Books

Paris: Chez Desaint & Saillant [et] Durand, De l'Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1759. First edition. A large paper copy with leaves measuring 465 x 330 mm (18 3/8 x 13 inches). Four volumes handsomely bound in contemporary French mottled calf. Red and green morocco spine labels with rich gilt detailing, marbled end-papers and all edges marbled. Discreet repairs to the spine ends without rebacking. Internal contents are generally in excellent condition although with the occasional spot of foxing and with a few worm pinholes running through the blank margins. Front inner hinge of Volume IV cracked but holding and slight age-toning to text leaves in that volume. Collating: [iv], xxx, xviii, 124; [iv], ii, 135, [1 blank]; [iv], iv, 146; [iv], ii, 188 [2 blanks]. Complete with the engraved frontis, the extra engraved portrait of Oudry (found only in some copies) and 275 other engraved plates after Jean-Baptiste Oudry by Cochin, Tardieu, Prevost, Chedel, Lempereur, and others, as…

Fables choisies, mises en vers is a celebrated collection of fables written by the French poet Jean de La Fontaine. First published in 1668, this classic work comprises a series of short tales, each with its own moral lesson, inspired by Aesop and other classical sources.