THE FABLES OF JEAN DE LA FONTAINE

Los Angeles: Dawson, 1964. Monograph by Frances J. Brewer. With a leaf from the Memorial Edition of the Fables Choisies, illustrated by Jean-Baptiste Oudry and printed in Paris by Charles-Antoine Jombert 1755-59. Pp. [viii]+10(last colophon), the title page printed in red & black; post folio; stiff grey paper wrappers with printed paper title label on backstrip, the wrappers very faintly damp marked near the backstrip and a trifle foxed; uncut; within marbled papered slipcase, lightly worn at edges, with a portion missing from both fore-corners; endpapers faintly foxed; Dawson's Bookshop, Los Angeles, 1964. Edition limited to 125 copies, printed by Saul and Lillian Marks at the Plantin Press, each containing an original leaf from the Memorial Edition of La Fontaine's Fables, 1755-59. Hamel 130. *From the library of David Levine, Sydney, with his book label on upper pastedown. Loosely inserted within a bound-in folded sheet at the front of this copy is a text leaf (pp. 19/20, Fable VI) and a plate illustrating the same fable, Le Loup et les bergers, from the illustrated edition of La Fontaine's Fables printed by Charles-Antoine Jombert at Paris, 1755-59. Issued just over 50 years after La Fontaine's death, that edition was published as a memorial to him, and is regarded as one of the most important accomplishments of book production during the time of Louis XV. The engravings are from paintings by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, who took five years to create them. Both leaves in this copy are a trifle foxed and soiled, with a couple of marginal damp stains. The text leaf features a large tailpiece ornament on the verso.