Oeuvres Complettes De J. La Fontaine, Precedees D'une Nouvelle Notice Sur Sa Vie. 6 Volumes. Complete. (Oeuvres Completes De J. La Fontaine /complete Works of J. De La Fontaine) Hardcover - 1814

A PARIS: De L'Imprimerie De Crapelet. Chez Lefevre, Libraire, RUE DE L'Eperon,. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1814. Presumed 1st Edition Thus ( in Six Volumes). Hardcover. First edition 1814 in this form, of the 6 Volume set of The Works of La Fontaine. 6 Uniformly bound volumes. All in green paper-covered boards with a burgundy coloured leather label, titled and banded in gilt, with a small circular black leather label a cople of inches below, edged in gilt, and numbered in gilt, to the spine of each volume. The boards are rubbed and scuffed/scrapped, particularly to the heads/tails of the spines, to the corners and to some edges, with some loss in parts through to the boards. I am unable to tell the date of the binding, but certainly not very current/modern. The labels to the spines have some darkening/patching and some small loss to the edge of Vol 4. Stout boards and ALL hinges tight in and out. Page fore-edges lightly browned/dust ingrained. Internally a former owner's name in old ink on the front free endpaper of the first volume = Antoine, anne, Carrere St Bear - and - in the same hand, and signed Carrere, a half page of written text in french on the ffep of volume 3 (at a quick read in my poor French it seems to be a note for his sons). There is the usual scattered foxing (pale lemon and tan spotting/patching) here and there in the various volumes, one or two pages worse than others, a few spots/marks - but overall the text is generally clean and bright. With 26 fine copper plate engravings throughout the set - Most VERY clean and deep impressions. No Plate list. Illustrated in Volume 1 with a Portrait of Jean de La Fontaine engraved by Jean-François Ribault, after the engraving made by Edelinck of the painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud. The remaining 25 fine engravings are by J(ean) M(ichel) MOREAU (Le Jeune). All Engraved by various artists. The quality paper/pages are irregularly sized/edged. The set begins with an unpublished Life of the author by Louis-Simon Auger (1772-1829). A dedication to the Dauphin; Preface, and a Life of Aesop. The first 2 volumes are La Fontaines' 'FABLES' (New Edition). Volume 3 = Contes. Volume 4 = Theatre. Volume 5 = Psyche, and 3 Poemes. And Volume 6 = Oeuvres Diverses. This 6 volume set is overweight at c. 5 KILOS UNpackaged, and WILL require some extra postage, cost depending on your location. The covers could do with a little TLC, maybe just a re-colouring would improve it, or the set would be ideal for a fine binding? . Overall a nice set. See Images. ; Vol. 01/06/2020; Each Volume Large 8vo 8" - 9" tall .