LA FONTAINE, Jean de. - Lot 65

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 page, pp. 141–268–(2) pp.; (1) title leaf, pp. 117–[3]; (1) title leaf, pp. 119–233–(3), numerous engraved illustrations, portions of the table leaves. Early 19th-century olive-colored long-grained morocco calfskin, smooth, decorated spine, gilt title, gilt edges, guilloché-cut edges (small loss at the top of the lower jaw, very slight rubbing, small tear at the top of the frontispiece, and 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 title page 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 modeled after those by Chauveau. Provenance: Ex dono MS ancien (Victoire) Béthy, Lyon, March 29, 1850. Handwritten bookplate, February 26, 1870, Eugène Laurent, Vichy (on a flyleaf). Old handwritten bookplate in sepia ink, “Ex dono” [Gift] to Dr. Rénier, dated Laval, February 12, 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-colored calfskin with a pebbled grain and English-dyed finish; smooth spine decorated with gilded panels on a dotted background featuring a sun and floral motif, alternating with triple gilded fillets; gilded title; gilded roulette (with an oak-leaf motif) framing the covers, gilded roulette on the edges and endpapers, gilt edges (covers and edges slightly rubbed, corners worn, minor stains). One of the original copies of the first English translation, here in its charming period English binding. A very fine copy with generous margins, illustrated with 16 black etchings engraved by Joseph Perdoux with autographed 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 while it is difficult to determine here which was the first edition, our copy published by Barrois is definitely the rarest. No copies 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 pl. Vol. IV. [3] f. (frontispiece, half-title page, and title page), 128 p., 3 pl.