Calendars

1918 Agenda advertising the Grand Bazaar de Lyon and displaying six of La Fontaine's fables with text.  €6 from lesbouquinsdeflorensac through Ebay, July, '22.

GA; DW; MM; Heron; WL; and FC.  The illustrations are exactly the same as some of those appearing on individual stock trade cards I have representing Au Camelia and also Chicorée Anlatte.  For each three-month portion and then for the whole year there is space to write down the agenda for that time.  The claim for the Grand Bazaar is "On y trouve de tout."

1926 Milwaukee Dairy Supply Mfg. Co.  Milwaukee Filler and Cappers.  $9 from John Huckeby, New Castle, IN, through Ebay, Dec., '99.

July, 1926 calendar, about 4½" x 10", signed by Milo Winter and showing a proud dog sitting in a sweater on a house-step, perhaps about to be attacked by the dog in a rough collar approaching unseen from the side of the house.  Underneath the illustration we read:  "Pride goes before a fall -- Aesop."  This may be the first printed Milwaukee material that I have in the collection!  The reverse shows a picture of the Type L "Big New Filler" for milk bottles.  If it is from Milwaukee, I suppose it should have to do with either beer or milk!  For me several things are not certain:  that the attribution to Aesop is warranted, what fable it might have come from, or how it applies to the scene pictured here.

 

 

 

1927 Theo. S. Buerger & Son, Inc. Wholesale hosiery, knit goods, underwear, and ready-to-wear. Buffalo. Gift of Thomas Beckman, Nov., '94.

April, 1927 calendar titled "Aesop's Fables," with a good, round-top illustration of John Rae's "The Dog and His Image" and the moral "Never risk a certainty for an uncertainty." The illustration may have appeared first in Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks (Adapted from the French of La Fontaine. Written by W.T. Larned. Illustrated by John Rae. Chicago: P.F. Volland Co. 1918). See my reprints of the book under 1918/35? and 1918/50.

 

1933 Ein Kalender für das Jahr 1933. Mit Fabeln nach Aesop und Anderen (Cover: Klingspor Kalendar für das Jahr 1933). Gedruckt und herausgegeben von Gebr. Klingspor. Holzstiche von Willi Harwerth. Hardbound. Offenbach am Main. $49.50 from Lee Jay Stoltzfus, Lititz, PA, through eBay, May, '04.

This is one of the happiest finds of my twenty-five years of collecting. I first knew of this book from Anne Stevenson Hobbs' book on books in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I had it in my hands when I visited the museum. I presumed that I would never have a chance at finding a copy for the collection. Germany after 1933 was not a good place for preserving ephemera like a calendar. I was amazed when the book came up on eBay and more amazed when no one bid against me! This hardbound book about 4" x 7" begins with a page for each month (2-13). Each page has a bird illustration at the top appropriate to the season. What follows is the liturgical calendar of saints and Sundays, with the Sundays printed in red, and phases of the moon noted. There follow then nineteen pages of fables, about one to a page, each with an illustration (14-32). Hobbs chooses well when she selects the woodcuts of "Der schöpfende Hirsch" (16) and "Der Fuchs und die Schwalbe" (23) for her book. They are exquisite. Her version of the former is colored, while none of the woodcuts here are colored. FC (18) and FK (26) are presented with figures situated at the top and bottom of the page, respectively, with text in between. BF (22) is another excellent woodcut. The woodcut for "Der Bauch und die Glieder" (29) is appropriately macabre. What a treasure! Formerly in the collection of Carl and Margaret Rollins.

1973 The Golden 1973 Aesop's Fables Calendar. Pictures by Mel Crawford. A Golden Calendar. NY: Western Publishing Co., Inc. Gift of Barb Markuson, Glenwood, Iowa, April, '15.  Extra copy in poorer condition for $6.99 from Leah Fowler, Edgewood, MD, through Ebay, March, '99.

Very lively cartoon presentations of a dozen fables with surprisingly good morals. Thus in DS we learn "The greedy man cheats himself" and in CJ "A thing is good only if it is good for you." FM is unusual in having the fox frightened by the mask because it "looked so real." The moral here is "There is nothing emptier than an empty head." After the months, we have another page of fables titled "Animal Antics." There is also an account of the story of Aesop's life.A page`of 141 little tear-along-the-perforation stickers closes out the calendar.

 

 calendar 1973.jpg (44313 bytes)

1979  Grillengesang: Eremiten-Kalender auf das Jahr 1979.  Fabeln von Henrike Leonhardt.  Graphics from eleven different artists listed on the first page.  Düsseldorf: Verlag Eremiten-Presse.  €15 from Antiquariat Halkyione, Hamburg, Jan, '16. 

