LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Fables choisies. Paris:... Lot 38

LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Fables choisies. Paris: Desaint & Saillant, Durand, 1755-1759. - 4 volumes in-folio, 484x327: frontispiece, (2 ff.), xxx, xviij, 124 pp., 70 plates; (2 ff.), ij, 135 pp., 68 plates; (2 ff.), iv, 146 pp., 68 plates; (2 ff.), ij, 188 pp., 69 plates. Granite calf, ribbed spine decorated with gilt shells, red edges (period binding). A magnificent illustrated edition by Oudry, probably the most famous and beautiful of the early illustrated editions of La Fontaine's Fables. It was undertaken by lawyer and journalist Charles-Philippe Montenault (1696-1749), who had acquired the drawings of painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) around 1751. He entrusted Charles-Nicolas Cochin with the task of enlarging these drawings and adapting them for engraving. In the Mémoires de Trévoux, Father Berthier spoke highly of this edition: "La Fontaine and Oudry have shared, as it were, the empire of the animals. The poet gave them a voice; the painter captured their manners, their games, their attitudes. The former knew how to guess what they would say, if they had formed a society among themselves; the latter had the talent to render them as they are. La Fontaine, in his fables, let himself be led by genius; Oudry, in his drawings, had observation as his guide: both have produced two masterpieces which can be found together in 4 vol. in-fol." The illustration consists of a frontispiece with a bust of La Fontaine and 275 plates after Oudry's drawings, engraved under Cochin's direction by him and a team of over 40 engravers, including: Aliamet, Aubert, Aveline, Baquoy, Chedel, Chenu, Choffard, Fessart, Galimard, Lebas, Lemire, Moitte, etc. Copy with the mention "Au Léopard" on the banner of the illustration Le Singe et le Léopard (tome III, fable CLXXII). Bindings skilfully restored. Dark marks on covers of first volume. Mottling on the bottom of the first leaves of the same volume. Staining on the first 30 leaves and on the edge of the last leaves of the fourth volume. Some scattered foxing.