Potter, Beatrix

Watercolor drawing with ink and pencil, being a fair copy of the Lady Mouse with teacup from The Tailor of Gloucester, (7 x 4 in.; 178 x 102, sight), signed ("Beatrix Potter") and dated November 1927 by her, with the additional annotation in her hand "From the 'Tailor of Gloucester' | copyright of F. Warne & Co."; matted, glazed, and framed.

Watercolor drawing, being a fair copy of the Lady Mouse with Chinese teacup from The Tailor of Gloucester, (7 x 4 in.; 178 x 102, sight), signed ("Beatrix Potter") and dated November 1927 by her, with the additional annotation in her hand "From the 'Tailor of Gloucester' | copyright of F. Warne & Co."; matted, glazed, and framed.
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From the delightful Christmas story, The Tailor of Gloucester, a charming watercolor of the Lady Mouse which depicts her in her mobcap daintily curtseying, with a Chinese export style teacup in the background, signed and dated by Beatrix Potter.  The original drawing for the The Tailor of Gloucester first appeared in a privately printed edition in 1902; it was subsequently published by Warne in 1903. The book was Potter's "favourite amongst the little books" (Potter to Mrs. H. D. Rawnsley, May 1918).  

In 1927, the National Trust undertook an urgent appeal for money to purchase a strip of Lake Windermere's shore, Cockshott Point. Beatrix Potter wished to help raise funds to ensure the land was never developed but was unable to persuade her mother to contribute, even though her house overlooked the Point. It occurred to Beatrix Potter that she could raise money herself by selling some of her pictures in America. "She sent fifty signed copies of drawings of Peter Rabbit to the Editor of Horn Book Magazine, Miss Bertha Mahony. Miss Mahony sold the drawings on behalf of the National Trust at a guinea each, there were requests for more and the final sum raised was £104, a substantial donation to the appeal" (Taylor, Whalley, Hobbs, and Battick, Beatrix Potter 1866–1943, pp. 193–194). The catalogue of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection lists four ink and watercolor drawings intended for the magazine, but not sent, three signed and dated August or September 1927 (Beatrix Potter, The V&A Collection, 1830–1833).

The present drawing is signed by Potter but is dated November 1927 by her.  According to the consignor's family history, this drawing and its pendant (see next lot) were purchased directly from Potter by the consignor's grandmother. American Book Prices Current lists only one other drawing of the Gentleman Mouse from The Tailor of Gloucester, signed and dated November 1927, (Christie's South Kensington, 16 December 1994, lot 117). It is plausible that when the first set of drawings sold out, a second batch of these pendant portraits of mice were sent to be sold at the Bookshop for Boys and Girls in Boston (affiliated with the Horn Book).  While the consignor's grandmother might have visited Beatrix Potter in England, as did many devoted American followers of her work, chances are that these drawings were purchased in Boston, as the consignor's grandmother lived in nearby Brookline.  

Sotheby's would like to thank Ms. Lolly Robinson, Designer and Production Manager at the Horn Book and Professor of Children's Literature at Harvard University, for her assistance in cataloguing Lots 198 and 199.