Original drawings for "The Fox and the Stork"
(Moscow: 1929). Six pen-and-ink drawings colored with watercolor, with an expressionistic look, each measuring 7 3/4 by 6 1/2 inches. These delicate, stylized illustrations are tinted with shades of orange, purple, and green. The first drawing has the title and illustrator’s name, Ausbrey, below it in Russian. The images recount La Fontaine’s fable of getting one’s just desserts: the fox exasperates the stork by offering him food on a plate, which, with his long beak, the stork cannot eat. However, the stork retaliates by offering the fox a drink from a narrow, long-necked vessel. Attractive and unique illustrations for a book never published. Two have paperclip marks to edge, else fine, mounted without adhesive in a paper portfolio. Item #15929
Price: $850.00