Details
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, large 2 (473 x 320 mm). Engraved frontispiece after Jean-Baptiste Oudry, finished by Dupuis and engraved by Cochin, 275 plates after Oudry, engraved by Cochin, Elizabeth Cousinet, Baquoy, Legrand, and others, extra-illustrated with engraved portrait of Oudry by Tardieu after Largillire (found in some copies but not integral), wood-engraved vignette on each title, wood-engraved head- and tailpieces after Bachelier. The first plate accompanying "Le Singe et le Lopard" in its first state without the lettering on the banner. (Plate to Fable XLV cut down at outer margin, vol.I with small wormtrack at upper blank margins of leaves to f2, occasional light browning.) Contemporary French cat's paw calf gilt, covers with triple-fillet border and flower-spray corner-pieces, spines in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-pieces in the second and third, the others with repeat pattern of small tools surrounding the flower-spray, gilt turn-ins, marbled edges (small neat repair to joints and foot of spine of vol.III, head and foot of other spines occasionally chipped, stitching weak in vols. III and IV, causing a few text leaves and plates to loosen or detach).
LARGE-PAPER COPY OF "ONE OF THE MOST AMBITIOUS AND SUCCESSFUL OF ALL ILLUSTRATED BOOKS" (Ray). Four issues were printed, on different papers: besides the ordinary paper copies, 100 copies were printed on papier moyen de Hollande, 100 copies on large or Imperial paper, and a small number of copies on extra-large grand papier de Hollande. As the large paper issues are difficult to differentiate, the question is usually glossed over by modern cataloguers. In the present large copy the text and plates (few visible watermarks) are printed on Auvergne paper, making it probable that this comes from the second-to-largest issue, on papier imprial. Ray French 5; Cohen/de Ricci 548-550; Rochambeau 86; Sander 1065.
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4 volumes, large 2 (473 x 320 mm). Engraved frontispiece after Jean-Baptiste Oudry, finished by Dupuis and engraved by Cochin, 275 plates after Oudry, engraved by Cochin, Elizabeth Cousinet, Baquoy, Legrand, and others, extra-illustrated with engraved portrait of Oudry by Tardieu after Largillire (found in some copies but not integral), wood-engraved vignette on each title, wood-engraved head- and tailpieces after Bachelier. The first plate accompanying "Le Singe et le Lopard" in its first state without the lettering on the banner. (Plate to Fable XLV cut down at outer margin, vol.I with small wormtrack at upper blank margins of leaves to f2, occasional light browning.) Contemporary French cat's paw calf gilt, covers with triple-fillet border and flower-spray corner-pieces, spines in seven compartments with raised bands, red morocco lettering-pieces in the second and third, the others with repeat pattern of small tools surrounding the flower-spray, gilt turn-ins, marbled edges (small neat repair to joints and foot of spine of vol.III, head and foot of other spines occasionally chipped, stitching weak in vols. III and IV, causing a few text leaves and plates to loosen or detach).
LARGE-PAPER COPY OF "ONE OF THE MOST AMBITIOUS AND SUCCESSFUL OF ALL ILLUSTRATED BOOKS" (Ray). Four issues were printed, on different papers: besides the ordinary paper copies, 100 copies were printed on papier moyen de Hollande, 100 copies on large or Imperial paper, and a small number of copies on extra-large grand papier de Hollande. As the large paper issues are difficult to differentiate, the question is usually glossed over by modern cataloguers. In the present large copy the text and plates (few visible watermarks) are printed on Auvergne paper, making it probable that this comes from the second-to-largest issue, on papier imprial. Ray French 5; Cohen/de Ricci 548-550; Rochambeau 86; Sander 1065.
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