espect no less than in the outward vesture, and what may be termed
the complemental book-plate.

One of the eighteenth-century French productions which answers most
thoroughly to the just foregoing description, is the "Fermiers
Generaux" edition of the _Contes et Nouvelles_ of La Fontaine, 2 vols.
8vo, 1762. The ordinary copies of this work, of which the whole charm
lies in the meretricious plates by Eisen (for the text is inoffensive
enough), are distinguished by the presence or otherwise of two or
three plates in a particular state, those left as originally printed
being preferred, because they offer certain unconventional details
subsequently modified. But, in fact, to make a perfect exemplar of the
work, to satisfy the demand of a rigid connoisseur, you have to
combine features in the shape of proofs before letters and vignettes
taken off separately, besides extra engravings by other artists not
strictly belonging to the edition, until you have a complete album of
_bijoux indiscrets_, and in the old French morocco by Derome or
Bozerian a L200 lot. The Earl of Crawford's copy, which was to have
been sold at Sotheby's in July 1896 (No. 493 of catalogue), was a
masterpiece of this description; but it was withdrawn. It has since
been sold to another noble lord--the Earl of Carnarvon.

A copy of the normal _decouvert_ type of the _Contes et Nouvelles_,
1762, may be had, according to condition and binding, for between L10
and L50. It has been said of the extra plates to the _Contes et
Nouvelles_ of La Fontaine that their rejection as part of the
published work ought to be a matter neither of surprise nor of
regret, for they are not only flagrantly indecent, but are poor and
unsatisfying from an artistic point of view. Another favourite edition
of the _Tales_ is that with the plates by Romeyn de Hooge, 1685, 2
vols. 8vo; but you must have it on fine paper in old morocco.

Looking at the illustrated editions of the _Tales_ generally, the
plates, except the charming head and tail pieces, do great injustice
to the text, which the author can hardly have foreseen the possibility
of being deformed and discredited by such forced and exaggerated
constructions of his meaning.

The edition of La Fontaine's _Fables_ by Oudry, 4 vols. folio,
1755-59, is almost equally sought by connoisseurs, though on somewhat
different grounds. Some copies in one of the plates, where there is a
tavern sign, have on the board a lion rampant. In th