LA FONTAINE, Jean de.- Fables choisies, mises en vers.- A Paris: De l’Imprimerie de Valade, et se trouve Chez Belin, 1783.- 2 vols.: 1 front. alegórico, 275 gravuras; 39 cm.- E. Monumental edition, considered one of the most beautiful of the 18th century, containing 235 fables by La Fontaine (1621-1695), illustrated with 275 copperplate prints, opened on copper plate by the best engravers of the time (Cochin [père et fils] , Aliamet, Radigues, Aubert, Aveline, etc.), according to originals by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755). The first volume also includes an allegorical frontispiece (explained on the last page of volume II). The collation of each of the volumes is as follows: I - [4], XLVIII, 164 p.: 1 front., 137 grav.; II - [4], IV, 252 p.: 138 etch. Copy slightly cropped and with slight browning, but overall clean and with good margins. Armored ex-libris of the Earl of Cromer (dated 1912), on both volumes and small circular stamp on flyguards: Melchet Court - Romsey. Bindings from the period, or slightly later, in full sheepskin, with a triple squared fillet on the covers, gilt panels on the spines, roll on the squares and gilt edges. It conserves the original endpapers in marbled paper. Rochambeau, 124. Cohen, 301 (for the 1755-59 edition of Dessaint et Saillant, with the same engravings).