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 affecting the first thirty pages of volume one.
Inside the copies : in volume 1, small losses to first blank endpaper, second blank endpaper missing; in volume 2, pagination error at p. 83, leaves I3 and G3 missigned as I2 and G5.
With two engraved frontispieces, the first by R. de Hooge dated 1699, the second, original, depicting Aesop surrounded by animals. This copy also contains a portrait of the fabulist after H. Rigaud engraved by E. Desrochers, and several headpieces and tailpieces throughout.
Complete with the epistle to Monseigneur le Dauphin, the author's preface, the life of Aesop the Phrygian, the author's notice for the second collection of The Fables, the discourse to Madame de la Sablière, and the dedication to Madame de Montespan.