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L Agence General Standard, 1890

 File — Box: CFC Trade Cards Box 3
Identifier: CFC2018.0425

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

  • 1890

Extent

10 Cards : 17 colored French cards picturing human scenes for La Fontaine's fables. Titles are printed in block letters, often in a circle or in unusual spaces within the illustration. Five cards advertise Delorme-Gauthier (DG) on both picture and--with the fable's text--verso. One card advertises New Home (NH) sewing machines on both picture and--with the fable's text--verso. Two blank-backed cards (B) lack the red border stripe, have a white border, offer no fable text, and are printed on thinner cardboard stock. ; Just over 4¼ " x 3 ".

Language of Materials

French

Abstract

These cards choose dramatic moments, especially in fables featuring human actors. In one of the two exceptions, "Les Deux Chèvres " is translated into a dramatic human scene of two men fighting each other on a narrow bridge. (The other exception is DJ, mentioned below.) This card has several other interesting points. One of them is that a French card advertises an English (or American?) machine in French. Another is that it gives a terminus post quem for the card. The front proclaims "Il faut dans chaque famille la Machine Type New Home Standard. Adoptée dans les Écoles de France. Médaille d'Or Paris 1889. " Like three other cards, this card presents the fable title in the form of a circle. The verso includes the text, various advertising, and "Imp. de l'Agence Générale, Standard, Paris. " This is the only indication of a printer of any of the cards. The two B cards-- "L'Ivrogne et sa Femme, " and "Le Berger et la Mer "--have lighter paper, smaller images, and larger margins. Delorme-Gauthier seems to be a cloth merchant in Vichy. The DG cards feature a MM in which the woman has fallen, a dressed-up human cock who waits while the jeweler assesses what he has found, a lion having his nails clipped, a traveler struggling in mid-river, and a standard presentation of the divided oyster. The five “Biscuits Pernot” cards indicate as publisher ”Courbe-Rouzet a Dôle (Jura).” One translation here from the animal to the human sphere strikes me as inept: is the ass who doesn’t care who is his master like a playing child? That ass may be quite smart! See "L'Avare qui a perdu son Trésor " under "Stock Singles." It may well belong to this set.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Five DG cards for $40 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, March, '01. The remaining three for 60 Francs each from Annick Tilly at the Clignancourt flea market, August, '99. Two more for €1 each in St. Ouen, August, '13. Six further cards advertising “Biscuits Pernot – Dijon” for $10.28 each from S.O.L. on Ebay, Jan., ’21. One further "Pernot" card from S.O.L. for €9, Sept., '21. "Ass and Robbers" for €9 from s.o.l* through Ebay, August, '22. Four slender cards advertising Belle Jardinière Chicoree at C. Beriot in Lille for €1.50 each from pier-mont through Ebay, Spt., '23: one new (Fox and Goat); and three with differently placed title-circles (Lion in Love; GGE; AD).

Source

Repository Details

Part of the Creighton University Libraries, Archives & Special Collections Repository

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