Is My Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Paris: Claude Barbin, January 1697
• 12mo, eight prose tales
• The title page is anonymous — 'Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. Avec des Moralitez' over 'Avec Privilège de Sa Majesté' — and names no author
• Charles Perrault's name appears on no early title page
• The privilege, dated 28 October 1696, was granted to P. Darmancour, and the dedicatory epistle to 'Mademoiselle' (Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans) is signed P. Darmancour — Pierre Perrault Darmancour, Perrault's youngest son
• Each tale carries a copper engraving attributed to Antoine Clouzier; the frontispiece shows an old woman spinning and telling tales to three children by the fire, its cartouche lettered 'Contes de ma mère l'Oye' — the source of the Mother Goose name, which the BnF confirms appears both on the 1695 calligraphic manuscript and in the 1697 frontispiece cartouche

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

The Barbin Paris 1697 is the true first and the census claim is correct; the 1695 calligraphic manuscript (five tales) precedes it but is not an edition. An Amsterdam counterfeit from Jacques Desbordes appeared the same year, 1697, with Desbordes reprints following in 1708, 1721 and 1729 — and the 1721 Desbordes resetting reordered the tales, putting 'Le petit chaperon rouge' first where Barbin opened with 'La Belle au bois dormant'. That Desbordes order, not Barbin's, was followed by nearly every later 18th-century edition, so tale order is a usable early check. The first English edition is a separately collected book that belongs beside the French: Robert Samber's translation, 'Histories, or Tales of Past Times. Told by Mother Goose. With Morals. Written in French by M. Perrault, and Englished by G. M. Gent.', London: printed for J. Pote at Sir Isaac Newton's Head near Suffolk-Street, Charing-Cross, and R. Montagu at the corner of Great Queen-Street near Drury-Lane, 1729 (ESTC N1854) — parallel English and French text, engraved frontispiece with 'Mother Goose's Tales' set into the plate, dedication by Samber to the Countess of Granville. Two corrections to the census here: the imprint carries both J. Pote and R. Montagu, not Pote alone; and 'Englished by G. M. Gent' is the 1729 wording, where later 18th-century editions read 'Englished by R. S. Gent'.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue exists for a 1697 Paris duodecimo. The reprint traps are the Dutch counterfeits — Desbordes, Amsterdam, dated 1697 and passing as Paris work in the same year as the original — and, on the English side, the long chain of Samber reprints ('the Third Edition, Corrected', 'the Tenth Edition, Corrected', and provincial printings such as B. Collins of Salisbury, 1772, distributed by Carnan and Newbery, of which the Morgan holds a copy, PML 84676) that carry the identical Mother Goose title as the 1729 first. Modern 'first thus' traps include the Nonesuch 1925 'Histories or Tales of Past Times Told by Mother Goose' and print-on-demand facsimiles of the 18th-century sheets, which reproduce period title pages verbatim.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose) a first edition?

A first edition of Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose) by Charles Perrault (Claude Barbin, Paris) is identified by: Paris: Claude Barbin, January 1697; 12mo, eight prose tales.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. The Barbin Paris 1697 is the true first and the census claim is correct; the 1695 calligraphic manuscript (five tales) precedes it but is not an edition.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club issue exists for a 1697 Paris duodecimo. The reprint traps are the Dutch counterfeits — Desbordes, Amsterdam, dated 1697 and passing as Paris work in the same year as the original — and, on the English side, the long chain of Samber reprints ('the Third Edition, Corrected', 'the Tenth Edition, Corrected', and provincial printings such as B. Collins of Salisbury, 1772, distributed by Carnan and Newbery, of which the Morgan holds a copy, PML 84676) that carry the identical Mother Goos

I have a first edition of Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose) — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.