The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine Signed

New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1930. Two volumes. Blue cloth with gilt lettering and designs on spines and front of each volume. No dust jackets or slip cover. Spines lightly faded with wear on lower front spine of volume 1 and shelf wear of bottom corners of both volumes. Top edges of pages in both volumes are still nicely gold gilded. Both volumes are clean and square. This edition is limited to 1500 numbered copies, signed by the illustrator. This is copy number 1358. (Numbering and Signature were done by hand.)

The Fables of Jean de La Fontaine were issued in several volumes from 1668 to 1694. They are classics of French literature. Divided into 12 books, there are 239 of the Fables, varying in length from a few lines to some hundred, those written later being as a rule longer than the earlier. Evidently, La Fontaine did not create the fables, but searched for and wide to find fables that were handed down from one generation to the next (such as Aesop’s fables).