Creighton University

There is for me both joy and sorrow in this group of fascinating plates.  Gien produced them in a number of ways, in blue patterns with different surrounding elements and especially in black patterns – with different formats on the verso in each series.  This series, from a scan of online offerings, does seem rare.  There is  the joy of figuring out the rebus statements: this turned out to be easier than I thought.  The disappointment comes in the fact that only one of the six plates -- #6 – turns out to come from a fable, namely “The Rooster, Cat, and Mouse.”  “Protect yourself as long as you live from judging people by their appearance.”