18th century | Cotsen Children’s Library

Paroy’s engraving is printed on a single sheet of paper and trimmed to a circle 17.25 inches in diameter. [Fables of La Fontaine]. [Paris?], 1789. (Cotsen)

This marvelous circular engraving was taken out the other day while reorganizing the backlog of French prints. The dealer from whom it was purchased was somewhat puzzled as to what its purpose might have been. Were all the tiny figures designed to be cut out and used in découpage? But surely it would be difficult to do without damaging surrounding figures, even with a very steady hand and a very sharp pair of tiny scissors. And it really doesn’t look like a fancier kind of lottery print, where the images are laid out in a rectangular grid, which simplifies cutting out. So this seemed like a good time to try and find out a little more about this engraving.

Detail showing Aesop below the bust of La Fontaine.

The “Cte de Paroy,” who signed his name and the date 1789 (a significant year in French history!) below the bust of the seventeenth-century poet Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695) at the center of the engraving, was actually the print’s engraver, not the publisher. Paroy’s full name was Jean Philippe Guy le Gentil, Comte de Paroy (1780-1824), and he was celebrated as a miniaturist. He also wrote a memoir of his eventful life, which can be read in the original French on Google Books. The figure of La Fontaine’s illustrious fabulist predecessor, the hunchbacked slave Aesop, appears below La Fontaine on the bust’s column-like plinth.

If Paroy was known for working on a small scale, then this print was probably intended to show off his skills. Dozens of scenes from La Fontaine’s fables are cunningly arranged with surprisingly little space between them. Yet Paroy has laid them out so skillfully that the effect is pleasing rather than overwhelming. It is a tour de force that designers of the modern puzzle picture, like Martin Handford, Jean Marzullo and Walter Wick, or armchair puzzle hunts like Kit Williams, might be intrigued to study.

Detail showing arrangement of various scenes.

We were delighted to find an image of the print in the collection section of the web site of the Musée Jean de la Fontaine, but were disappointed that it wasn’t possible to make detailed comparisons between the two copies. It was difficult to choose a handful of details for this posting, but we hope this gives you an idea of how beautifully the variety of subjects are presented.

And some details depicting different fables:

“Le renard, le singe and les animaux” (livre VI).

“Le loup devenue berger” (livre III).

“L’âne et le petit chien” (livre IV).

Enduring Trifles: Writing the History of Childhood with Ephemera

February 17-19, 2011

On February 17-19, over 70 scholars, collectors, and bibliophiles gathered at Princeton for the 9th Cotsen conference on children’s books, organized by Andrea Immel of Princeton and Jill Shefrin of the University of London.

Cotsen Curator Andrea Immel welcomes participants.

Jill Shefrin presenting “A Delightful Recreation: for the Industrious: English Children School Pieces.”

The topic of this year’s conference was, “Enduring Trifles: Writing the History of Childhood with Ephemera,” and it explored the multi-faceted concept of “ephemera” with reference to children’s material culture, perceived needs, and prevailing constructs of childhood, pleasure, play, and learning.

The Shorter OED defines “ephemera” as an item “of short-lived interest or use … collectible items originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity.” A fragile artifact can be defined as ephemeral, but similarly, if its content is slight, its format or genre perceived as trivial, or it reflects contemporary events of passing interest, it can be considered ephemeral. The word also has another key meaning with respect to children’s things: an object or text can be ephemeral by design if conceived for use during a particular stage in a young person’s cognitive or social development.

Brian Alderson discussing A Bloody Tragedy… A Dreadful Warning to Disobedient Children.

Jenna Weissman Josselit presenting “Baby in the Bulrushes: Moses in the American Imagination.”

Speakers from various institutions world-wide — including the Bodleian Library, the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, Newcastle University, and the University of Toronto — explored various aspects of ephemera, thus broadly conceived, in papers such as: “Caught in the Moment: Current Events in Eighteenth-century Children Books,” “Goodrich’s Grab Bag & Visualizing the Natural World for the Young,” “Fuller Paper Doll Books: Interactive Design and Gender(ed) Play,” “Child-Authored Poetry in the Late Eighteenth Century,” and “‘A Colony of Puffins:’ Documenting a Reading Community.” A full listing of papers and presenters and a PDF of the conference schedule (designed by Isabella Palowich of Artisa LLC) are both available on the conference website.

Alan Powers discussing children’s theater sets and characters.

The program also included two workshops where Alan Powers and Peter Cope utilized actual artifacts to discuss Juvenile Theaters and Dean’s Rag Books, respectively, and an actual Juvenile Toy Theater performance of Rip Van Winkle, by Dr. Neff’s Incredible Puppet Company, was followed by a behind-the-scenes look at the theater and its apparatus.

Peter Cope displaying Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit and select Dean’s Rag Books.

A behind-the-scenes look at juvenile theater sets and backdrops from George and Anne Neff, following their performance of Rip Van Winkle.

Cotsen Children’s Library

Princeton University

Category Archives: 18th century

La Fontaine’s Fables in Miniature

Cotsen Conference “Enduring Trifles: Writing the History of Childhood with Ephemera:” February 17-19, 2011

Enduring Trifles: Writing the History of Childhood with Ephemera