Contes et nouvelles en vers

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.

The work has 80 first state illustrations by Eisen, by the foremost engravers of the time (Aliamet, Baquoy, Choffard, Delafosse, Flipart, Le Mire, Leveau, de Longueuil and Ouvrier), two frontispiece portraits (one of La Fontaine by Hyacinthe Rigaud and another of Eisen by Vispré, engraved by Ficquet), as well as six vignettes by Coffard (two title vignettes, two hors-texte at the head of each volume and two at the head of the first tale in each volume) and 53 tailpieces.

This edition was printed at the expense of the tax collectors known as Fermiers Généraux. It stands out thanks to the high quality of its printing and the remarkable illustrations by Eisen (1720-1778), who made this work not only his own masterpiece, but unquestionably one of the masterpieces of 18th century illustrated book production.

Contemporary red morocco, spines with gilt fillets and fleurons (stars), covers with a triple frame of gilt fillets, gilt tooling to edge of covers, narrow inner gilt dentelle framing the marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. A few insignificant spots to the plates in the second volume.

This copy has a few inversions in the order of the plates in volume one, due to binder error: 257-258, index leaf, 261-262, 259-260, 265-266, 263-264, blank, 267-268.

All plates starkly contrasted are in first issue, and first state before modification of copperplates for reasons of “bienséance” (propriety): the engravings Cas de conscience and the Diable de Papefiguière are uncovered, as are those of the Lunettes and Rossignol. The engraving of Féronde is avant Le Bonnet (first state without a hat), the plate of the Autre imitation of Anacréon is avant La Flèche (not featuring an arrow), while that of the Alix malade has no ornaments on the curtains, like the plate of the Remède.

Brunet notes that the plates contained nude elements, which were then hidden by alterations to the two plates.

A very attractive copy in a rare contemporary red morocco binding.

 

“Among the art and luxury books of the eighteenth century, there is one that stands as a marvel and a masterpiece — the unrivalled example of a book’s splendour. This work, the great monument and triumph of the vignette, towering above all the illustrations of its age, is one we have named for every connoisseur who has heard us speak of it: the Contes of La Fontaine, in the edition known as that of the Fermiers Généraux, a title they have rightly earned — a true royal book of those last Mécènes [patrons] among financiers, and one of the most beautiful expenditures of the intelligent and sensual Money during the reign of Louis XV.” (Edmond & Jules de Goncourt, Les Vignettistes, 1868)