# - Potter, Beatrix.

153 by 150mm., unfinished ink and watercolour drawing, unsigned, mounted, minor browning and spotting, some soiling to blank border, slight crease, tears and loss to extremities not affecting image

There is some minor browning and spotting to entire sheet. The blank borders show some slight soiling and there are two slight creases to entire height of sheet which are not particularly visible. There are some minor chips and tears to the extremities of the sheet, not affecting image. Some pin holes are present that do not affect the image. The colours are bright and vivid.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In addition to the four paintings presented to Lucy Roscoe, Beatrix Potter gave two illustrations from "The Rabbits' Christmas Party" sequence to Henry P. Coolidge of Boston, USA in 1927. One of these shows rabbits dancing to a piper and is now in a private collection.

The finished watercolour shows eight rabbits (compared to seven as present here) dancing to a piper. Rhubarb stalks are present in a large pot in the upper left corner. The rhubarb and pot are shown here in faint pencil outline. The floor was changed from evenly laid pinkish terracotta tiles to rather haphazard grey flagstone tiles. this version is entirely unknown.

The scene was later redrawn with a rabbit playing a 'cello surrounded by five dancing rabbits (and two rabbits nuzzling each other by the back wall). See the Linders' The Art of Beatrix Potter p.197 for a rough sketch (and six dancing rabbits). See also the upper cover of Beatrix Potter in America [Beatrix Potter U.S. Studies I] (Beatrix Potter Society, 2006).

In 1987 Frederick Warne united the four V&A illustrations with the two paintings originally given to Henry P. Coolidge. A fold-out panorama was published as The Rabbits' Christmas Party - A Frieze with the blurb noting that the pictures showed "some of Beatrix Potter's very finest work".