LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Fables choisies [...]. A Paris, Chez - Lot 102

LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Fables choisies [...]. A Paris, Chez Desaint & Saillant, de l'imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1755-1759. 4 volumes in-folio, marbled calf, triple gilt fillet framing the covers, coat of arms in the center, spines with ornate nerves, gilt edges (period binding). FIRST ISSUE of the finest edition of La Fontaine's fables. Illustrated with a portrait-frontispiece by OUDRY, finished by DUPUIS and engraved by COCHIN, followed by 275 plates engraved by Chedel, Cochin, Aubert, Aveline, Baquoy, etc. after drawings by Jean-Baptiste OUDRY. It also includes 209 wood-engraved culs-de-lampe by Le Sueur and Papillon after Bachelier. The figure "Le Singe et le Léopard" is here without a caption in the banner (T. III, p. 113). The "La Fontaine d'Oudry", considered the most prestigious of the illustrated editions of La Fontaine, owes its origin to a series of ink drawings by the famous animal painter, produced between 1729 and 1734, and intended to serve as "a collection of subjects from which to draw for paintings and tapestries" (Des livres rares depuis l'invention de l'imprimerie, BnF, p. 258-259). Acquired by the printer Regnard de Montenault, the drawings were taken over by Nicolas Cochin before being entrusted to over forty engravers. EXEMPLAIRE AUX ARMES DE LA VILLE DE PARIS struck at the time of the gift to Doctor Requin on the occasion of the birth of the Duke of Bordeaux. From the libraries of Docteur Achille-Pierre Requin (1803-1854), with bookplate and autograph annotation signed on the false title: "Donné par la Ville de Paris, comme prix d'Honneur [...] de rhétorique en 1821 [...] en mémoire de la naissance du Duc de Bordeaux [...]", and Aubry Vitet with bookplate. Fine restorations; a few freckles; ink stains (in volume III, on the pages of "L'Horoscope" and "Jupiter & le Passager"). Cohen, 548-550; Rochambeau, Fables, 86; Tchemerzine, III, p. 275.