J[ean] de La Fontaine. Fables choisies, mises en vers par J. de la Fontaine. Paris: Chez Desaint & Saillant [et] Durand, De l'Imprimerie de Charles-Antoine Jombert, 1755-1759. First edition, "Le Singe et le Léopard" plate in second state. Four large folio volumes (16.4375 x 11.375 inches; 417 x 288 mm.). [4], xxx, xviii, 124; [4], ii, 135, [1, blank]; [4], iv, 146; [4], ii, 188 pages. Engraved frontispiece and 275 engraved plates after Jean-Baptiste Oudry, reworked by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, and then engraved by Aubert, Aveline, Baquoy, Beauvais, Beauvarlet, Cars, Chedel, Chenu, Chevillet, Cochin, Cousinet (Elisabeth), Dupuis, Duret, de Fehrt, Fessard, Flipart, Floding, Gaillard, Gallimard, Lebas, Legrand, Lemire, Lempereur, Marvie, Menil, Moitte, Ouvrier, Pasquier, Pelletier, Pitre-Martenasie, Poletnich, Prévost, Radigues, Riland, Rode, Salvador, Sornique, Surugue, Tardieu, and Teucher; 209 woodcut title vignettes and head- and tail-pieces by Lesueur after Bachellier. Volume I bound with the engraved portrait of Jean Baptiste Oudry by J. Tardieu after N. de l'Argillière, found in some copies, but not integral. The first plate for Fable CLXXII, "Le Singe et le Léopard" (facing page 111 in Volume III), is in the second state, with the addition of the words "Le Léopard" on the banner.

Contemporary French cat's paw calf. Covers with gilt triple fillet border and gilt corner ornaments; spines decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments with six gilt-decorated raised bands and brown morocco lettering and volume labels; board edges with triple gilt fillet; marbled edges and matching marbled endpapers. The bindings have considerable wear; some volumes with loss to spine ends, some with small repairs to covers at top and bottom of joints, and some joints repaired; most corners bumped, with boards exposed; covers with some surface loss due to the acid used to create the cat's paw pattern; hinges cracked, but still holding strong. Some mostly marginal foxing, reverse foxing, and spotting, heavier in places, but generally not affecting images; a few additional small stains or smudges; occasional offsetting from the plates to facing text pages; a few short marginal tears or paper flaws. Each volume with small intermittent indentations and occasional puncture marks or short tears in the gutter. Still, a handsome set, with the plates generally clean. Bookplate on the front pastedown of each volume: Bibliothèque de M. Aug. des Sagets (with imprint: "Lyon: Imp. Alf. Louis Perrin et Marinet, 4-75").

After he became director of the Beauvais tapestry factory, Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1685-1755) began to amuse himself sketching subjects from La Fontaine's Fables. He made a total of 276 sketches between 1729 and 1735. The story of how they became the illustrations of the Fables of 1755-1759 is told in the "Avertissement de l'éditeur" in Volume I by the publisher Montenault, who had bought the sketches. Oudry's subjects being landscapes and animals, which he had drawn freely for his own enjoyment, Cochin undertook the responsibility of turning these freehand drawings into finished prints. Although Oudry's skill at portraying animals and his interpretation of La Fontaine's humor can hardly be surpassed, Cochin's sure and experienced hand did much to improve the original designs, particularly the figures. He redrew them, correcting the figures and background and supplying precise lines for the engravers. "The format of these four folio volumes is luxurious. Each of the fables has its own title page and one or more plates in addition to the emblematic and floral ornaments...Indeed, this is one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books" (Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book).

Cohen-de Ricci, cols. 548-550. Huntington Library, Great Books in Great Editions, 21. Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 5. Regency to Empire: French Printmaking 1715-1814, 41.