Creighton University

1965? "Set of 56 Fables of Aesop on Individual Cards" A Superb Collection of Favorite Fables by Aesop, Magnificently Illustrated." Illustrations from Percy Billinghurst, not acknowledged. No. 1880S. Printed in Hong Kong. Shackman, NY 10001. Four sets in varying condition, one with a box without a label, another in a box missing one side. $25.07 from JoAnn Jeffreys, Overland, MO, through Ebay, July, '00. $15 from Frank Scott, Elizabeth City, NC, through Ebay, August, '00. $9.95 from Dorothy Buhrman, Cambria, CA, through Ebay, Feb., '01. $20 from Lee Shepherd, Lake Mary, FL, through Ebay, March, '01.

These sets all look much older than the 1960's, but there is a card with each deck providing Aesop's history and a sense of the fables. It includes at its bottom the ZIP code I have included above, and that gives us a terminus post quem. I almost believe that Shackman had someone "antique" the boxes by throwing them around and roughing them up! Some of the narrower Billinghurst designs have an added symbol or ornament outside the picture, like DS at the right. At first, I thought that these cards constituted a game to play, but I see no hint of that within the package. Now that I have at last had a chance to catalogue these cards and learned that the sets are all the same, I can stop buying them!