Jean de LA FONTAINE

Paris, Auguste Nepveu, bookseller, Passage des Panoramas, 1821. Quarto, xxviii and 462 pages.

A new edition of the Fables, described on the title page as "more complete than the preceding editions", illustrated with 110 half-page intaglio engravings printed within the text and an engraved title vignette. In the present copy, all 111 compositions have been finely coloured by hand. Rochambeau, 305; Desprès, p. 142, no. 63.

Twentieth-century full green calf, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets, rolls and floral tools, gilt rolls to the headcaps...

Seven octavo volumes bringing together, in uniform contemporary bindings, the greater part of La Fontaine’s Works in the critical edition prepared by Charles-Athanase Walckenaer and published in Paris by Lefèvre in the early 1820s, with one important distinction: in place of the volume of Contes et nouvelles en vers originally intended for the set, an independent edition, abundantly illustrated after Eisen and published in Paris by the Libraires associés in 1791-1796, has been substituted.

First edition, first issue, illustrated with an engraved frontispiece printed on mounted China paper and 120 wood-engraved plates by Grandville. From 1839 onwards, subsequent printings incorporated the wood engravings within the text and the frontispiece was printed on ordinary paper. Two issues were published by Fournier in 1838. The first issue may be identified by the captions to the engravings ending with a full stop; on page XIII of the Life of Aesop, the capital letter N is formed of looping lines, whereas in the second issue it is composed of small black-and-white squares. This distinction between the two issues is seldom noted. Our copy combines features of both issues: all the...

First edition of the illustrations by Henry Lemarié, one of 3,450 copies printed on Rives wove paper (No. 1059).
Magnificent work illustrated by Henry Lemarié with 3 title vignettes and 57 large wood-engraved plates hors texte, hand-coloured using the pochoir process. 
One of the most desirable illustrated editions of La Fontaine's Fables produced in the twentieth century. 
Spines of the chemises sunned, boards lightly and partially discoloured, as is often the case, otherwise a pleasing set. 

First edition of Henry Lemarié's illustrations, issued in 3,450 copies, this being one of the copies on Rives wove paper (no. 1073).
Spines of the chemises decorated with gilt compartments and lacework tools, slipcase panels adorned with a large illustration depicting artistic attributes and highlighted in gold.
Boards of the volumes lightly and partially sunned.
The work is illustrated throughout with black-and-colour in-text illustrations by Henry Lemarié.
An attractive, richly illustrated copy in an elegant presentation.

Celebrated edition entirely engraved both images and text, richly illustrated with 6 engraved titles, a frontispiece and an engraved half-title for volume I, together with 243 figures, 473 vignettes and tail-pieces engraved by Fessard.

The illustration of the first three volumes is the work of Monnet, and in the last three by Fessard after Bardin, Bidauld, Caresme, Desrais, Houel, Kobell, Le Clerc, Leprince, Loutherbourg, and Meyer. The text is entirely engraved by Montulay and Drouet within decorative borders.

Rare uniform set of Didot stereotype editions. The title page of each volume is preceded by an advertising and presentation leaf of the edition composed as follows: this stereotype in-18 edition is sold in Paris, by P. Didot l'Aîné and by Firmin Didot. Price in sheets: Ordinary paper, fine paper, laid paper, deluxe laid paper. All the present editions are printed on laid paper or deluxe laid paper. 

François Ambroise Didot perfected the manufacture of laid paper in France in 1780, which was particularly well suited to printing Didot typefaces.
Contemporary full red Russia leather binding. Smooth spine decorated with 5 fleurons and multiple roulettes. Decorative frames...

Substantially revised reissue of the first illustrated edition of the Contes et nouvelles en vers, published ten years earlier, in 1685, by the same Henry Desbordes. Two parts bound in one 12mo volume: (16) 236 pp. (2); (8) 216 pp. (2).

The illustration comprises two frontispieces and 58 half-page vignettes after Romeyn de Hooghe. Yet this apparent continuity with the 1685 edition conceals a thorough reworking. The earlier copperplates were not simply reused: the compositions were re-engraved in reverse. The frontispiece to the first volume thus reproduces the 1685 design in mirror image, now...

First printing of the illustrated edition. One of 100 copies on Wattman from a special edition of 130 copies. 2 portraits of La Fontaine, one by Flameng, the second by Le Rat, and 12 plates by Emile Adan engraved by Le Rat, printed before letters. Title-pages printed in red and black. "This edition is illustrated with 12 charming drawings by Émile Adam" (Rochambeau). A handsome and refined bibliophile edition, made for late 19th-century collectors.

Contemporary 3/4 morocco binding signed Canape at the top of the first free endpaper. Flat spine, gilt title and volume number. Top edge gilt. Uncut throughout with wide margins. Spine slightly faded. Minor rubbing to the paper of the...

Edition regarded as the masterpiece of the painter and engraver Charles Eisen, and a counterfeit of the famed Fermiers généraux edition.

This edition is illustrated with 2 engraved frontispieces by Vidal, 2 title vignettes, 1 portrait after Hyacinthe Rigaud, along with 80 plates and 43 tailpieces. One engraving is unfortunately missing from our copy, which contains 79 engravings instead of 80.

A few minor spots, not affecting the text.

Bound in contemporary full green morocco, flat spines slightly sunned, decorated with double gilt fillets and gilt floral and typographic motifs, red morocco lettering-pieces and volume labels, gilt roll tooling at head and tail...

First and second series of La Fontaine's Fables illustrated by Benjamin Rabier, containing 140 fables. Numerous compositions and illustrations framing the text in color or monochrome (red, black, blue).

Publisher's binding, smooth spine with black title, color illustration pastedown on first board, black ornament stamped on second board, red edges.
Slightly sunned spine, small lack of paper to front cover illustration, corners rubbed.

One of Benjamin Rabier's masterpieces, a colorful and whimsical interpretation of La Fontaine's timeless fables.

A rare 1750 reimpression of two works first published together in 1669, brought together by the fabulist from that first date.

Contemporary full brown sheep, spine with five raised bands highlighted with a gilt fillet and decorated with five compartments tooled with dandelion-shaped gilt fleurons, red morocco lettering piece, blind-ruled fillet framing the boards, gilt fillet on board edges, red edges, shell pattern marbled pastedowns and endpapers.

Head and tail caps slightly split, discreet loss of...

A rare composite seventeenth-century edition of The Fables of La Fontaine, richly illustrated with 257 engraved copper headpieces adorning nearly every fable. These illustrations are the third copy made after François Chauveau's engravings, and are notably larger than their predecessors.

Contemporary brown calf, spines with five raised bands decorated in four compartments in gilt featuring stylized acanthus leaf motifs, tawny morocco label, red speckled edges, gilt palmette and foliate edge-roll, marbled endpapers.

Discreet restorations to spines, joints, and corners, gilding faded on board edges, raised bands, and headcaps, stain to inner margin...

The so-called Fermiers Généraux edition, using the editions of 1685 and 1696 for the text and adding tales by d’Autreau and de Vergier, present in the 1718 edition.

From an edition of 2,000 copies on vergé de Hollande, the present copy is one of the rare first issue copies in contemporary morocco with uncensored engravings and a fleuron error on p. 240 of vol. 1, later corrected.