Fables choisies

First edition. Composite copy of first and second issue, volumes II and III in first issue, the rest in second, with Des Lauriers' address on the title page. Famous edition richly illustrated with 6 engraved titles, a frontispiece and an engraved half-title for volume I, and 243 figures, 243 vignettes and 226 tailpieces, that is to say one figure, one vignette and one tailpiece per fable. The whole engraved by Fessard. The illustration of the first 3 volumes is the work of Monnet, in the last 3, many are the work of Bardin, then Desrais, Carême, Bidault... Work entirely engraved, the text by Montulay and Drouet. The whole within decorative borders. Despite Cohen's negative criticism of Des Laurier's second printing, there is no difference in paper between the 2 issues nor in quality.
Modern cardboard binding covered with red paper, made like a period binding with paper made in the old style. Title labels and volume labels late 18th, early 19th century, in black sheep, recovered from the original binding. Small ink stain p81 of volume VI in margin.
Fessard's project was to compete with the edition produced by Oudry published the previous decade, and he indeed surpassed it by the number of illustrations. The whole is executed with great elegance and one could call this edition, due to its format "The little Oudry". Although the execution of the engravings does not reach the refinement and execution of the Oudry edition, it nonetheless remains that this edition remains one of the most beautiful realizations of La Fontaine's fables, and it has remained famous despite the criticisms which focused essentially on a comparison with the Oudry edition, which one could not moreover compare...