presentation copy - inscribed by the playwright David Garrick

Presentation copy of one of the finest illustrated books of the 18th century, inscribed by the celebrated 18th-century playwright David Garrick on the half-title of volume I: 'These Fables / of one of the greatest geniuses France has produc'd / were given / to his ingenious, amiable young friend / Mr. Thos. Rackett / by David Garrick.'

The recipient, Thomas Rackett (1757–1840), was an English clergyman, known as an antiquary. At the age of 14 he recited to David Garrick the latter's ode for the Shakespearean jubilee and Garrick presented him with a gilt copy of it. The following year (1771), Garrick gave him a folio copy of Shakespeare with a laudatory inscription.

Rare first issue before 'le léopard' appears on the banner of the plate 'Le singe et le léopard' in volume III. The so-called Fontaine d'Oudry was based originally on a series of ink drawings by the rococo painter Jean-Baptiste d'Oudry, made between 1729 and 1734 which were designed as a sample book for paintings and tapestries. Acquired by the amateur Louis Regnard de Montenault, the drawings were redrawn by Nicolas Cochin and entrusted to over forty engravers selected by Cochin and printed under Montenault's supervision on his personal press. Montenault felt that no one could compare to d'Oudry in terms of his special understanding of La Fontaine's poetry. One could feel the sentiment of his words in every illustration, almost giving the animals depicted their own voice.

First edition thus, first issue, presentation copy, inscribed by David Garrick; 4 vols, folio; engraved and etched frontispiece and 275 plates after Jean-Baptiste Oudry by Cochin, Tardieu, Prévost, Chedel, Lempereur and others, 209 woodcut title vignettes, head- and tailpieces after Bachellier, plate for 'Le singe et le léopard' in its first (unlettered) state, occasional light spotting and rust-marks, soiling to margins of pp.104-105 in volume II; contemporary calf gilt, spines elaborately tooled in gilt, rebacked preserving original spines, extremities lightly worn, inner dentelles gilt, marbled endpapers.

Cohen/de Ricci 548-50; Ray, French, 5; Sander 1065.