Fables de La Fontaine: Cent Fables Choisies

Abstract

One of the most beautiful books in the collection, and in very good condition. Apparently unknown to standard bibliographers like Quinnam, Hobbs, and Bassy, it is in my favorite private collection. It is well described in Bodemann in an edition of 1904. Might this undated copy belong to that edition? My other two copies are dated 1925 (paper) and 1932 (hardbound with a dark green cloth cover). The cover here has a gray background. The twelve full-page colored illustrations are particularly good, e.g., of GA (1), two pigeons (117), the little fish and the fisherman (137), and the oyster and the litigants (189). The best among the black-and-white line illustrations are of Death and the woodcutter (15), the hunter fleeing from the lion (30), the dog and food (36), the bear and the gardener (81), DW (91), the frog and the rat (150), and TB (151). Have I seen elsewhere the donkey cartoon before and the pigeon cartoon after the ending T of C? The closest artist generally may be Boutet de Monvel.