[La FONTAINE (Jean de)]. - Lot 178

Lot n° 178
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Estimation :
150 - 200 EUR
[La FONTAINE (Jean de)]. - Lot 178
[La FONTAINE (Jean de)]. The Figures of the Fables of La Fontaine engraved by Simon and Coiny. A Paris, Chez Simon et Coiny Graveurs, s. d. [circa 1785]. In-8°, basane, spine ribbed and decorated (period binding). VERY FIRST ISSUE, in-8° format, which was interrupted and OF WHICH ONLY A FEW COPIES WERE PRINTED. It was stopped at the end of the first volume of text (76 pp.) and after the 137th plate of the third volume of this edition which was to have six. This copy is composed of six titles, 39 fables and 42 figures (the 4, 12 and 18 being smoothed), drawn by VIVIER, all "engraved in sixteen [on] Hollande paper" by M. SIMON & Jacques Joseph COINY. Some light foxing. "The text was to be entirely engraved, but one stopped after the first Fables" (Cohen, 553-554); "Beautiful edition [...] Some leaves had been engraved in small in-8° format, the editors did not continue the work and were satisfied to type the text by reducing it to in-18" (Rochambeau, 462, 1879, who describes a copy containing only six fables, like the one in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
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