Fables choisis, mises en vers. 4 vols. in 2.

With engr. frontispiece by C. N. Cochin after Jean-Baptiste Oudry and N. Dupuis, 275 plates (c. 280 x 210 mm) after J.-B. Oudry, engraved by Aubert, Aveline, Baquoy, Beauvais, Beauvarlet, Cars, Chedel, Chenu, Chevillet, Cochin, Elisabeth Cousinet, Dupuis, Duret, de Fehrt, Fessart, Flipart, Floding, Gaillard, Galimard, Lebas, Legrand, Lemire, Lempereur, Marvie, Menil, Moitte, Ouvrier, Pasquier, Pelettier, Pitre-Martenaise, Poletnich, Prévost, Radigues, Riland, Rode, Salvador, Sornique, Surugue, Tardieu, and Teucher, and 119 woodcut culs-de-lampe by Papillon and Le Sieur after Jean-Jacques Bachelier. Large folio (size of leaves 410 x 275 mm). 19th century half morocco, backs in seven compartments richly gilt (minor repairs to corners). Paris, Charles-Antoine Jombert for Desaint & Saillant, and Durant, 1755-59. First Oudry edition of "one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books" (Ray). The first plate accompanying "Le Singe et le Léopard" (vol. III, following page 112) is in the second state. This magnificent and very luxurious edition, financed among others by King Louis XV "gehört zu den schönsten und kostbarsten Editionen Frankreichs im 18. Jahrhundert auf dem Gebiete des illustrierten Buches . Bis auf den heutigen Tag sind künstlerisches Niveau und bibliophiler Rang dieser Edition unbestritten" (Weinreich). It was the enterprise of De Montenault, who thought Oudry's (1686-1755) original designs not entirely suited for the purpose. Cochin was given a free hand to rework them, in what has been described as "the most heroic enterprise in the history of the rococo illustrated book . the 276 compositions reflect equal credit on the redrawing and on the 42 engravers . as well as the banker who originally financed the work as a non-profit making operation, and on the sponsor who ruined his own fortunes during the nine years he occupied in seeing the four folio volumes through" (Owen Holloway, French Rococo Book Illustration). A total of 948 copies were printed on three different types of paper. The present copy contains additionally Oudry's portrait, engraved by Tardieu after Largilière which is not to be found in all copies. - Occasionally a few spots and very slightly browning, otherwise a clean, wide-margined copy with strong impressions of the plates. - Cohen/de Ricci 548f. ("magnifique ouvrage"); Rochambeau 86; Lewine 274; Després, Bibliogr. des livres de fables de La Fontaine illustrées (1892), 12/XX; Sander 1065; Tchémerzine VI, 390; Weinreich, Die von J.-B. Oudry illustr. Ausg. der Fabeln Lafontaines, in: Die Buchillustr. im 18. Jhdt. Colloquium . Düsseldorf 3.-5.10.1978 (1980), 145ff.; Schäfer, Fünf Jhdte. Buchillustr., 134; cf. Fürstenberg 75, 86-87, 98, 134-35, 144, 146, 157-59, 174, 194-95, 283; Cat. Fürstenberg (1965), no. 19; Ray, Art of French Illus. Book 5 ("one of the most ambitious and successful of all illustrated books"); BnF, Des livres rares depuis l'invention de l'imprimrie, p. 258-259 (1998). LITERATURE: FRENCH ; ILLUSTRATED BOOKS (BEFORE 1900) ;