Fables of La Fontaine (1st rev.)

This is the 40th lantern slide from a series of 47 glass slides (8.5 x 10 cm) featuring colour illustrations of the fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). There is one slide per fable. The producer of the series is Maison de la Bonne Presse from Paris, and the artist is Achille Lemot (1846-1909), who was employed by Maison de la Bonne Presse as an illustrator from 1884 until his death.

On the front side, there is a round label with the handwritten number '40' and a rectangular label with printed 'Maison de la Bonne Presse / 5, Rue Bayard, Paris' and handwritten '40 Fables'. The lantern slide consists of a double glass plate held together by black paper adhesive tape. Around 1929, it belonged to the loanable collection of the Stedelijk Schoolmuseum Antwerp (available only for teaching purposes).

The Little Fish and the Fisherman - Het kleine visje en de visser - Le petit poisson et le pêcheur.

The fisherman had caught a very small fish that begged to be thrown back into the water and caught again once it had grown into a large carp, at which point the fisherman would have more to eat. The fisherman chose to fry the small fish instead. The moral of this fable is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: you are certain of the one, while the other may slip away.