Creighton University

Several things are unusual about this collection.  It is understandable that the vendor labelled it as “Imagerie d’Epinal,” since it is definitely in that category; I believe that it may be a competitor to Epinal.  The most unusual feature is the stapling together of these thirty handbills.  I had been tempted to catalogue it as a book.  Lastly, I find the diversity of style and quality surprising.  GA reminds me of Paul Colin, who was already famous in 1925.  Typical and typically colorful is FS.  Surprisingly creative in its composition is DW.  Perhaps not as well executed is “The Kite and the Nightingale” – though a quick check finds this very illustration on a trade card posted for the fable as presented on a prominent La Fontaine website!  Perhaps also not as skillfully done, though wonderfully conceived, is “The Monkey and the Cat.”  These handbills have lasted well these 85 years!  Heavy stock.  The images seem to be identical with the fifteen that appear in the pamphlet by the same publisher “Fables de La Fontaine, Album No. 2,” for which I have guessed the same date. The vendor dates these about 1905.