LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Contes et nouvelles... - Lot 119 - Ader

LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Contes et nouvelles en vers. Amsterdam [Paris: Barbou], 1762. - 2 volumes in-8, 179 x 113 : portrait, xiv pp., (1 f.), 268 pp. (2 ff. last blank), 8 pp. 39 plates ; portrait, (1 f.), viij pp., (1 f.), 306 pp. (3 ff. last blank), pp. (9)-16, 41 plates. Tortoiseshell calf, triple gilt fillet on covers, smooth spine decorated, gilt border inside, gilt edges (period binding). Famous edition known as "des fermiers généraux". The edition was printed in Paris with the typeface of Fournier le jeune. It was financed by the Fermiers Généraux who spared no expense to produce the most beautiful book with vignettes. In addition to the tales of La Fontaine, the work includes a Dissertation on the Mona Lisa by Boileau, and ends with five tales that are not by La Fontaine: La Couturière, Le Gascon and La Cruche by Autereau, Promettre est un, et tenir est un autre by Vergier, and Le Rossignol attributed to Lamblin or to Trousset de Valincourt. The illustration consists of 2 portraits engraved by Étienne Ficquet, one of La Fontaine after Hyacinthe Rigaud and the other of Charles Eisen after Vispré, and 80 plates after Eisen engraved by Choffard, Aliamet, Baquoy, Flipart, Lemire, Leveau, de Longueil and Ouvrier, as well as 4 vignettes and 53 culs-de-lampe by the small print virtuoso Pierre-Philippe Choffard, the last of which contains his portrait. Copy with the two engravings Le Cas de conscience and Le Diable de Papefiguière discovered. A good copy in contemporary binding. The hinges have been skilfully restored but are still cracked. Scattered foxing. Brown marks in the margin of several leaves in the second volume.