Old Friends and New Faces

Abstract

This large-format book never prints on both sides of the page. The Aesop's Fables section begins with a full-page text and full-page colored illustration of 2W, marred by pencil scribblings. There follow five pages of quartets of fable texts and -- on what would be opposing pages if another totally blank page were not inserted in between -- matching quartets of colored fable pictures. My favorites among the illustrations include the long-nosed woman sniffing the empty cask, the blackamoor being scrubbed, and the menacing owner of the ass in the lion-skin. This illustration I had already had as a separate piece, no doubt cut out of a copy of this book! The title-page and first page of Robinson Crusoe are missing. The spine is chipped and the binding weak. The front cover is embossed in gold with a picture of a clothed ass reading a book. I was very lucky to find this on Brattle's restricted third floor. A recent copy on the net with one torn illustration went for $306! The Lilly exhibit in Indiana highlighted the Kronheim chromolithographic oil color process as a new method of illustration appropriate for children's books. Though in the exhibitor's words it was fancy and fun, the process and the book did little to add to quality illustration or [sic; of?] fable literature.