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Louvre Felix Lorioux Cards, 1900

 Item — Box: CFC Fables Cards Box 1
Identifier: CFC2021.0035.1-19

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

  • 1900

Extent

19 Cards : Eleven numbered large (5⅜" x 7⅛") La Fontaine and five Florian fable cards illustrated by Felix Lorioux and distributed apparently by or for the Louvre Museum. ; 5⅜" x 7⅛"

Language of Materials

French

Abstract

The verso contains the title and fable, perhaps with one or two vocabulary footnotes. The front features "Au Louvre," though in different typeface. The major portion of the front is taken up with Lorioux' glorious colored illustration, often with "E. Desfossés" below the La Fontaine illustration. At the bottom is the fable's title and a selection of two or three lines from the poem. The lively work of Lorioux has been a favorite of mine for a long time. I was not aware of this series of cards, done perhaps as something of a promotion for the Louvre Museum. I cannot yet make sense of the numbering system. Part of the puzzle is that many cards fit into some system using "1" through "4." Then there are some with no numbers and one with the number "9." Part of the puzzle here is that several fables occur twice in this series, with different quotations and illustrations, and always in different number groups. Does each fable represent a "family" of cards, perhaps generally four cards to a family? Some day it will come clear how the cards are numbered and how big the series might be. "Retired Rat #3" is the only duplicate card here. "Cat and Sparrow" includes a card marked "9." One of the three cards representing "The Fish and the Cormorant" has no number but seems to fit what the #2 card must be.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

$110 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne Ricouart, France, Sept., '18. Six additional cards for 48 Euros from Anne-Marie Kucharski, Saint-Ouen, June, '19. One additional card from an unknown source, July, '19.

Repository Details

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

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