Nepveu, Paris
Fables de Florian mises en action. Paris: Chez Nepveu, 1821.
Two volumes, each in original marbled paper wrappers, housed in publisher’s matching marbled slipcases (labeled Série A and Série B). Each booklet contains 13 fables by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755–1794), 26 in all, with prefaces explaining the interactive format: cut-out figures, supplied in marbled paper envelopes, are to be inserted into slits in large background illustrations to complete tableaux scenes. Volume A features a finely executed hand-colored pastoral landscape; Volume B an interior scene, each with multiple slots cut to receive the tabs on the figure cut-outs.
The background cards are approximately 12.5 × 16.5 cm, and are separate from the text booklets.
The slot-in figures are large, brightly hand-colored, and coded on the tab with both series and fable: marked No. 1 and No. 2 (corresponding to Series A and B), and additionally numbered Fable I–XIII, as in the texts. The rear of each booklet contains line-illustrated guide sheets laid out in a 4×3 grid to show the “correct” placement of the figures for the first twelve fables. Figures for the thirteenth fable in each volume are omitted from the grids and must be deduced by the reader. This quirk, combined with conflicting preface statements, has led to historical confusion about collation: the preface to Volume A calls for 21 figures (though fewer are diagrammed in the grid), while the preface to Volume B states only 17 figures (and 17 appear in the guide sheet), but in fact two additional figures are required for the final fable, bringing the true number to 19.
Collation and Contents:
Volume A (Série A): Thirteen fables. Preface states 21 figures; 20 of 21 present (lacking the opossum from Fable XIII, supplied in high-quality photocopy facsimile). Guide sheet covers only the first twelve fables.
Volume B (Série B): Thirteen fables. Preface incorrectly states 17 figures; in fact 19 are required. 18 of 19 present (lacking the figure of the man bowing to the elephant in Fable XII, supplied in facsimile). Guide sheet again only diagrams twelve fables. Notable small loss to the end of the tightrope walker’s pole (Fable VII).
Condition: The slipcases and text booklets are in very good condition, with some wear to spines and edges. The illustrated background scenes (pastoral for Volume A, interior for Volume B) are also in very good condition, colors fresh. The sets of cut-out figures are near complete: 20 of 21 called for in Volume A (lacking the opossum in Fable XIII, supplied in photocopy facsimile), and 18 of 19 called for in Volume B (lacking the man bowing to the elephant in Fable XII, supplied in facsimile). Figures are in very good to fine condition overall, noting a small loss to the end of the tightrope walker’s pole in Volume B, Fable VII.
Illustrious Cabot–Burley Provenance:Contemporary presentation inscription on one volume, “Lydia S. Cabot—given her by Miss Burley.” The recipient is very likely Lydia Dodge Cabot (1813–1881), of the distinguished Boston–Salem Cabot family—one of New England’s great “Brahmin” dynasties, often described as an American aristocracy. She later married the celebrated reformer and theologian Rev. Theodore Parker, a central figure in the Transcendentalist movement. The donor is almost certainly from the prominent Burley family of Ipswich–Salem, long intertwined with the Cabots. One possible identification is Susan E. Burley (1816–1854) of Salem, noted for her Chestnut Street literary club frequented by Hawthorne and the Peabody sisters; if the inscription was made a little later than the 1821 publication (as often happened with gift books), she fits perfectly. If the presentation occurred right at publication, “Miss Burley” may instead be an elder unmarried Burley kinswoman from the same line. The two families are firmly linked in this period: in 1834 Edward Burley purchased the 1781 John Cabot House from the Beverly Bank and later bequeathed it to the Beverly Historical Society; in 1852 Joseph Sebastian Cabot married Susan Burley Howes; and socially they shared the same Chestnut Street/Boston–Salem Brahmin milieu.
Published sources on the Salem Book Club identify Mrs. Joseph S. Cabot as a niece of Miss Susan Burley and record her as abook donor; Caroline King’s memoir also mentions Miss Burley by name—placing Burley and the Cabots in the same documented Salem literary circle.
In either scenario, the inscription establishes a direct Burley–Cabot connection and adds first-rate New England provenance to the set.
If given the same year it was published, Miss Cabot would have been only about seven or eight years old when this book was presented to her by Miss Burley, making the set a charming survival of its original use as a child’s gift within New England’s elite intellectual circle.
Note: The “y”-shaped stroke in “Miss” is a 19th-century under-looped first s, not a y; the inscription reads “Miss Burley.”
French was regarded as culturally essential among the American elite of the early nineteenth century—the language of diplomacy, literature, and refinement. Children of patrician New England families, often described as the region’s “aristocracy,” were routinely given French instruction as part of a polite education
Collector’s Corner
Part of Nepveu’s 1821 launch of his “livres-jeux” series—issued alongside La Fontaine—this two-volume Florian set (Series A and Series B) shows the format at the moment Nepveu formalized it. The format itself first appeared in 1818–1819 as Lambert’s “Jeu des fables” (four parts), with early imprints listing L’Auteur/Lefuel (and sometimes Nepveu) before the 1821 Nepveu-branded series.
