Creighton University

These are curious cards. The background is heavily gold with a few emblematic items, like a path and a few trees. The characters are all children highly dressed in adult clothing. Their faces form the focal point of each illustration. A particular curiosity of these portrait-formatted small cards is that the characters' clothing changes from card to card in the six moments of the story. Are we to think that a little troop of players are taking turns at acting out one scene each? The bottom portion of each picture page contains a few lines of the La Fontaine fable. This print, like the title at the card's top, is hard to read against the gold background. Each card in the Cocq set is stamped on the picture side with "A. Motte-Bergeot, Nouveautées a Illiers," which seems to sell furniture as well as men's, women's, and children's clothing. The text side of these cards is taken up completely with a uniform advertisement for Motte-Bergeot. I am especially impressed with the third card, on which "Renard" flatters the vain figure seated in the fork of the tree.