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One of the masterpieces of French eighteenth-century book illustration

LA FONTAINE, [Jean] de.
Contes et nouvelles en vers.

First volume contains 1 engraved portrait of La Fontaine, and 39 engraved plates illustrating the fables, second volume with an engraved portrait of Charles Eisen and 41 engraved plates. In total 4 vignettes and 53 beautifully engraved head- and tailpieces adorn the 2 volumes.

First volume contains 1 engraved portrait of La Fontaine, and 39 engraved plates illustrating the fables, second volume with an engraved portrait of Charles Eisen and 41 engraved plates. In total 4 vignettes and 53 beautifully engraved head- and tailpieces adorn the 2 volumes.

First volume contains 1 engraved portrait of La Fontaine, and 39 engraved plates illustrating the fables, second volume with an engraved portrait of Charles Eisen and 41 engraved plates. In total 4 vignettes and 53 beautifully engraved head- and tailpieces adorn the 2 volumes.

First volume contains 1 engraved portrait of La Fontaine, and 39 engraved plates illustrating the fables, second volume with an engraved portrait of Charles Eisen and 41 engraved plates. In total 4 vignettes and 53 beautifully engraved head- and tailpieces adorn the 2 volumes.

First volume contains 1 engraved portrait of La Fontaine, and 39 engraved plates illustrating the fables, second volume with an engraved portrait of Charles Eisen and 41 engraved plates. In total 4 vignettes and 53 beautifully engraved head- and tailpieces adorn the 2 volumes.



Amsterdam (=Paris), (Duchesne), 1762. 2 vols. 8vo. Contemporary red morocco, spine with gilt flowers and calf title-label, covers with triple-fillet gilt borders and a gilt flower in every corner, inside covers gilt as well, g.e. 2 volumes preserved together in modern slipcase. First volume contains 1 engraved portrait of La Fontaine, and 39 engraved plates illustrating the fables, second volume with an engraved portrait of Charles Eisen and 41 engraved plates. In total 4 vignettes and 53 beautifully engraved head- and tailpieces adorn the 2 volumes. XIV, 268, (2), 16; VIII, 306, (8 + 2 blank) pp.

Splendid copy of one of the most famous editions of the stories and novels by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695).
Jean de La Fontaine's Contes et Nouvelles were at the time probably even more popular then his fables. Based on Boccaccio, La Fontaines tales consist of all sorts of exemplary stories, fairy tales and popular tales, they also contained a lesson or moral at the end. In the oldest collections from the East, like the Bidpai or the Thousand and One Nights, fables and fairy tales were freely mixed together, and also in the early West European collections, like the Exempla or the History of the Seven Wise Men of Rome, the various moralizing genres of fables, allegories and fairy tales were all present together. Still, La Fontaine's Contes et Nouvelles were more intended for the amusement of a gallant company than for the education of youth, often containing spicy 'exotic' and erotic elements.
Our copy is of the so called 'Fermiers-Généraux' edition. In 1762 La Fontaine was commissioned by the 'farmers-general', or tax-farmers, a large and powerful group of men who collected the indirect taxes levied by the French crown. Nothing was spared to produce ''a fitting monument to the tax-farmers' wealth and position" and contains 71 Contes et nouvelles and other writings. The last 5 stories are not by La Fontaine: La Couturière, Le Gascon and La Cruche are by Autereau; Promettre est un et tenir est un autre by Vergier and Le Rossignol which is attributed to Lamblin or to Du Trousset de Valincourt. Furthermore the Dissertation sur la Joconde at the end of the first volume, is by Boileau.
The portrait of La Fontaine in the first volume is designed by Hyacinthe Rigaud and engraved by Ficquet, who also engraved the portrait of Charles Eisen after Vispré in the second volume. Eisen (1720-1778) on his turn is the designer of the 80 engraved plates illustrating the stories. He was one of the acknowledged masters of French rococo book illustration and these 80 designs are his finest work. "The robustness and voloptuous sensuality of his plates capture the flavor of the original Boccaccio from whom La Fontaine took his these tales, yet the precision and delicacy of their execution saves them from vulgarity." (Leslie A. Morris in Visions of a collector). His designs were engraved by Aliamet, Baquoy, Choffard, Delafosse, Flipart, Lemire, Leveau, de Longueil and Ouvrier. Pierre-Philippe Choffard (1730?-1809) also engraved the vignettes and head- and tailpieces, which wittily comment on the events in every preceding tale. In the second volume, the last tailpiece is a portrait of Choffard. Volume one contains an extra loose, refused engraving that depicts a scene of the fable Le calendrier des Vieillards.

Beautiful copy.
Cohen-De Ricci, pp. 558-68; Leslie A. Morris in: Visions of a collector (Washington 1991), p. 277-9; Lewine, pp. 278-80.

Related Subjects: Fable Books  Fairy Tales  Illustrated Books  La Fontaine  Literature  Schoolbooks 

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€ 19.750,00

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