1161 - Tales and Short Stories in Verse [...]. London [Liège? Plomteux?] 1778, 4 vols., small in-12: [4]-xxiv-272-[2], [2]-viii-296-[2], [4]-246-[2], [4]-248-[2] pp. (some faint foxing, slight water stains on the margins in vols. I and III, a torn margin with no loss in vol. I, p. 55, a few pinholes in vol. II, especially on the title page). Cherry-red long-grained morocco by the publisher, gold chain encircling the covers, smooth, coffered spines with gold floral decoration and olive-green title labels, gilded fillet on the edges, gilded dotted hatching on the medallions, amaranth-colored endpapers, gilded edges (a few faint small black spots). A fine copy. A charming edition, erroneously attributed to Cazin, compiled under the half-title “Recueil des meilleurs contes en vers” (“Collection of the Best Tales in Verse”), known as “Petits conteurs” (“Little Storytellers”). It consists of “Contes et nouvelles en vers de La Fontaine” for the first two volumes, and 113 tales in verse by Voltaire, Vergier, Sénecé, Perrault, Moncrif, Ducerceau, Grécourt, Autereau, Saint-Lambert, Champfort, Piron, Dorat, La Monnoye, and François de Neufchâteau in the last two. This work stands as an exception within what Corroënne calls “the first Cazin period,” from 1777 to 1780, since it exhibits none of its characteristic features (see Corroënne, Bull., pp. 5–12 and Manuel, pp. 86–90). While the first two volumes do indeed date from 1778, the next two appear to be later, though all are grouped under the false title “Recueil des meilleurs...” Illustrated with a portrait of La Fontaine and 116 small in-text vignettes, several of which are erotic, attributed in whole or in part to Duplessis-Bertaux (Reynaud) and to Durand, the Duke of Orléans’s miniature painter, engraved by Delvaux (Cohen) or by L. Dreppe of Liège, who signed the vignette in vol. IV, p. 15, which would attest to the publication’s Liège origins (according to Theux and Corroënne). A copy of the second printing with the vignettes (“La courtisane amoureuse” and “Nicaise”) in their correct places; Volume IV includes Quires V and X but lacks the cardboard half-titles. The headbands on pp. II:215 and III:73 are exposed. Enriched with a continuation of the running head from p. 115 to the end of vol. IV. Ref. Cohen 859–860. — Corroënne, Manuel, 90. — Corroënne, Bull. du Bibliophile, 91–96. - De Theux 657. - Reynaud 446 - Fontaine 199. Provenance: Handwritten note of the legal epigraph erased in the lower margin of p. 107 of vol. I.