716

Jean de la Fontaine

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:15,000.00 - 20,000.00 USD
Jean de la Fontaine

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2014 Jul 16 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
One of the most famous French poets of the 17th century (1621–1695) widely known for his collections of fables. ADS in French, signed “de La Fontaine,” one page, 6 x 6.75, September 28, 1656. Handwritten receipt for Claude Lamblet. In full (translated): “I have received from Claude Lamblet, who resides in Iqui and who owns thirty-three acres of forests, for their use in the year 1657, the sum of sixty-six livres for the rights of entering and leaving the thirty-three acres of his property, and I declare he owes nothing more.” Lower portion bears a stamp from the collection of Pierre Jules Fontaine, who published a ‘Manuel de l'amateur d'autographes’ in 1836. In very good condition, with light scattered foxing and wrinkling, and first and second integral sheets affixed to each other (affecting nothing).

In 1647, La Fontaine assumed his father’s position as maître des eaux et forêts, a rangership in his native Château-Thierry, in which he oversaw the inspection of trees, removal of timber, and application of game laws. This document relates to the timber in Lamblet's thirty-three acres, which were located in the nearby Vassy Forest. Although his life as a writer had not yet begun, La Fontaine's experience in this position gave him great insight into matters of country life—knowledge that would later be incorporated into his folk tales and fables, proving vital to his literary career. Two stories clearly affected by these forestry days are ‘The Woodcutter and the Trees’ and ‘Death and the Woodman.’ An extraordinarily rare document from a crucial time in the writer's life.