by Lesbroussart & Fils in Beauvais. 7¾” x 11”. No publisher acknowledged. Planche #2008 (“Old Man”) and #2016 (FG). $6 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., ’20. Someone must have produced a lot of handbills to make these in the 2000’s! These images replicate large Colin posters in the collection and also a book of Colin posters, “La Fontaine en Images.” I love Colin’s work! Does something of the fox’s face get lost in FG? Does some other artist create these black-and-white designs on the basis of Colin's work, or might he do that himself?
• Imageries Réunies de Jarville-Nancy
  1935? Thirty stapled handbills of La Fontaine’s fables printed by Imageries Réunies de Jarville-Nancy. Heavy paper featuring a framed text on the left half and an image on the right half. Each verso is plain except for a stamped advertisement for Roger Schilling, Coiffeur, in Tours. €40 from Librairie Traits et Caractères, Sens, France, through ABEbooks, April, ’21. Several things are unusual about this collection. It is understandable that the vendor labelled it as “Imagerie d’Epinal,” since it is definitely in that category; I believe that it may be a competitor to Epinal. The most unusual feature is the stapling together of these thirty handbills. I had been tempted to catalogue it as a book. Lastly, I find the diversity of style and quality surprising. GA reminds me of Paul Colin, who was already famous in 1925. Typical and typically colorful is FS. Surprisingly creative in its composition is DW. Perhaps not as well executed is “The Kite and the Nightingale” – though a quick check finds this very illustration on a trade card posted for the fable as presented on a prominent La Fontaine website! Perhaps also not as skillfully done, though wonderfully conceived, is “The Monkey and the Cat.” These handbills have lasted well these 85 years! Heavy stock. The images seem to be identical with the fifteen that appear in the pamphlet by the same publisher “Fables de La Fontaine, Album No. 2,” for which I have guessed the same date. The vendor dates these about 1905.
• Blédine
  1930? Six large (5½" x 8⅜") colored advertisements for Blédine nutriments offering an illustration and a text for a fable of La Fontaine. $48 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Twelve further advertisements for €21.25 through Ebay from Eric Leneuf, Talant, France, July, ’21, including “The Fish and the Shepherd Playing the Flute”; “The Crow Wanting to Imitate the Eagle”; “The Woodcutter and Mercury”; “The Robbers and the Ass”; “The Cook and the Swan”; and “The Lion Subdued by the Man.” Four extras for €11.77 from bill2100 through Ebay, March, ’21. Six extras for €12.41 from chromosetcollections through Ebay, Jan., ’21. Three more extras for €8.75 from maconlection through Ebay, Oct., '22. Blédine seems to have offered the right food for infants after mother's milk, perhaps something like cream of wheat. They also produced Blécao. These are very nicely colored illustrations. As so often, the French seem to want children to act out their fables, even if they lose some of their meaning in the process. I wonder, for example, if the TB fable does not lose its significance when the "bear" surprising the travelers is a costumed child. The text on some of these pages overflows onto the verso among the advertising. These are not really "cards," either in size or paper stock, but they are closer to trade cards than they are to most advertisements.
• Wer kann die Wahrheit nackend sehn?
  1982 Wer kann die Wahrheit nackend sehn? Five fabulists. Holzstiche von Harald Metzkes. Slipcase with five folded pages. Leipzig: Verlag Karl Quarch. €33.88 from Leipziger Antiquariat, Oct., '21. This fascinating work is a set of five folded pages -- each with four folds about 4" by 8¼' -- brought together in a slipcase that offers a title on one side and a T of C on the other. For safety's sake, I am listing this work both as a book and as a set of printed woodcuts. The five fabulists are Gotthold Ehraim Lessing. Five fascinating fable texts are transformed into strong woodcuts, 3½" by up to 4½". It seems to me that the texts all have something to do with reverencing art. I am delighted to have come across this unusual effort!
• Three Stickers
  2023 Three stickers from redbubble.com. Nov., '23. Redbubble is quite the collective of creative, sometimes wild, artists. I am delighted to see them play with fables. In this case we have two small designs found elsewhere and one that is new to me.
• Aesop's Fable Tags and Frames Scrapbook Paper
  2021 Aesop's Fable Tags and Frames Scrapbook Paper. CBSS159. Ciao Bella. Made in Italy. 12" x 12". $1.89 from Ciao Bella through Etsy, April, '23. BC, LM, TMCM; GA; and TH are various images able to be used from this surpsing page. Does one cut them out to make "tags" of them?
• "Zero Euro."
  2016 "Zero Euro." Souvenir currency. $13.54 from Actualités d'Antan through Ebay, May, '22. This is a beautifully executed bill. I am particularly taken with the grouping of colored symbols on the verso, with Mona Lisa keeping an eye on things. I was of course utterly unaware that such things exist!
