Bénédictine, 1909

File — Box: CFC Postcards Box 1

Identifier: CFC2018.0313.1-6

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Carlson Fable Collection is a gathering of primary fable materials at Reinert Alumni Memorial Library at Creighton University. It grew out of the personal collection of fable materials gathered by Rev. Gregory Carlson, S.J. and was given to the Creighton Libraries in 1996. There are more than 10,000 books and approximately 8,000 artifacts in the collection.

From plates to stamps, from cards to whiskey decanters, from toys to posters, you'll find just about anything you can imagine here. Please explore all that is to offer here in my fables Catalogue of Objects.

This is the largest online catalog of fable related objects on the internet. Many are from Aesop's Fables but you will find La Fontaine, Velazquez and Krylov also represented in this collection.

Dates

1909

Extent

6 Cards : "Mr de la Fontaine à la Bénédictine." Five of the loveliest cards I have found all feature accommodations of La Fontaine's fables to the monastery that produces Bénédictine brandy. The detail and color work especially on the monastery buildings are outstanding! DOM is still a mark of Benedictine, and their website still shows buildings in Fécamp, on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, like the gorgeous ones on these cards. Visit their website at www.benedictine.fr/anglais/homepage.html. Two cards seem to be dated April 13, 1909.

Language of Materials

French

Additional Description

Abstract

The fox here tries to get not grapes, but the distilled essence of grapes in a bottle standing on a crate.

The fox and stork have neither shallow plates nor tall vases. They do have a bottle of something worthy!

In the fable, the dog lets the others have his master's lunch. Here he lets them have the lunch but not the bottle of brandy!

This donkey is charged with neither salt nor sponges but with a couple of precious cases of Dom brandy.

In an imitation of 2T, two ducks carry a bottle of Benedictine brandy over the extensive buildings, presumably of a monastery.

Is this card a tribute to Benedictine's ability to ship its bottles and cases? In the fable, one rat drags another holding an egg by the tail. Here the second rat is of course holding Benedictine!

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Four for €6 each from Haon Cartophilie, Begues, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. TT for €6 from François Magnin, Paris, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. "The Two Rats" a gift of Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, August, '15. Click on any card to see it enlarged.