-
Dust-jacket from "Chantez-Moi Ça, Petits Enfants!" presenting "Le Loup Devenu Berger." 1900? Dust-jacket from "Chantez-Moi Ça, Petits Enfants!" presenting "Le Loup Devenu Berger." To be sung to the tune of "Il Était un' Bergère." Bichelberger, E. Champon et Cie, Étival (Vosges). €10 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23.
The back cover of this dust jacket has the fourteen verses, the last of them incorrectly labeled "VIX." The color work on the wolf-shepherd seems to me excellent. Of course I would love to see more in this colorful series -- and gather them into this collection!
-
Antique Victorian Die Cut Paper 1900? Antique Victorian Die Cut Paper Art Fable Set of 12. $100 from Chickadeepick through Ebay, March, '23.
These fragile papers are exquisite! Many seem to work out to a standard rectangular size. Numbers mark them as part of a series with at least 45 members, but there is a chance that the set includes only these twelve cuts of fables. With the exception of one (#38?) that is lacking its number, the set is complete from #34 through #45. I will present them here in numerical order. The delicacy and exactness of the printing, coloring, and cutting are remarkable!
-
Vintage Three-Piece TH Decal Set 1980 Vintage Three-Piece TH Decal Set. Two copies. Carol Stream, IL: The Meyercord Co. A Johnson Matthey Company. $1.99 each from Sue Daniels, Camarillo, CA, through Ebay, Nov., '01.
An 8" x 12" sheet offers a reclining bunny eating a carrot, a lumbering tortoise with pince-nez, and a bushy tree, each between 5½" and 6" across. The sheet suggests different arrangements on furniture and walls. Each comes with a stiff cardboard that provides instructions. Inflation has taken its toll. Each cost $1.15 in 1980.
-
R.S. Les Belles Décalcomanies 1950? "les belles décalcomanies," two sets, each with 16 "transfer pictures" of La Fontaine's fables. R.S. Paris. €6 each from labuandrie, through Ebay, Oct., '23.
The seller designates these two folders in good repair as coming from 1910, but I believe they are more likely from about 1950. At first I thought these images were what we called "transfers," instant tattoos. I changed my mind when the instructions urged "coating with varnish the next day to make them permanent"! Though there are two sets, there are repeaters between the two sets. There are repeat images even within the same collection.
-
Ten Greek schoolroom scrolls 1975 Ten Greek schoolroom scrolls for hanging up in a classroom, each illustrating a fable in four scenes with a title. Wooden endpieces with an almost canvas-like paper for the pictures themselves. Gift of Martin and Ulrike Kölle, August, 2012. The fables pictured include :
1. TH
2. The Rooster, Fox, and Dog
3. MM
4. SS
5. The Wolf-Doctor and the Horse
6. AD
7. Two Rats
8. The Hen and a Seed
9. FS
10. TT
-
Eleven Greek canvas scroll hangings depicting Greek fables 1970? Eleven Greek canvas scroll hangings depicting Greek fables. E.E. Apomimesis. Thessalonike: P. Zacharopoulos. $200 from kabilis through Ebay, July, ’21.
Like the gift set given earlier by Martin and Ulrike Koelle, these cloth scrolls feature each four scenes from a given fable, with a title and number at the top of the scroll. Where the Koelle scrolls feature lower case titles in blue, this set features block print in red. FG spends two panels, for example, on the birds who mock the frustrated and sweating fox. More images coming soon!
-
Individual Wrappers Individual Russian chocolate candy wrappers in the collection represent several different brands.
-
Krasniy Oktybro Krasniy Oktybro delivers "Krylov Fables" chocolates in three sizes: 20 grams, 18 grams, and 15 grams. We have one of the first sort, two of the second, and one of the third..
-
Rot Front Four labels come from smaller pieces – 18 grams --of chocolate. The color scheme is different on each, though the format remains the same. By contrast with the larger chocolate bars above, these wrappers seem to be shut, as though the top and bottom have become pasted together. I have not had the heart to re-open them! One verso below gives a sense of the similar siblings.
-
Rot Front The large sizeis about 3⅜" x 6" and contains 100 grams of chocolate. This closed wrapper is so strong that I offer the verso as well.
-
Meenpeesheprom (?) I have had trouble deciphering the company and place on these two large (7¾" x 6") wrappers, both for 100 grams of chocolate.
-
Rossia Maroon These four large (8½" x 8") wrappers include a lovely fable picture, which I offer here in each case as a detail. Do not miss what I believe is a double fable representation in the last wrapper. I believe that the artist is representing two fables at once. Might the human figure there suggest even a third fable?
-
Mother Goose on the Loose 2003 Mother Goose on the Loose: Illustrated With Cartoons from The New Yorker. Edited by Bobbye S. Goldstein. NY: Harry N. Abrams.
I am not sure that "Old Mother Goose and the Golden Egg" (92) really relates to the fable of "The Goose and the Golden Egg," but each of the three cartoons here certainly does relate to the fable. The artist for this cartoon is Henry Martin. Click on the cartoon at the right to see it full size. Click here to view the bibliography entry for the book itself.
-
Mother Goose on the Loose 2003 Mother Goose on the Loose: Illustrated With Cartoons from The New Yorker. Edited by Bobbye S. Goldstein. NY: Harry N. Abrams.
I am not sure that "Old Mother Goose and the Golden Egg" (92) really relates to the fable of "The Goose and the Golden Egg," but each of the three cartoons here certainly does relate to the fable. The artist for this cartoon is Mick Stevens. Click on the cartoon at the right to see it full size. Click here to view the bibliography entry for the book itself.
