Jean de La Fontaine | Fables…, Paris, 1755-1759, 4 volumes, contemporary calf gilt

Jean de La Fontaine

Fables choisies, mises en vers. Tome premier (-quatrieme). Paris: Charles-Antoine Jombert for Desaint & Saillant, and Durand, 1755-59

4 volumes, folio (416 x 283mm), engraved frontispiece portrait of Oudry, woodcut head- and tailpieces by Bachelier, 275 plates by Oudry engraved by Aubert, Aveline and others, contemporary calf gilt, spines with raised bands in 6 compartments, lettered in gilt, gilt edges, occasional scattered spotting (not affecting plates), extremities rubbed

A distinctively bound set of La Fontaine's Fables, considered by Ray to be one of the three most beautiful illustrated French books issued between 1700-1914, as well as “one of the most ambitious and successful”. The plates are finely engraved, detailed and delicate. In Ray’s words, the illustrations, which feature a comprehensive view of the French countryside of the 1730s, offer a fertile world “to which the reader may return again and again for delight and instruction”.

LITERATURE:

Cohen-De Ricci 548; Rochambeau, Fables 86; Michel, Cochin 198; Ray 5