Contes et nouvelles en vers / par Jean de La Fontaine.

Engraved t.p. vignettes by P.P. Choffard.
"Dissertation sur la Joconde. À Monsieur B*** [by N. Boileau Despréaux]"--v. 1, p. [255]-280.
Pierre Didot's illustrated edition of La Fontaine was originally intended to be published with a total of 80 plates after designs by Fragonard, to be issued in 8 numbers containing 10 plates each, to illustrate the 2 quarto volumes of text. While the completed text appeared in 1795, only 2 of the projected 8 numbers of plates, comprising 20 finished engravings, were ultimately published to accompany it. These 20 plates included 16 engravings after Fragonard, 2 after Touzé, and 1 each after Mallet and Monnet. 17 additional designs, 5 of them by Fragonard, were eventually brought to various stages of completion by the engravers, bringing the total number of extent plates for Didot's edition of Fontaine's Contes et nouvelles to 37, including plates after 21 of the 57 drawings created by Fragonard to illustrate Fontaine. Individual copies of this book may vary greatly in their illustrative content, with examples containing only the 20 published plates in their finished states, as issued by the publisher, and inserted into volume 1, being the most common. Some copies, however, can be found variously illustrated with early and variant states of the 20 published engravings, as well as impressions of the 17 additional plates. Cf. Ray and Wolf.
Plates engraved by Lingée, Delignon, Trière, Dambrun, Patas, Tilliard, and others, after designs by Fragonard, Lebarbier, Monnet, Mallet, and Touzé; some of the plates etched by Duclos.
Library's copy contains 70 early and unfinished states of 34 of the 37 prints after designs that were finished or partially engraved after drawings by Fragonard, Lebarbier, Monnet, Mallet, and Touzé; with most of the 20 published engravings in two preliminary states, and 31 impressions of the unpublished engravings before letters or in there etched states. Includes a total of 39 proof-states of the engravings after Fragonard, including preliminary etchings and proofs before letters, among them a notable impression of his illustration for "Belphégor" (v. 1, p. 221) printed in red and brown, with additional hand coloring.
Plates included in library's copy, with the states according to Wolf: 1(A), 2(A,C), 3 (A,B), 4(A,C), 4A(A), 5(A,B), 6(A,B,D), 7(A,C), 8(A), 9(A,C), 10(A,B), 11(A,B), 12(A,B), 13(A,C), 14(A,C), 15(A,C), 16(A,B), 17(A), 18(A,B, and an impression of an unrecorded etched state), 18A(A, and an impression of an unrecorded state), 19(A,D), 20(A,C,D), 22(A,D), 23(A,D), 24(A,C), 25(A,D, and D printed in color, not recorded by Wolf), 26(A,B?), 27(A,C), 28(A), 29(A,C), 30(A,B, and B touched with pencil), 31(B), 32(A,D), 33(A,B,C), 34(A), 36(A); note: copy contains 3 impressions of 3 different states of plate 18, all of them retaining the etcher's scratched signature, and 2 impressions of the "rejected" plate 18A, including the etched state recorded by Wolf and an unrecorded and more advanced state of the print; lacking plates 21 ("Le petit chien"), 35 ("Autre imitation: L'amour mouillé"), and 37 ("Féronde").