-
Mother Goose on the Loose 2003 Mother Goose on the Loose: Illustrated With Cartoons from The New Yorker. Edited by Bobbye S. Goldstein. NY: Harry N. Abrams.
I am not sure that "Old Mother Goose and the Golden Egg" (92) really relates to the fable of "The Goose and the Golden Egg," but each of the three cartoons here certainly does relate to the fable. The artist for this cartoon is Chon Day. Click on the cartoon at the right to see it full size. Click here to view the bibliography entry for the book itself.
-
Speed Bump cartoon by Dave Coverly 1990? Speed Bump cartoon by Dave Coverly. "Aesop's Brother, Asap." Taken off the web.
Good exploitation of a pun and the common knowledge that Aesop was in the ancient Western world. Well done!
-
"A Getting-Away-With-It Fable." 1978 "A Getting-Away-With-It Fable." Crawdaddy Magazine, p. 30. 1978. Illustration by George Jartos. $9.99 from John Huber, Livonia, MI, through eBay, May, '08.
This grasshopper signs a recording deal and cuts an album of Cajun songs "that the ants really dug and the grasshopper went platinum and moved to L.A. while the ants sat around in holes eating some really disgusting things." Good fun!
-
"The Fox and the Grapes." 1939 "The Fox and the Grapes." Reproduction of a cartoon appearing in Punch July 5, 1939. Bernard Partridge. Unknown source, perhaps North Country Books through Ebay, unknown date.
I am a bit surprised that the fox here is not somehow identified, though everyone reading "Punch" in 1939 would know that the fox is either Germany or Hitler. I wonder if the clot of hair across the fox's brow is not an attempt to make the fox into Hitler. Partridge did a lot of Punch caricatures or cartoons for decades.
-
"The Tortoise and the Hare from the Walt Disney Silly Symphony." 1934 "The Tortoise and the Hare from the Walt Disney Silly Symphony." Good Housekeeping, Oct., 1934. Page 37, with five cartoon panels detailing the race. 8 1/8" x 11½". $12.50 from Byron Grush, Cerrillos, NM, through Ebay, Sept., '00.
The conception here is just as it is in the early Disney book presentations of TH in 1935. Rhyming verse quatrains here follow the story, with Disney's usual inclusion of Miss Cottontail's Boarding School, interested snails, and a last minute thrust of his head by the tortoise to win. Excellent condition.
-
"The goose that lays the golden egg." 1917? "The goose that lays the golden egg." Political cartoon by R. Thorndike. Los Angeles Times. $10 from Old Photos Online through Ebay, May, '23.
Woodrow Wilson, armed with a saw, is jeopardizing continued national prosperity by attacking the tariff. Will he use his hammer to knock the goose cold or to smash the latest egg? In the meantime, his election promises are stuffed into his back pocket. Might this cartoon have appeared in the times at the time of either the 1913 or 1917 election?
-
"The Split Crow in Difficulties.--A Fable for the Day." 1854 "The Split Crow in Difficulties.--A Fable for the Day." Punch, No. 657. February 11, 1854. 10¾" x 8¼". $9.99 from Ed and Laura Harrison, oldartgallery, N. Olmsted, OH, through Ebay, August, '99.
"A split crow fancying himself an eagle, fixed his talons in the fleece of a sheep--but, neither able to move his prey, nor to disentangle his feet, he was destroyed by the shepherds." Part of the joke here lies in the fact that the crow is split and wears a Kaiser's crown--in fact, two of them! There is an inch tear through the border of the cartoon. Click on the image to see a much larger version
-
George Ade's "Fables in Slang" 1928 23 "Fables in Slang" comic strips by George Ade. Many signed "Art Helfant." Unknown source.
I have enjoyed books of George Ade's fables. Those were text narratives. These cartoons are fun. They involve gentle social critique. Online commentators note that they present vernacular rather than slang. Ade was an accomplished playwright. Apparently these cartoon strip fables were syndicated nationally. I include them as a strong example of a popular use of the word "fable." Besides, they have their own charm!
-
French political cartoon 1932 French political cartoon. Nov. 20, 1932. L'Huitre & les Plaideurs." €9.99 from saintemariefrance through Ebay, July, '20.
In La Fontaine's fable, the "judge" eats the oyster and gives half a shell each to the two men arguing over the oyster, since one saw it first and the other got there first. Here the "litigants" go away angry, but the judge gets sick and has to keep running to the toilet. Moral: theft and gluttony deserve punishment.
-
French political cartoon 1932 French political cartoon. Dec. 11, 1932. "Le Corbeau et le Renard." Signed "Tétras." €9.99 from saintemariefrance through Ebay, July, '20.
In La Fontaine's fable, the flattering fox gets the crow to forget and release the cheese in his beak. This time the crow with his cheese comes determined not to let that happen again. The fox shows up but acts as though he sees nothing. The angry crow finally shouts at him "Hey, fox, I'm here!" He again loses his cheese.
-
French political cartoon 1927 French political cartoon. April, '27. "Le Loup et la Cigogne." "Jupiter." €9.99 from saintmichelfrance through Ebay, July, '20.
Here the "Lenine" Russian wolf, having gorged himself on the fat bourgeois of Russia, calls to his assistance his ally, the (English) stork. The latter does her best to assist him, at the risk of getting strangled and devoured when he will have recovered.