• Fables in Silhouette
  1923 Fables in Silhouette. Bess Bruce Cleaveland. Chicago: Ideal School Supply Co. Printed in the USA. $15 from goldmtmercantile through Ebay, Feb., '20. This is a slightly oversized envelope containing one 11" x 13" page of twelve designs in silhouette with comments under each about constructing the scene. Then there are twelve 9" x 12" black-backed pages of cutout figures, a page for each fable scene. Since both the envelope and the design-page are larger than my flatbed scanner, they presented a challenge. I hope to improve upon my first efforts in a long time at image-stitching!
• Ouvrages de Dames "Broderies/Dessins Anciens" Brochure
  1912 Ouvrages de Dames "Broderies/Dessins Anciens" Brochure. April 7, 1912. Supplement 14 to Nouvelle Mode. $7.75 from Antiquesythier through Ebay, March, '20. I lose my way in the various chapter headings in this 8-page brochure, which was a supplement in either Ouvrages de Dames or Nouvelle Mode. It consists mostly of patterns and descriptions. The description of FC lists it as a sequel to FG. The design itself is about 4" x 8".
• Receipt for purchase of Chocolat-Menier
  1951 Receipt for purchase of Chocolat-Menier. February 13, 1951. 44,214 Francs. Richard LeFranc in Avignon. Sold by Chocolat-Menier in Paris. €10 from kam-oulox through Ebay, March, '22. The verso presents a child and many of La Fontaine's animals and urges the collecting of Menier's colored images of the fables of La Fontaine. Might Monsieur LeFranc in 1951 have dreamed that someone in 2022 would value the receipt he received for paying 44,000 Francs for chocolate? And who ever looks at the verso of a receipt?
• "The Fox and the Crow Fable"
  2023 "The Fox and the Crow Fable" poster by TaliMooni. Vilnius Lithuania. 16½" x 23½". $18.94 through Etsy, Jan., '23. This is a splendid, dramatic piece of work! A special touch is the element perhaps not noticed at first: the two creatures exit right in the background, one with cheese and one without. Snout and beak get special handling here!
• "Aesop's Fables" by Walter Crane
  1998? "Aesop's Fables" by Walter Crane. Illustrations and text for twenty of Crane's "tiles" from The Baby's' Own Aesop, Engraved and Printed in Colours by Edman Evans, 1887. 24" x 36". 15120. Rohnert Park, CA: Pomegranate Communications, Inc. Designed by Lisa Reid. Printed in Korea. $12.95 from Peder Berge at Puddy Sales, North Brunswick, NJ, through Ebay, May, '01. One extra copy at the same time from the same source. The poster almost does justice to Crane's work, as my photograph certainly does not. The poster becomes somewhat overwhelming, but the individual tiles are lovely. Pomegranate did a set of boxed note cards at the same time.
• "Russian Folk Tales"(?)
  1983 "Russian Folk Tales"(?) Set of ten oversized illustrations by E. Rachyov, with a Russian text. Various authors. Moscow: Malvish (?) Publishers. $19 at Fairy Tales & Dreams, DC, Dec., '91. This excellent illustrator (named Rachyeva there) is responsible for excellent books of Krilov's fables done in 1965 and 1983. Here we have tales by O. Kapeetsa, M. Boolatov, and A(leksei) Tolstoy. The tales seem to be: "The Fox and the Wolf"; "The Goat and the Wolf"; "The Cat, Ram, Goat, and Bear"; "The Bear and the Little Girl"; "The Fox, the Cat, and the Rooster" (see Harvest [1967/70], 123); "The Bear and the Man"; and on the covers "The Rooster, the Hare, and the Fox." Rachyov's style is distinctive and engaging.
• "Russian Folk Tales."
  1978 "Russian Folk Tales." Set of ten oversized illustrations by Veniamin Losin, with text. Various translators. 11½" x 16¼".Moscow: Malysh Publishers. $6.48 at The Book Center, SF, Jan., '91. #8 and #1 illustrate FC. Note that #8 pictures the first phase of the fable, while #1 pictures the second. Large, colorful folk art.
• "A Note to La Fontaine," poem by Jean Garrigue
  1965 "A Note to La Fontaine," poem by Jean Garrigue in "Selected Poems," published by University of Illinois Press in Urbana, 1992. Poem first appeared in "The New Yorker" in 1965. Available through Internet Archive. Garrigue catches La Fontaine's sentiments, I believe, beautifully. Fie on the ant life! Live to sing and to be enchanted.
