Albanian fable stamps

Abstract

Now here is a surprise! I would not have thought of Albania as a country that would celebrate Jean de la Fontaine. The spiffy design on the envelope, rendered in brown, blue, and violet, slenderizes and stylizes La Fontaine as he almost dances up to a book with pen in hand. The first of the stamps, worth 2 leke, includes The Talkative Tortoise, Belling the Cat, The Wolf and the Crane, and The Lion and the Mouse. The second stamp, worth 3 leke, features The Fox and the Grapes, The Fox and the Crow, The Fox and the Stork, and The Dog and the Shadow. On the third, worth 25 leke, I think I can make out The Ant and the Dove, OR, and perhaps The Ox and the Frog. The characters seem to be rendered in pastels of some sort.