LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-95). Fables Choisies, Bouillon, 1776, 4 volumes, 8vo, frontispiece and 248 engraved plates, contemporary calf. With 2 early 19th-century editions of French works in 7 vols. (11)

LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-95).  Fables Choisies, mises en vers. Bouillon: "Aux Dépens de la Société Typographique," 1776. 4 volumes, 8vo (205 x 125mm). Half titles, engraved frontispiece and 248 engraved plates after Oudry including the additional plate in vol. one numbered "XLIII. 2. planche" for the fable "Le Meunier, son  Fils, et l' Ane" which is sometimes lacking, ornaments on titles and throughout (some staining at fore-edge of leaves occasionally touching the text or image, one leaf torn in vol. III without loss, a few short tears or small pieces torn away from leaves without loss). Attractively bound in contemporary mottled calf gilt, the spines gilt in six compartments, marbled endpapers, marbled edges (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: "Du Catalogue du Freres Perisse, Imprimeur-Libraires, rue Merciere, à Lyon" (printed label on front pastedown of vol. one); "Les Fables de La Fontaine Ettrene de l' an 1800 Adolphe [?]Devillay, Souvenir precieux des mon cher Adolphe, [?]R. B." (inscription on the front free endpaper of all vols., although only the first vol. has the second sentence and initials). This edition not in Brunet; Cohen-de Ricci 552; Lewine Bibliography of Eighteenth Century Art and Illustrated Books p.276: "[contains a] ... frontispiece after that of Oudry, and 248 plates copied or imitated from Oudry by Alard, Bertin, Crescent and Savart, or not signed ..."; Rochambeau p.42, 109. With 2 early 19th-century editions of French works in 7 vols., namely Montesquieu's Oeuvres Complètes (Paris, 1818, 5 vols. 8vo) and Jean de la Bruyère's Les Caractères ... suivis des Caracterès de Théophraste, Traduit du Grec par la Même (Paris, 1826, 2 vols., 8vo), both attractively bound in contemporary calf. (11)