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two books sitting on top of each other on a white surfacesomeone is holding a book open to a picture of a man and a horsean old book with a picture of a woman surrounded by animalsan old book with a black and white image of a man in a suitan old book with a picture of a man and a dog
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65 - LA FONTAINE, Jean de.
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Estimate €500 - €600
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Description
LA FONTAINE, Jean de. [Two editions of the Fables]. A collection of two fine editions of the Fables. - Selected Fables, set in verse In Paris & sold in Antwerp, by Henry van Dunewalt, 1688. 4 parts in one small in-12 volume, (19) leaves including frontispiece, (1) title leaf, preface and The Life of Aesop, 123–(3) pp.; (1) title leaf, pp. 141–268–(2) pp.; (1) title leaf, pp. 117–[3]; (1) title leaf, pp. 119–233–(3), numerous engraved illustrations, sections of the table leaves. Early 19th-century long-grained olive-coloured morocco, smooth, decorated spine, gilt title, gilt edges, guilloché-cut edges (small loss at the top of the lower jaw, very slight scuffing, small tear at the top of the frontispiece; no missing pages on pp. 99–102 and 233–234, a few scattered foxing spots). A fine copy of a rare and sought-after edition. First foreign publication of the *Illustrated Fables*. With a frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe – here without the inscription engraved on the column, thus conforming to the 1688 edition – and numerous half-page vignettes etched in black by H(enrik) Causse, generally signed in full, sometimes only ‘H. C.’ The vignettes are modelled on those by Chauveau. Provenance: Ex dono MS ancien (Victoire) Béthy, Lyon, 29 March 1850. Handwritten ex libris, 26 February 1870, Eugène Laurent, Vichy (on a flyleaf). Old handwritten ex libris in sepia ink, ‘Ex dono’ handwritten ‘To Dr Rénier’, dated Laval, 12 February 1938 (opposite the frontispiece). Rochambeau, 19–20. - La Fontaine’s Fables, now first translated from the French by Robert Thomson. Paris, Théophile Barrois, 1806. 4 volumes in one in-8 volume. Havana-coloured grained calfskin, English-dyed, smooth spine decorated with gilt panels on a mottled background featuring a solar and floral motif, alternating with triple gilt fillets, gilt title, gilt roulette (with an oak-leaf motif) framing the covers, gilt roulette on the edges and endpapers, gilt edges (covers and edges slightly rubbed, corners blunt, minor stains). One of the original copies of the first English translation, here in its charming contemporary English binding. A very fine copy with good margins, illustrated with 16 black etchings, engraved by Joseph Perdoux with autograph verses, including the frontispieces of volumes 1, 3 and 4. Three editions with different addresses from the same year are known to exist of this first translation of the Fables, and whilst it is difficult to state here which was the first edition, our copy by Barrois is definitely the least common. No copy listed in the CCFr. Vol. I. [3] folios (frontispiece, half-title page and title page), 105–[3] pp., 3 plates. Vol. II. [2] folios (half-title page and title page), 139 pp., 4 plates. Vol. III. [3] f. (frontispiece, half-title page and title page), 147 p., 3 plates. Vol. IV. [3] f. (frontispiece, half-title page and title page), 128 p., 3 plates.
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About the sale Books & Manuscripts
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Auction time 10/30/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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