Fables Choisies Mises en Vers par J. de la Fontaine: Nouvelle Edition Gravée en taille-douce, Vol. I

Abstract

This set of six volumes is one of the treasures of this collection! Apparently one of the causes of the publication was an urge to outdo Oudry's sumptuous edition of 1755-59. Many would say that Fessard succeeded. Metzner writes in Bodemann that this is the first fully engraved LaFontaine edition. Montulay was apparently the engraver for the texts. This first volume has 77 pages before one finds a fable: an engraved title-page and frontispiece, two dedications, a preface, a life of Aesop, a life of la Fontaine by the Abbe d'Olivet, and a Table of Fables I - XLII. When the fables begin, pagination moves from Roman to Arabic numerals. The pagination skips the full engraved plates, which are not printed on the verso. These full-page illustrations are presented in frames similar to those one would find around Oudry's work. Almost every fable receives three illustrations: a full-page engraving, a headpiece, and a tailpiece. Metzner gives a good sense of the artistic sources for each volume, but I am surprised not to find Oudry mentioned. Perhaps these engravings remind me of his work because they reflect the same culture and artistic tendencies. They are suitable for presentation on tapestries, with large outdoor backgrounds. The various smaller illustrations before and after each fable may show more insight, I believe. Contrast, for example, WL's two illustrations on and facing 23. Compare 2W on and facing 39: they form something of a before and after, as do the pair for FS on and facing 41. GA, the first fable, has an insightful presentation. Though we are given an overwhelming scene by contrast with the minuscule grasshopper and ant, this scene bears on the understanding of the fable. It is a campfire with a number of people around it. The fable is about welcoming the artist and rewarding the artist for singing his song. TMCM's engraving facing 21 is a new perspective: the two rats scamper down a stairway as the servant tidies the table. Other strong images include L'Enfant et le Maître d'École (43), OR (50), AD (78), and CW (91). This last engraving gives Fessard a chance to portray both a voluptuous female and a catlike woman -- in one! The engraving -- on a stone -- within an engraving on 93 has the misprint furea for furca, a two-pronged fork. Half-calf over five raised bands on the spine, marbled endpapers, and a page-marking ribbon. This first volume's spine has a piece tearing loose at its top. Appraised at $6200 for the set of six volumes. That figures with the range of costs for the editions presently for sale on ABE. There seem to have been two issues of the first edition. The first issue, pictured as Bodemann #150.1, has several lines commencing with Chez l'Auteur between A Paris and MDCCLXV. This second issue has only Chez des Lauriers, Md. De Papiers, rue St. Honoré. Critics seem to agree in finding this issue inferior -- even mediocre -- by comparison with the other. The problem seems to concern the paper and the quality of the impressions. Thomas Fothergill of Hellmut Schumann Antiquariat in Zurich has been helpful to me in sorting out the distinction of issues. There seems also to be a variant of this second issue with Chez Durand instead of Chez des Lauriers (J. Levine, Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books, 275).