• Félix Lorioux Plates
  1998 Félix Lorioux Plates. Two from a set of 72 reproductions, 8.5" x 11" each: "Le Rat de Ville et le Rat des Champs" title page and guitar-playing grasshopper from GA. Reproduced from Lorioux' Fables de La Fontaine (Hachette, 1921). Free samples from the whole set sent by Justin M. Jacobs, Jr., President of Fantasy Artworks, Palo Alto, CA. I was confused, since the accompanying letter calls these (as they were advertised) "bookplate replicas." "Bookplate" here apparently means a plate in a book, not a personal identifier. I am sorry that I cannot invest $432 in reproductions from a book that cost me $50 for a first edition! But I am amazed at what people turn out! GA is matt, while TMCM has glossy paper. Apparently Fantasy Artworks means to prepare these as art to be matted and framed.
• Framed Xerox copy of Francisco del Tuppo's illustration
  1988 Framed Xerox copy of Francisco del Tuppo's illustration for "Animals Paying Last Respects to King Lion." Gift of Rev. Michael Zeps, S.J., July, '88. This is an object where fable-collecting connects with other big things in my life. One of those things that I have done less well than others is to serve as a superior in several Jesuit communities. The object here is a framed Xerox copy of Francesco del Tuppo's 1485 image of the animals attacking the sick old lion. They are, one after another, paying him back for his heavy-handed rule over them. They can do so now that he is weak and in his last days. The lion understands it from others but is particularly insulted by being humiliated by the donkey. My good friend Fr. Mike Zeps, S.J., was charged with giving a farewell speech as I finished a difficult stint as a Jesuit superior -- difficult for me, and probably even more difficult for many of the Jesuits there. To offer a gift fit for its recipient, Mike actually went to the public library and found Taplinger's "The Life and Fables of Aesop" with del Tuppo's illustrations and chose this image of "saying good-bye." Mike knew my taste well enough that I would enjoy the wit of the selection. Notice that the donkey is not only kicking the lion in the mouth. He is also expressing himself with another bodily reaction. Fable can bring wit and even a kind of consolation to a tough moment!
• Mr. Fables Beef-burgs Air Popper Gun
  1950? Mr. Fables Beef-burgs Air Popper Gun. Grand Rapids. $4.99 from Lee Whiteley Wills Point, TX, through eBay, March, '03. By moving one's arm down rapidly, one catches the paper folded under the barrel of this gun. As this paper breaks out, it makes a "pop." The motto given here for Mr. Fables Beef-burgs is "To [sic] good to be true." On the back is a marker indicating that this is a sample of the Spotco G-Man Bang Gun, No. S 21. It is left to our imagination to figure out what fables have to do with beefburgers.
• Argosy of Fables: Kroma-Paket 3
  1923 Argosy of Fables: Kroma-Paket. Kroma Paket No. 3. Pictures to Color--A New Kind of Outline Reproduction. Sandusky, OH/NY: The American Crayon Company. $3 from John Pacheco, Wallingford, CT, through Ebay, Feb., '01. The pictures are acknowledged as coming from An Argosy of Fables by Frederick Tabor Cooper, with pictures by Paul Bransom. The cover shows the bear with its tail down a fishing hole. The package includes two colored illustrations, "If the ducks can swim there, why can't I?" and "They amused themselves by ringing it all the time." On top of each the following is written: "This serves to illustrate the effect a child can obtain after a few days' practice following the Kroma Paket instructions sheets." (Is this truth in advertising?!) The set includes eleven uncolored sheets and three sheets of specific color instructions for each. The set may be lacking the yet-to-be-colored page for the monkeys and their bell. Fables show up in the strangest places!
• Aesop's Fables: Kroma-Paket 1
  1923 Aesop's Fables: Kroma-Paket. Kroma Paket No. 1. Pictures to Color--A New Kind of Outline Reproduction. Sandusky, OH/NY: The American Crayon Company. $18 from Lisa Bouchard, Melrose, MA, through eBay, Jan., '13. The pictures are acknowledged as coming from The Aesop for Children with pictures by Milo Winter, published by Rand McNally & Company. The cover shows the rooster telling the fox to come up, while the "doorman" dog awaits the fox inside the tree's opening. The package includes two colored illustrations, SS and "The Cock and the Fox." This set includes five "outline sketches" still waiting to be colored in and six rather well executed by someone with crayons. "The Wolf and the Kid" may be missing, as it is indicated on one of the three sheets of specific color instructions for each outline. The child is assumed not to need instructions for the two already colored illustrations. The three added sheets are fascinating. One advertises The Aesop for Children. Another advertises "Kroma Paket Awards." A third shows "How to Use Kroma Water Colors" and "How to Use Kroma Crayons."
• Shredded Wheat Picture Story Album
  1935? Shredded Wheat Picture Story Album. Twelve 3" x 7" cards of familiar rhymes, stories, and foreign places, several colored in. $.25 at the Omaha Antique Center, Winter, '89. Included is TH. Also, though without fables, an incomplete set of Tony Sarg's Animal Circus.