![LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) – Illustrations for Contes et Nouvelles en vers. [Paris: David Jeune for the Fermiers Généraux,] 1762.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0118_001(la_fontaine_jean_de_illustrations_for_contes_et_nouvelles_en_vers_pari010448).jpg?w=1)
![LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) – Illustrations for Contes et Nouvelles en vers. [Paris: David Jeune for the Fermiers Généraux,] 1762.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0118_002(la_fontaine_jean_de_illustrations_for_contes_et_nouvelles_en_vers_pari010545).jpg?w=1)
![LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) – Illustrations for Contes et Nouvelles en vers. [Paris: David Jeune for the Fermiers Généraux,] 1762.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0118_003(la_fontaine_jean_de_illustrations_for_contes_et_nouvelles_en_vers_pari010643).jpg?w=1)
![LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) – Illustrations for Contes et Nouvelles en vers. [Paris: David Jeune for the Fermiers Généraux,] 1762.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2014/CKS/2014_CKS_10773_0118_000(la_fontaine_jean_de_illustrations_for_contes_et_nouvelles_en_vers_pari124538).jpg?w=1)
Details
LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) – Illustrations for Contes et Nouvelles en vers. [Paris: David Jeune for the Fermiers Généraux,] 1762.
156 engravings (218 x 142 mm), comprising the full complement of plates: engraved portraits of La Fontaine and Eisen by Picquet after Rigaud and Vispré, 80 plates after Eisen by Choffard and others, 57 vignettes by Choffard; AND EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with a portrait of Choffard, and 16 additional plates of which a duplicate impression. (Light spotting and light wear to deckle edges, light creasing in the first portrait, occasional minor marginal spotting.) Together in a card portfolio with pink cloth ties, the spine titled in manuscript (some spotting, some wear).
ONE OF THE FINEST AND MOST FAMOUS SUITES OF 18TH-CENTURY BOOK ENGRAVINGS, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 15 OF THE REJECTED PLATES. This set of the illustrations, the only one we can trace in the original sheets and before letters, is among the most extensive offered at auction: the Vershbow copy of the book included only 7 extra illustrations. This edition of La Fontaine is ‘the great monument and triumph of the vignette, which dominates and drowns all the illustrations of the age’ (Goncourt, quoted in Ray). ‘Eisen's eighty designs for La Fontaine are the liveliest and most adroit that he ever drew. Thoroughly at home with the varied action of these lusty stories -- their love passages, their intrigues, their practical jokes -- he is also expert in choosing the moment in each that will best serve his purpose as an illustrator’ (Ray). Cohen-DeRicci 558-570; Ray, French 26; Tchemerzine III p. 862.
156 engravings (218 x 142 mm), comprising the full complement of plates: engraved portraits of La Fontaine and Eisen by Picquet after Rigaud and Vispré, 80 plates after Eisen by Choffard and others, 57 vignettes by Choffard; AND EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with a portrait of Choffard, and 16 additional plates of which a duplicate impression. (Light spotting and light wear to deckle edges, light creasing in the first portrait, occasional minor marginal spotting.) Together in a card portfolio with pink cloth ties, the spine titled in manuscript (some spotting, some wear).
ONE OF THE FINEST AND MOST FAMOUS SUITES OF 18TH-CENTURY BOOK ENGRAVINGS, EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 15 OF THE REJECTED PLATES. This set of the illustrations, the only one we can trace in the original sheets and before letters, is among the most extensive offered at auction: the Vershbow copy of the book included only 7 extra illustrations. This edition of La Fontaine is ‘the great monument and triumph of the vignette, which dominates and drowns all the illustrations of the age’ (Goncourt, quoted in Ray). ‘Eisen's eighty designs for La Fontaine are the liveliest and most adroit that he ever drew. Thoroughly at home with the varied action of these lusty stories -- their love passages, their intrigues, their practical jokes -- he is also expert in choosing the moment in each that will best serve his purpose as an illustrator’ (Ray). Cohen-DeRicci 558-570; Ray, French 26; Tchemerzine III p. 862.
Brought to you by
Eugenio Donadoni