Imagerie Artistique: 20 Fables de La Fontaine

Abstract

This is the third of three copies I have found of this book, a first volume answering two copies I had earlier found of the second volume. The cover has a teacher pointing to one of eleven miniatures of this book's twenty posters. My favorites in this collection include FG and "The Two Goats." Along the Seine, I found twelve of these posters at a bookstall (along with five from the second volume). Cataloguing this last-found copy of this book has led to fascinating learning and decisions about the three copies. The learning has to do with the publishing house and this series of books which it published. "Imagerie Artistique" was in fact a series of twenty publications between 1886 and 1904, each publication containing twenty large-format colored pages. There were four major divisions: "Historiettes," military history, fables of La Fontaine, and fairy tales. Our two volumes – this first and the second mentioned in the beginning of this comment -- were published in the fables category. The learning about the firm shows that it used four name constellations. This volume is like the earlier-found Brattle Books copy but unlike the earliest-found Chanut copy. The differences help to suggest a year of publication for each. The cover of this and the Brattle Books copy have "Paris Maison Quantin" and their title pages have "Maison Quantin, Compagnie Générale d'Impression et d'Édition, 7, rue Saint-Benoît, Paris." Wikipedia's information leads to dating these two copies in the first period, 1886-9, whereas the Chanut copy comes from the second period, either 1891 or 1896. This particular copy has scribbling on its front cover, front endpaper, and title-page. Its illustrations show very good color printing. The binding is rather crudely repaired.