The first surprise in this calendar is its size:  4' x 17½"!  Each month gets its share of a couple of lively leftist-leaning fables in block letters with art that I cannot begin to understand.  I presume that the art is not related to the fables.  Here is an ephemeral find of the first order!

1982 Kundenkreditbank. Heidelberg. Artist unnamed. (Two copies.)

Delightful, playful illustrations in contemporary vein, with characters dressed in human clothes. May has FC, June a very good FS, July "The Dog and the Rabbit," August LM, and September "The Horse and the Ass."  To see some months of this lovely calendar, click on the image below.

1985 Kalendar 1985: Basni I.A. Krylov.  Artist: A. Kandelaki.  Tibilisi, Georgia, USSR.  Ordena Trudovogo Kroasnogo Znamoni Tipografiia Izdatel'stvo: Typographic Press of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia.  $10 from Valentina Kudinova, Kharkiv, Ukraine, Nov., '12.

For an ephemeral item, this is a beauty!  It is actually a rather spare stapled pamphlet 11"x 8¼" with only one page to add to its twelve foldout spreads.  The upper page of each foldout is a delightful multi-colored illustration of a Krylov fable.  Virtually every one is identifiable, and many of them are prefigured on the cover: FC; "Quartet";  LM; and "The Swan, the Pike, and the Lobster."  The others include "The Elephant and the Pug"; WC; "The Pig and the Crow"; FG; "The Cook and the Cat"; and GA.  Two that I cannot recognize picture an older and a younger mouse for February and two dogs for April.  The grasshopper in GA has a purse, fashionable hat and necklace, a parasol, and long eyelashes.

1992 1992 Lisbeth Zwerger Calendar. Saxonville, MA: Picture Book Studio. Printed in Italy. Salzburg: ©1991 Neugebauer Press.

Chronological survey of Zwerger's work, including FG from Aesop's Fables (1989) as the September illustration.

1993 Aesop's Fables: 1993 Calendar. Illustrations by Rodney McRae. Printed in Korea. Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Calendars & Books. Gift of Roseanne FitzGerald, Dec., '92. Extra copy gift of Mary Keane, Feb., '93.

What a great find! The calendar is based on the book Aesop's Fables by McRae, first published in Australia in 1990. The twelve fable illustrations, conveniently brought together on the back cover, are lively and colorful. The back cover's blurb is right to speak of McRae's folk-art style as exciting. It is! Part of the excitement is that there are really many folk-art styles here. I enjoy particularly April's Mycenean "The Heifer and the Ox" and August's "The Farmer and the Fox" from Africa.

1998 Aesop's Fables 1999 Calendar. Arthur Rackham, Milo Winter, Charles Folkard, and Charles Henry Bennet (sic: Bennett). Printed in Hong Kong. NY: Dorset Press. Gift of Margaret Carlson Lytton, Nov., '98. Extra copies a gift of Julie Stringer, Feb., '99 and for $5.98 from Barnes and Noble, Milwaukee, Dec., '98.

Each month presents a full-page picture. The page hanging below it includes within the grid of the month's days a title, moral, attribution of the picture, and text of the fable. The selections are, in order: "Venus and the Cat" (Rackham), "Jupiter, the Lion, and the Elephant" (Rackham), "The Cat, the Rooster, and the Young Mouse" (Winter), "The Fox and the Monkey" (Folkard), "TH" (Folkard), OF--but without any mention of an ox!--(Folkard), GA (Bennet[sic: Bennett]), LM (Winter), "The Owl and the Grasshopper" (Folkard), "The Satyr and the Man" (Folkard), "The Trees and the Axe" (Rackham), and TMCM (Folkard). All twelve illustrations are arranged on the back cover.

2020  Farmhouse Greetings 2021 Calendar: Animals Inspired by Aesop’s Fables.  8½” x 11”.  Twelve blockprints created by Linda Cook DeVona.  $12 from Farmhouse Greetings through Etsy, Dec., ’20.

This set of blockprints lives up to its billing: blockprint is the perfect form and style for this kind of calendar.  Except for January’s picturing of both the Galapagos Tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) and the Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) and May’s FS (Vulpes vulpes and Ciconia ciconia), each month presents one animal with its Latin title.  One last exception is September, which offers a rat and an elephant in what I suspect is a variation of LM.  The back of the calendar includes a link to one of the online versions of the texts behind these illustrations.  Linda sent along a smaller one-page flier featuring TH and the whole calendar.  I will also picture it here.