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Fables de La Fontaine
Artist: Etienne Fessard (French, 1714-1777)
Publisher: Chez l'auteur, Paris, 1765-1775
Binder: Smeers, 1871
Author: Jean de La Fontaine (French, 1621-1695)
Date: 1765-1775
Dimensions:
Book: 8 5/16 x 5 3/4 in. (211 x 146mm)
Page: 8 1/8 x 5 1/8 in. (206 x 130mm)
Medium: Original prints: engravings (1 frontispiece, 6 engraved title pages, 243 vignettes, and 226 culs-de-lampe after Fessard)
Text: engraved
Paper: off-white laid paper
Classification: Books
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Object number: 1972.28A-F
Label Text:This profusely illustrated edition pois a very fine example of French rococo style. It was the creation of the engraver Etienne Fessard (1714-1777) who dedicated it to the Dauphin. Monnet was the principle artist for most of the designs for the first three volumes, and this remains his chief work in book illustration. The rest of the illustrations are by various other artists. In this edition, for each of the 243 tables (which the seventeenth century French poet fabulist La Fontaine based on Aesop's Fables), there is a full-page plate and a headspiece, plus a tailpiece for all but seventeen fables. The pretty illustrations are gracefully executed. Since the text, like the designs, was also engraved, each page conveys harmonious elegance and refinement.
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