The world of Beatrix Potter
Onee
upon a time, a lonely girl growing up ina large Victorian
house, with few friends of her own age, had a
house, with few friends of her own age, had a
pet rabbit called Peter Piper.
This
young girl was a talented naturalist and artist, and spent hours
painting nature studies. Peter Piper was
painting nature studies. Peter Piper was
a favourite subject, and her
exquisite drawings eventually made
Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit household
Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit household
names.
Beatrix
Potters stories featuring animals with human qualities in rural
scenes, narrated in a gently ironic tone
with few concessions to
'childish' concerns have been popular since 1902, when the first
edition of.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit appeared.
'I
don't know what to write to you, so
1 shall
tell you a story about four little rabbits, whose names were Flopsy,
Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter...' wrote Beatrix in 1893 in a letter to
Noel Moore, the four-year old son of her former governess, Miss
Carter.
Seven years later, this letter became the basis for her first book
for children.
Today,
Beatrix Potter's private letters can realise high prices at auction
in their own right - some selling for £10,000-15,000 if they feature
original illustrations.
Previous to 1901, when Peter
Rabbit made his debut, Beatrix had tried to interest publishers
Ernest Nister and Frederick Warne in her written work and sketches.
Both rejected her submissions.
Undeterred, she prepared a
prototype of
Peter Rabbit
in a stiff-backed exercise book with 42 pen-and-ink illustrations,
and approached six more publishers without success.
By 1901, with no prospect of a
publisher for her book, she determined to print it privately. She
ordered 250 copies from Strangeways & Sons, London,
and on 16 December 1901, le books were ready. These early volumes,
with a flat spine and grey-green boards, were mostly given away to
friends and relatives, or sold for 1/- each.
She
ordered a further 200 copies and this second edition had a slightly
better binding - a rounded spine with olive green covers. Corrections
were made to the text, including the addition of a date, 'Feb 1902'
on the cover page.
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The
first and second privately printed editions of this first book can be
worth in excess of £20,000. In November 1998 at Sotheby's, a copy of
the first privately printed edition of
Peter Rabbit
reached a record-breaking £21,850.
The
success of her privately printed volumes led to a two-book deal with
Frederick Warne in 1902. The new volumes featured colour plates
instead of Beatrix's preferred black and white drawings, and two
editions were published.
One
was bound in cloth and sold for l/6d while the other was bound in
paper boards and retailed at 1 shilling. Even before printing, all
8,000 copies had been sold through advance orders, and a new
publishing phenomenon had begun.
The
Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
was her second book, inspired by another letter to one of the Moore
children, this time Norah.
Squirrel Nutkin was
followed by
The Tailor of Gloucester.
Beatrix printed 500 copies of
The Tailor of Gloucester privately
to preserve her original, and rather lengthy version, before Warne
published an edited format in 1902.
This
privately printed edition is now worth £10,000-12,000. Both stories
were produced in two different bindings - trade editions in paper
boards, now worth £3,000-4,000 and 'special editions' in floral
calico, now valued at £5,000-6,000. In 1904, these cloth-bound books
were replaced with 'de luxe' versions in gilt-decorated cloth with
gold lettering, now valued at £6,000-7,000.
However,
Beatrix Potter's early editions are now so desirable to collectors
that estimated values are easily beaten at auction. At Christie's In
December 1998, a fine privately-printed edition of
The Tailor of Gloucester,
including six original pencil sketches, reached £13,800 against a
pre- sale estimate of £3,000-5,000.
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| The world of Beatrix Potter |
Beatrix
faced personal tragedy in 1905 at the age of 39, when Norman Warne,
the son of her publisher, to whom she had become engaged, died of
leukemia. She moved to her new property in the Lake District, Hill
Top Farm near Sawrey, and soon produced
The Tale of Mrs Tiggy Winkle, The Pie and the Patty Pan,
and
The Tale of Jeremy Fisher.
The
Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit
and
The Story of Miss Moppet
appeared next and were aimed at much younger children. An original
illustrated manuscript of
The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit appeared
at Sotheby's recently with an incredible pre-sale estimate of
£200,000.
 |
| The world of Beatrix Potter |
The
manuscript was given to Louie on her 6th birthday and included
watercolour illustrations and text, mounted on linen, folded in
panoramic form and pasted into a green cloth wallet with a silver
clasp.
Harold
Warne liked the presentation of the manuscript and published both
A Fierce Bad Rabbit and Miss Moppet
in a similar concertinaformat.
Thus,
early editions of these stories were mostly pictorial with the plates
folded, concertina-style, into a wallet. Examples of these editions
in good condition are very rare as they were easily damaged. Beatrix
herself once commented, 'Bad Rabbit and Moppet were originally
printed on long strips .
The
shops sensibly refused to stock them because they got unrolled and
had to be folded up again.' Well- thumbed copies can realise £200 at
auction, while an undamaged copy might reach between £800- 1,200. In
November 1998, a pristine copy of the later book-format edition of
A Fierce Bad Rabbit in
its original dustjacket sold for £1,495. A comparable copy of the
original concertina version only reached £1,035.
Even
at this stage, Beatrix still had a number of books left to write, and
these appeared with great regularity and to great acclaim, including
favourites such as
The Tale of Jemima Ptiddleduck (1908)
and
The Tale of Tom Kitten
(1907).
First
trade editions of both these Tales are now worth between £750-1,000,
while the de luxe volumes can realise as much as £5,000-6,000.
The
early editions of the Tales are the most desirable of all Beatrix
Potter collectables, and in any catalogue of antiquarian children's
books, Beatrix Potter volumes are the top attractions. Values vary
according to condition and rarity - the early privately-printed
editions in near-perfect condition are the most valuable, followed by
the de luxe and trade editions published by Warne.
Recently
a rare copy of
The Tale of Peter Rabbit, one
of the 200 second edition, privately-printed copies made in 1902,
sold for an unusually modest £3,700.
In
comparison, two years ago, Noel Moore's copy of the 1901 first trade
edition of
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
sold at Christies East, New York, for the incredible sum of $35,000
(about £21,000).
At
Bearnes in Exeter, a copy of The
Tale of Tom Kitten,
in the original pictorial boards and dust wrapper with slight damage
sold for £1,650. The following year,
The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck,
also in dust wrapper but with some damage sold for £2,800. A de luxe
first edition of any of the first 16 Tales, all published between
1901-1911, is valued at between £2000- 10,000, depending on age and
rarity, while the standard trade editions are worth less.
All
the above high values are based on first editions in exceptional
condition. It is possible, however, to find first trade editions in
slightly worn to good condition for under £1,000, and even under
£500 if the book is one of the less popular Tales such as
Little Pig Robinson
or
Mr
Tod.
Pre-1920s copies of the earlier Tales which are not first editions
may be purchased for up to £100, while copies from the 1950s in very
good condition can be found for as little as £20-25.
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Later
editions are a less expensive way of starting a Beatrix Potter book
collection - after all, the stories do not lose their appeal for
being printed at a later date in a modern binding - and genuine first
editions are extremely rare and usually associated with controversy.
Potter
'Firsts' are notoriously difficult to authenticate, and usually need
expert identification. If you were fortunate enough to find such a
copy on your bookshelves, the value, historically and financially,
would be significant.
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