Amsterdam, Henry Desbordes, 1685.
2 volumes in 1 small octavo of: I/ 1 frontispiece, (8) leaves, 236 pages; II/ (4) leaves, 216 pages, 58 illustrations. A few insignificant spots. Red morocco, spine without bands decorated in a grotesque style, gold-trimmed edges. Old binding by Derome le Jeune.
158 x 98 mm.
Original collective edition of the Contes de La Fontaine and first illustrated edition, from the very first printing among the three existing.« There are three printings of this edition under the same date :
In the First, page 211 of volume I, containing the beginning of the Dissertation on the Mona Lisa, contains 11 lines of text, while there are 16 in the other two printings. » (Tchemerzine).
« These Tales are characterized by their bawdy subjects, their playful tone; they do not pretend to be realistic, but stage humans in their failings, mainly concerning love. Considered licentious, they were censored and banned from 1675. In fact, they belong to the tradition of ‘Gaulish’ poetry and tales, with Rabelaisian wit, enriched by borrowings from Italian storytellers: Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Ariosto, Aretino. They make up a part of La Fontaine’s creation today underestimated, but in its time it was one of his greatest successes.
The tradition of the humorous tale, which developed in France in the sixteenth century, reaches with this work of La Fontaine both an evolution and a sort of apogee. The use of the worldly tone tinged with gallantry means that the bawdiness is present, but nuanced in form, and brevity is handled with skill, for an audience accustomed to the brilliance of salon conversation, thus fond of brief forms. This genre will hardly know other productions of the same level in subsequent periods. » (A. Vi.)Published during the author’s lifetime, this original edition is also the first illustrated. It contains 1 frontispiece and 58 mid-page etched figures by Romain de Hooghe.Seven years later, La Fontaine, dangerously ill, renounced his Tales and gave up the profits from this abominable book.
This edition contains fifty-eight Tales, which is all those composed by La Fontaine except for the six he published in the same year, in the Prose and Poetry Works in collaboration with Maucroix, and the tale The Quip Visit which only appeared after his death.The witty illustration by Romain de Hooghe, one of the artist’s masterpieces, is the only one contemporary with the text; Otto Benesh refers to it as « one of the greatest illustrations of all times ».The Tales bring together all the licentious work of Jean de La Fontaine and by order of the king, the police had the collection suppressed.At the time when the edition by the Farmers General of 1762 had just appeared, G. de Bure, in his Instructive Bibliography, devoted more than two pages to the description of that of 1685, the most beautiful and sought-after, in relation to the figures by Romain de Hooghe with which it is decorated... and despite the new edition illustrated by Eisen, we must nevertheless agree that most of the Curious seek it out and still value it highly.
First edition copy.
In this deluxe printing, the engravings are remarkably beautiful.
One of the rare examples preserved in its elegant ancient morocco binding by Derome the Younger.One must go back to June 20, 1984 to find on the public market a beautiful example. The Dennery copy, bound in contemporary red morocco, framed with a plain lining, was auctioned for 45,000 € 33 years ago (Ader-Picard-Tajan, 20/06/84), a considerable price at the time.
Unique copy of ‘Édouard Rahir’ so described under No. 1430 of his famous sale of May 20, 1937: «Very fine copy with the first printing figures, covered in a fine binding by Derome; it has the following peculiarities: 1° instead of the figure of the Villager looking for his calf, the one of The Mandrake was printed, later covered by the first printing of the tale engraving; 2° at the beginning of the next tale, Hans Carvel’s Ring, the figure of the tale of the Villager was mistakenly printed, but this oversight was not corrected. From the library of Lord Gosford. »
Rahir owned two exceptional copies of this original collective edition of the Tales La Fontaine. One described under number 814 of his sale catalog came from the libraries of the Marquis de Ganay and MM. Bocher. Sold for 5,300 FF in 1935, it was resold for 450,000 FF (68,500 €) in May 2000, 16 years ago. The second, the one presented here, the most valuable, was sold for 6,000 F on May 20, 1937 (No. 1430).Magnificent copy with large margins (height: 158 mm) from the libraries Hildebrand with a calligraphed ex-libris; Lord Gosford (ex-libris); Édouard Rahir (ex-libris, No. 1430); F.M. Abdy (ex-libris).
