LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Edited by C.P. de Monthenault d'Egly. Paris: Charles-Antoine-Jombert for Desaint & Saillant and Durand, 1755-1759. 4 volumes, 2 o (426 x 284 mm). Engraved and etched frontispiece after Jean-Baptiste Oudry engraved by Dupuis and etched by Cochin, 275 plates after Oudry, engraved under Cochin's direction by Elizabeth Cousinet, Baquoy, Legrand, Fessart, Lemire, Cochin himself and others, wood-engraved vignette on each title, wood-engraved head- and tailpieces by Papillon and Le Sueur after Bachelier. The first plate accompanying "Le Singe et le Lopard" (vol. III, facing p. 112) in the second state, with the banner lettered. (Slight marginal discoloration throughout, text leaves in vol. IV discolored, a few plates discolored, light dampstaining to last plate in vol. I, light marginal dampstaining to first few plates, small stains to last plate in vol. II [Fable 124, "La Jeune Veuve"] and to "Les Lapins" plate [Fable 203] in vol. IV). Contemporary French gold-tooled red morocco by Louis Douceur, covers with wide scrolling leaf and vine roll border, the inner corners decorated with a fox and stork tool and a fox and crow tool (cf. Fables II and XVIII), spines in seven compartments, two gilt lettered, the remainder stamped differently for each volume with tools relating to the contents of that volume, including sheep, horse, lion, wolf, boar, windmill, dwarf, frog, ram, cock, peacock, monkey and beehive tools, board edges with double gilt fillet, turn-ins gilt, gilt edges (minor scuffing to corners and head and tail of spines, few light small scrapes to covers of vols. I and III, spines a trifle faded); slipcases. ONE OF A FEW COPIES OF OUDRY'S LA FONTAINE BOUND BY LOUIS DOUCEUR WITH TOOLS CUT SPECIALLY FOR THIS EDITION. Douceur trained in Derme le jeune's shop before becoming royal binder to Louis XV and the Marquise de Pompadour. Fewer than ten other copies of the Oudry are known in Douceur's special bindings, decorated with tools based on Oudry's illustrations. Each of these was apparently bound to a different design, to judge from two copies that appeared at auction in the past year, both with dentelle decors (Christie's London, 3 June 1998, lot 176, and Sotheby's New York, 21 April 1998 [Ortiz-Patio], lot 145), and a copy sold in 1983 (Sotheby's, 30 June, lot 537), with unidentified arms and the special tools used on the spine only. Added to these are two copies cited by Cohen-de Ricci, a dentelle binding for the Marquis de Massiac and another for the Duc de Hautefort, the latter also with the special tools on the spines only. Oudry's sketches for La Fontaine's Fables were executed for his own enjoyment between 1729 and 1735. They were purchased by the publisher Montenault, who asked Cochin to take charge of their transformation into finished prints. Cochin redrew the original designs, improving the figures and backgrounds and supplying precise lines for the engravers. The final result, "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books" (Ray), was thus their dual achievement. Ray French 5; Cohen/de Ricci 548-550; Rochambeau 86; Sander 1065. (4)
LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Edited by C.P. de Monthenault d'Egly. Paris: Charles-Antoine-Jombert for Desaint & Saillant and Durand, 1755-1759. 4 volumes, 2 o (426 x 284 mm). Engraved and etched frontispiece after Jean-Baptiste Oudry engraved by Dupuis and etched by Cochin, 275 plates after Oudry, engraved under Cochin's direction by Elizabeth Cousinet, Baquoy, Legrand, Fessart, Lemire, Cochin himself and others, wood-engraved vignette on each title, wood-engraved head- and tailpieces by Papillon and Le Sueur after Bachelier. The first plate accompanying "Le Singe et le Lopard" (vol. III, facing p. 112) in the second state, with the banner lettered. (Slight marginal discoloration throughout, text leaves in vol. IV discolored, a few plates discolored, light dampstaining to last plate in vol. I, light marginal dampstaining to first few plates, small stains to last plate in vol. II [Fable 124, "La Jeune Veuve"] and to "Les Lapins" plate [Fable 203] in vol. IV). Contemporary French gold-tooled red morocco by Louis Douceur, covers with wide scrolling leaf and vine roll border, the inner corners decorated with a fox and stork tool and a fox and crow tool (cf. Fables II and XVIII), spines in seven compartments, two gilt lettered, the remainder stamped differently for each volume with tools relating to the contents of that volume, including sheep, horse, lion, wolf, boar, windmill, dwarf, frog, ram, cock, peacock, monkey and beehive tools, board edges with double gilt fillet, turn-ins gilt, gilt edges (minor scuffing to corners and head and tail of spines, few light small scrapes to covers of vols. I and III, spines a trifle faded); slipcases. ONE OF A FEW COPIES OF OUDRY'S LA FONTAINE BOUND BY LOUIS DOUCEUR WITH TOOLS CUT SPECIALLY FOR THIS EDITION. Douceur trained in Derme le jeune's shop before becoming royal binder to Louis XV and the Marquise de Pompadour. Fewer than ten other copies of the Oudry are known in Douceur's special bindings, decorated with tools based on Oudry's illustrations. Each of these was apparently bound to a different design, to judge from two copies that appeared at auction in the past year, both with dentelle decors (Christie's London, 3 June 1998, lot 176, and Sotheby's New York, 21 April 1998 [Ortiz-Patio], lot 145), and a copy sold in 1983 (Sotheby's, 30 June, lot 537), with unidentified arms and the special tools used on the spine only. Added to these are two copies cited by Cohen-de Ricci, a dentelle binding for the Marquis de Massiac and another for the Duc de Hautefort, the latter also with the special tools on the spines only. Oudry's sketches for La Fontaine's Fables were executed for his own enjoyment between 1729 and 1735. They were purchased by the publisher Montenault, who asked Cochin to take charge of their transformation into finished prints. Cochin redrew the original designs, improving the figures and backgrounds and supplying precise lines for the engravers. The final result, "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books" (Ray), was thus their dual achievement. Ray French 5; Cohen/de Ricci 548-550; Rochambeau 86; Sander 1065. (4)
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
