LA FONTAINE Jean de. Lot n° 72

Fables choisies... Paris, Desaint & Saillant et Durand, 1755-1759. 4 volumes, folio (32.5 x 48.5 cm), [2] ff, XXX + XXVIII + 124 pp, frontispiece, [1 + 69] pl. & [2] ff, II + 136 pp, [68] pl. & [2] ff, IV + 146 pp, [68] pl. & [2] ff, II + 188 pp, [69] pl, contemporary binding in red morocco, triple gilt fillet and angular fleurons on covers, ribbed spines decorated with gilt motifs, green morocco parts, double gilt fillet at edges, inner gilt roulette, edges gilt on marble. The finest edition of La Fontaine's Fables, illustrated with 275 plates engraved after drawings by Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Complete with the portrait of Oudry engraved by J. Tardieu, added to some copies. A very fine copy, one of one hundred printed on large Auvergne paper, perfectly bound in contemporary red morocco. The plate of the fable Le singe et le léopard is before the letter. From the library of Léon Rattier (nominative heraldic bookplate on red leather). A handwritten receipt signed by Oudry, for two portraits of the Duc de la Force, "son grand portrait [et] son portrait en Apollon" for 180 livres, dated September 9, 1719, is bound at the head of the first volume. Cohen 548-550 ("Magnifique ouvrage").