Depot Centrale, 1895
Scope and Contents
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
- 1895
Extent
8 Cards : Nine full-color cards illustrating La Fontaine's fables in landscape format with children as actors. The backs of eight, uniform in format but not content, all refer to "Dépot Central, 41, Rue Richer, à Paris."
Language of Materials
French
Abstract
None of the pictures on these cards is well coordinated for colors. Perhaps the best of the colored images is the bespectacled child playing the teacher in "L'Enfant & le Maitre d' École." The most curious feature of this set lies in the unusual relationship between picture side and verso. The latter seems to go its own way, to have a series of scenes of its own, independent of the picture-side. The cards on this reverse side offer six different numbered black-and-white scenes (with doubles of #1 and #4) advertising Alcool de menthe de Ricqlès. In each, one character recommends to another the virtues of this product. This product also produces white teeth and good breath for young women, according to #1. Perhaps she is getting ready to meet her fiancé, who in #5 is also taking some to get ready for her. In #2 it will revive a woman who has fainted. In #3 it is the ideal substitute in the café for the dangerous absynthe. Maybe the most persuasive is #4, where the issue is sea-sickness. In #6 a traveller gets a recommendation on a guide-book, but an even stronger recommendation for Ricqlès as the cure for every least sickness. Two of the cards use people to fill animals' roles: " Le Chat, la Belette & le petit Lapin" and "Le Loup, la Chèvre & le Chevreau." MSA seems to put the fable into the background of the picture. For other cards using the same images, see Bouillon-Rivoyre et Cie Children.
L'Avare qui a perdu son Trésor
Le Chat, la Belette & le petit Lapin
L'Enfant & le Maitre d'École
Le Fou qui vend la Sagesse
Le Loup, la Chèvre & le Chevreau
Le Loup devenu Berger
Le Loup, la Mère & l'Enfant
Le Meunier, son Fils & l'Ane
Conseil Tenu par les Rats
Repository Details
Part of the Creighton University Libraries, Archives & Special Collections Repository