Fables of Aesop. According to Sir Roger L'Estrange. With Fifty Drawings.

CALDER, Alexander, - AESOP; L'ESTRANGE, Sir Roger.

Published by Paris: Harrison of Paris, [1931]

About this Item

First Calder edition, limited issue, number 262 of 595 copies on Auvergne paper from a total edition of 665, scarce retaining both the slipcase and the paper-knife. The text of the present edition is based Roger L'Estrange's ground-breaking translation of Aesop's Fables (1692). Harrison of Paris was founded by publisher and heiress Barbara Harrison Wescott (1904-1977) and art patron and curator Monroe Wheeler (1899-1988) in 1930. Wheeler designed this book, the pale blue covers of which were made from schoolchildren's aprons (Becker, p. 62). The illustrator, Alexander Calder, came from a long line of sculptors, and first took up printmaking after moving to Paris in 1926, where he befriended Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Leger, Joan Miró, and Piet Mondrian. David P. Becker, Drawings for Book Illustration, 1980. Quarto. Illustrated throughout by Alexander Calder. Original light blue paper-covered boards, front cover lettered in dark blue with Calder illustration, edges untrimmed, endleaves uncut. With the original paper knife loosely inserted. Housed in the original red card chemise and slipcase. A touch of foxing to wrappers, faint offsetting from paper-knife on half-title. A near-fine copy, a little wear to slipcase.

Seller Inventory # 159579

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fables of Aesop. According to Sir Roger L'Estrange. With Fifty Drawings.
• Publisher: Paris: Harrison of Paris, [1931]
• Edition: 1st Edition