Title-page: FABLES | NOUVELLES. | {vignette by Ponce after Marillier} | A LA HAYE, | Et se trouve a Paris, | Chez Delalain, rue de la Comédie Françoise. | — | M. DCC. LXXIII. ||
Collation: 2 volumes (4 livres) in one, 1st blank, engraved t.p. “FABLES | Par | Mr. Dorat.” signed C. P. Marillier, inv. – E. D. Ghendt Sculp. 1772; a-c4, A-Z4 2A-2Q4, last blank, plus engraved frontispiece before A1 by Nicolas Delaunay and engraved d.t.p. before Z1: “Fables | de M. Dorat | II. Volume” also by Ghendt after Marillier., 99 vignettes and 99 tailpieces, all after Marillier. Lacking Delaunay frontispiece for the second volume (similar to the 1st).
Edition: This is a vol. 1 176 pp. copy (Ray, 43). 2nd edition after Fables ou allégories philosophiques, 1772, p. 162 corrected: “Je sais , même au sein des poisons / Puiser le suc qui m'est utile”. Page xxii numbered correctly; on top of p. iii, printed a chain instead of a triple fillet in later issues (Ray, 43A).
Pagination: [i, ii] iii-xxii, [2 d.t.p. «Livre premier»] [1] 2-309 [3 table], 3 plates.
Binding: Crimson crashed morocco (198 x 133 mm) ruled in gilt, spine with raised bands gilt in compartments with gilt-lettered cream calf label, gilt dentelle inside, marbled endpapers, Pauli Menso bookplate pasted to front pastedown, printed on laid paper, AEG.
Catalogue raisonné: Cohen-DeRicci: 313-315; Ray (French): № 43, pp. 81-83.
Provenance: Pauli Menso.
We only present a sample of illustrations, as their total number is enormous.
Contributors:
Author: Claude Joseph Dorat (French, 1734–1780)
Publisher: Delalain (firm) (18th century)
Artist: Clément Pierre Marillier (French, 1740–1808)
Engravers:
Jean Charles Baquoy (French, 1721–1777)
Nicolas Delaunay (French, 1739–1792)
Pierre Duflos (French, born in 1751)
Emmanuel Jean Nepomucène de Ghendt (Flemish, worked in France, 1738–1815)
Yves-Marie Le Gouaz (French, 1742–1816)
Pierre Adrien Le Beau (French, 1748–after 1800)
Jean-Jacques André Le Veau (French, 1729–1786)
Charles Louis Lingée (French, 1748–1819)
Joseph de Longueil (French, 1730–1792)
Louis Legrand (French, 1723–1807)
Jacques Le Roy (French, born in 1739)
Louis Joseph Masquelier (French, 1741–1811)
François Denis Née (French, 1735–1818)
Nicholas Ponce (French, 1746–1831)
Marguerite (Hémery) Ponce (French, born in 1745)
Jean Baptiste Simonet (French, 1742–1813)
