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The world of Beatrix Potter


























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



 pet rabbit called Peter Piper.
The world of Beatrix Potter







This young girl was a talented naturalist and artist, and spent hours

 painting nature studies. Peter Piper was 



a favourite subject, and her exquisite drawings eventually made 


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.








Are you sitting comfortably...?






'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.


The world of Beatrix Potter


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.

The world of Beatrix Potter






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.






'An appalling quantity of Peter'







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 world of Beatrix Potter



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.




'A New Potter for Christmas'







The world of Beatrix Potter
This was a common slogan in London bookshops by the end of 1904, by which time 30,000 copies of Beatrix Potters new titles, The Tale ofBenjamin Bunny and The Tale of Two Bad Mice had been published.






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 story was written especially for Harold Warne's daughter, Louie who always felt Peter Rabbit was too good.


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.



The world of Beatrix Potter

Desirable First Editions







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.

The world of Beatrix Potter


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.




An Accessible Collection









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.


The world of Beatrix Potter





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.        

Collectibles Coach
 

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