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Bénédictine

1909? "Mr de la Fontaine à la Bénédictine." Five of the loveliest cards I have found all feature accommodations of La Fontaine's fables to the monastery that produces Bénédictine brandy. The detail and color work especially on the monastery buildings are outstanding! DOM is still a mark of Benedictine, and their website still shows buildings in Fécamp, on Normandy's Alabaster Coast, like the gorgeous ones on these cards. Visit their website at www.benedictine.fr/anglais/homepage.html. Two cards seem to be dated April 13, 1909. Four for €6 each from Haon Cartophilie, Begues, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. TT for €6 from François Magnin, Paris, at the Paris Post Card Exhibition, Jan., '05. "The Two Rats" a gift of Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, August, '15.  Click on any card to see it enlarged.

The fox here tries to get not grapes, but the distilled essence of grapes in a bottle standing on a crate.

The fox and stork have neither shallow plates nor tall vases. They do have a bottle of something worthy!

In the fable, the dog lets the others have his master's lunch. Here he lets them have the lunch but not the bottle of brandy! 

This donkey is charged with neither salt nor sponges but with a couple of precious cases of Dom brandy.

In an imitation of 2T, two ducks carry a bottle of Benedictine brandy over the extensive buildings, presumably of a monastery.

Is this card a tribute to Benedictine's ability to ship its bottles and cases?  In the fable, one rat drags another holding an egg by the tail.  Here the second rat is of course holding Benedictine!