Details
LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-95). Contes et nouvelles en vers. Amsterdam: Henry Desbordes, 1685. 2 volumes in one, 12° (148 x 93mm). Etched frontispiece, 58 half-page etchings by Romeyn de Hooghe. (Lightly browned, some etchings cut close or slightly shaved at margin, headlines of preliminaries slightly shaved, 'Table' leaf soiled on verso, tiny green ink stain touching edge of final quire.) Blue morocco by R. Petit, triple gilt fillets, repeated fleurons on spine, gilt over marbled edges, later supralibros. Provenance: purchased from Librería Babra, 1937.
FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, second issue, of this collection uniting the poet's most satiric and most licentious pieces. It is the only contemporary edition of the Contes with illustrations, remarkable for de Hooghe's contrasts in black and white, and in particular his characteristic use of black shading in the foreground. Brunet III, 758; Landweher Romeyn de Hooghe 62; Hollstein IX, 591-648.
FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, second issue, of this collection uniting the poet's most satiric and most licentious pieces. It is the only contemporary edition of the Contes with illustrations, remarkable for de Hooghe's contrasts in black and white, and in particular his characteristic use of black shading in the foreground. Brunet III, 758; Landweher Romeyn de Hooghe 62; Hollstein IX, 591-648.