LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Contes et nouvelles en vers. Paris : printing house of P. Didot l'aîné, An III (1795). - 2 volumes in-12, 167 x 98 : viij, 256 pp. with 1 portrait, 40 plates ; 298 pp. with 1 blank page, portrait, 44 plates. Stiff parchment, gilt roulette on the boards, smooth spine decorated, gilt roulette inside, blue and silver silk lining and endpapers, gilt edges (period binding). Beautiful edition printed on vellum paper, illustrated with a portrait of La Fontaine in medallion engraved by Duprel after Rigaud. The copy is enriched with 2 portraits engraved by Étienne Ficquet, one of La Fontaine after Hyacinthe Rigaud and the other of Charles Eisen after Vispré, and 82 plates after Eisen in first printing, from the edition of the Fermiers généraux. The two engravings Le Cas de conscience and Le Diable de Papefiguière are in two states, covered and uncovered. Beautiful copy in contemporary binding. A few scattered curls. Restored tear to the engraving opposite page 183 in the second volume.