According to the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Nepveu—in better times known for travel and costume plate books—opened the series with Fables de La Fontaine mises en action and Fables de Florian mises en action. These established the template: children slot cut-out figures into prepared scenic backgrounds to “illustrate” each tale. In 1822 Nepveu followed with companion titles on fairy tales and classical mythology, expanding what became one of the earliest sophisticated attempts to merge reading with interactive play.
The Florian sets shown here are notably scarcer than the La Fontaine volumes and feature unusually large cut-out figures. Each tab is coded by series and fable (No. 1 or No. 2, and Fable I–XIII) for correct placement. At the rear of each booklet is an engraved key sheet in a 4 x 3 grid diagramming figures for the first twelve fables. The thirteenth is consistently omitted from the guide and must be deduced—an oddity noted by bibliographers and dealers. This, combined with conflicting preface statements (Volume A calling for 21 figures; Volume B stating 17), long confused collation; in fact, 21 figures belong to Volume A and 19 to Volume B. Some library notes suggest the missing thirteenth diagram may be intentional—encouraging the child to “solve” the last tableau without visual aid. Although the instructions say little more than that the child should assemble the tableaux, the format had clear pedagogical potential. It invited children not only to reconstruct the fables but also to retell them orally and recombine figures into new stories, a point later educational commentators found especially striking.
Issued contemporaneously with the rise of toy theatre and building on earlier “doll-dressing” books, Nepveu’s slot-in volumes stand at the threshold of modern movable books. Few survive complete; most are fragmentary or lack figures. Near-complete, matched pairs of the Florian volumes with slipcases intact, as offered here, are exceptionally rare.
Nepveu titles include: (for reference only - this listing includes only the 2 Fables de Florian mises en action)
Fables de La Fontaine mises en action (often called “Jeu de Fables”) — Paris, 1818–1819. Issued in four French volumes with variant figure sets; early issues involve L’Auteur/Lefuel and Nepveu; the series is identified by BnF as one of the first two “livres-jeux” Nepveu launched in 1821. An English adaptation appeared in London as “Fables in Action” (Ackermann), examples dated 1819 survive in museum collections. Sources: BnF “Essentiels” overview confirming the launch and the two inaugural titles; London Museum record for “Fables in action,” 1819.
Fables de Florian mises en action — Paris, Nepveu, 1821. Two volumes (seen here) with cut-out figures and slotted scenic boards; explicitly named by BnF as one of the two inaugural 1821 livres-jeux. Source: BnF “Essentiels.”
La Mythologie mise en action par des figures découpées et coloriées — Paris, Nepveu, 1822. Two “cahiers,” each with a booklet, a scenic board (a seashore and the Styx), and 19 hand-colored figures in a portfolio; issued in two slipcases. Source: BnF “Essentiels.”
Les Contes de fées mis en action — Paris, Nepveu, 1822. Announced by BnF as appearing the same year as Mythologie. (Individual tale lists vary by issue; your examples—Little Red Riding Hood, Riquet à la Houppe, Tom Thumb—are consistent with dealer and library descriptions, but the BnF “Essentiels” confirms the title/year rather than specific contents.) Source: BnF “Essentiels.”
Later/related “mises en action” documented in contemporary adverts:
Les Métamorphoses d’Ovide, mises en action — format described as in-8° with a scenic board and a portfolio of colored cut-outs; price 5 francs. Source: contemporary catalogue/advert page printed with Eyriès’s “Costumes, mœurs et usages de tous les peuples” listing children’s titles “pour l’instruction et l’amusement de la jeunesse.”
La Bible mise en action par des figures découpées et coloriées — format described as oblong in-8°, scenic board and portfolio of colored cut-outs; price 5 francs. Same contemporary advertisement as above.
References:
Bibliothèque nationale de France. “La Mythologie mise en action par des figures découpées et coloriées.” Essentiels de la BnF.
Morgan Library & Museum. Le jeu des fables, ou Fables de La Fontaine mises en action… Paris: L’Auteur; Nepveu; Lefuel, [1819?].
Notes and Queries, 4th ser., vol. 4 (1869): notices of “Fables in Action” (Ackermann, 1819).
Caroline Howard King. When I Lived in Salem, 1822–1866. (HathiTrust/1937 ed.).
“The Hawthornes in Paradise.” American Heritage (online feature).
Margaret Fuller to Mary Peabody, April 17, 1836 (Massachusetts Historical Society, digital facsimile).
Historic Beverly. “Cabot House.”
Library of Congress, HABS. “John Cabot Place (HABS MA-282).”
Cynthia B. Wiggin. “History of the Salem Book Club.” Historical Collections of the Essex Institute 105 (1969): 137–41.
Partie 3: La fable pédagogique et ses relations à l’image. Brill (2024/2025), section noting Lambert’s Jeu des fables (1818/1819) and Nepveu’s Fables de Florian mises en action.
Alderson, Brian, and Felix de Marez Oyens. Be Merry and Wise: Origins of Children’s Book Publishing in England, 1650–1850. London: British Library, 2006.
Briggs, L. Vernon. History and Genealogy of the Cabot Family, 1475–1927. Vol. 2. Boston: C. E. Goodspeed, 1927