La Fontaine: Fables, Tome I

Abstract

Bodemann 436. This is a wonderful find! As Metzner there says, the two volume set contains seventy illustrations in all: eleven full-page, twenty-two half-page at the beginning of fable texts, and the rest mostly bordering the text from outside. Metzner's expressions catch the slightly Dufy-esque character of this attractive art: Fabelszenen vor meist südländischer Landschaftskulisse; flächenfüllende Zeichnung in leichten transparenten Federstrichen, leuchtend-helle Buntstiftfarben, kindhaft-naiver Ausdruck. My prizes in this first volume go to La Mort et le Malheureux (35), CJ (45), MSA (97), Le Chat et un Vieux Rat (136), TB (227), and La Jeune Veuve (270). La Fontaine attracted such great twentieth-century illustrators! The colophon at the end of Volume II speaks of a limited edition of 35 and 300 on Hollande van Gelder containing a suite of the illustrations in black. I presume that this pair of volumes come from a printing beyond that limited printing of 335. In any case, I find no evidence of numbering of these two volumes. There is a glassine dust jacket on each volume, slightly torn. The book has a bookseller's seal facing the inside cover: A Nostre Dame, 37 Rue Michelet, Alger. This is my first set of volumes, I believe, that has come through Algeria! Both volumes are signed Henry René Outin, From Grandma, July 9th, 1938. Henry was lucky, and so am I!