A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of The Tale Of Little Pig Robinson, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by the author.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1930.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Color frontispiece, 5 color plates and 22 further full-page illustrations.</li><li>Ink inscription by the author ‘To Wynne from Aunt Beatrix, Jan 2nd 1931.’</li><li>Publisher’s blue cloth, dust-jacket with pictorial paper onlay.</li></ul>&nbsp;&nbsp;A rare inscription by Beatrix Potter to a member of her family, ‘Wynne’ the wife of Jack Heelis, Beatrix Potter’s nephew by her marriage to William Heelis.&nbsp;

The Tale Of Little Pig Robinson

Fine copy of Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester, privately printed by the author.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Privately Printed by Strangeways &amp; Sons, 1902.</li><li>Unpaginated.</li><li>Illustrated with a frontis and 15 color plates by Potter.</li><li>Limited to 500 copies.</li><li>Bound in the original pink pictorial boards.</li></ul>

The Tailor of Gloucester

Rare toy version of Peter Rabbit, in which the front board opens to reveal 8 laminated pictorial cubes of scenes from the book.<ul><li>After Beatrix Potter.</li><li>Worcester, MA:&nbsp;Cotton &amp; Frank,&nbsp;[circa 1940].</li><li>Housed in original box with all 8 original pictorial cubes, each in its own space.</li></ul> An abbreviated version of the story is printed inside the front cover with a color pictorial border. The facing insert for the blocks is also pictorially decorated and has a two-line caption corresponding to the picture on the block. Each block has two Peter Rabbit pictures, and the other sides show large block letters of the alphabet.

Picture Block Story of Peter Rabbit

Inscribed later edition of Potter's The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne &amp; Co. Ltd, [after 1918].</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title by the author "To Elizabeth Todhunter from Beatrix Potter Jan. 5, 1937."</li><li>Includes 27 color plates (including frontispiece).</li><li>Bound with pictorial pastedowns and endpapers, original pictorial cream boards.</li></ul> Elizabeth Todhunter and her sister Edith had a small business designing and making bendable dolls called "The Wee Folk," which they initially ran from their home in Windermere. Apparently, Beatrix Potter received several "Wee Folk" figures from the sisters and enjoyed arranging them on her chimney-piece.

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First edition</a>, first issue of this story of the differences between city and country living, a very <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Beatrix%20Potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beatrix Potter</a> retelling of Aesop's "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse."<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co, (1918).</li><li>86 pages.</li><li>Illustrated in color throughout.</li><li>Light brown paper boards with color pictorial center panel and brown lettering, color decorative endpapers of other Beatrix Potter characters.</li></ul> "One place suits one person, another place suits another person. For my part, I prefer to live in the country, like Timmy Willie.""Miss Potter need not worry about rivals. She has none," proclaimed The Bookman's review of The Tale Of Johnny Town-Mouse in 1918 (quoted in Linder, 244). Certainly this title carries all the hallmarks of Potter's talent: beautiful countryside, well-dressed animals, prose that is both efficient and evocative. It was also to be one of her final books for Warne, as she became more focused on the care and keeping of her Lake District farm.

The Tale Of Johnny Town-Mouse

Inscribed later edition of Potter's The Tale of Pigling Bland.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne &amp; Co. Ltd, [after 1918].</li><li>Inscribed on the half-title by the author "with kind regards from Beatrix Potter," and with additional ink inscription "To Peggy, from Mrs Postlethwaite &amp; Mary, Sept. 8th 1933."</li><li>Includes 15 color plates (including frontispiece), black &amp; white illustrations to text.</li><li>Bound in pictorial endpapers with original pale green pictorial boards.</li></ul> The Postlethwaite family lived at High Green Gate near to Castle Cottage, Beatrix Potter's Lakeland home after 1909. It is likely that this book was originally given to the Postlethwaite family (probably to one of the girls, Mary or Amanda) as a gift from Beatrix, and they then later gave it away to a friend "Peggy."

The Tale of Pigling Bland

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Beatrix%20Potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beatrix Potter</a>'s The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1911.</li><li>16mo.</li><li>Color frontispiece, plain title vignette and 26 color plates, pictorial endpapers.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's green boards with mounted color illustration.</li></ul> The story of Timmy and Goody Tiptoes is the only Beatrix Potter story apparently set in North America - although this is implicit rather than stated anywhere in the book. All the main animal characters are indigenous to North America: grey squirrels, chipmunks and a 'large bear' but the waters are muddied somewhat by the presence of Yellowhammers (or Emberiza citrinella, the birds that sing 'Little bita bread and-no-cheese!') whose range includes Europe and much of Asia but not America.

The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Beatrix%20Potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beatrix Potter</a>, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">inscribed</a> by Annie Maria Armitt.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne, [circa 1912].</li><li>16mo.</li><li>Color illustrations throughout.&nbsp;</li><li>Inscribed on half-title and front and rear endpapers by Annie Maria Harris née Armitt.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's green boards with inset rectangular panel to upper cover, pictorial endpapers.</li></ul> Inscribed on the front free endpaper: 'Mary Mackenzie from Mrs. Stanford Harris, Rydal Cottage, August 1912' and with six stanzas of verse by Annie Harris née Armitt on the front free endpaper and rear endpapers, beginning 'In memory of Rydal/Where Mary lived awhile...', initialed 'A.M.H' on both pastedowns; the half-title additionally inscribed 'I think Jemima Puddle/Was a very foolish duck;/She made a wretched muddle,/And scarce deserved her luck. A.M.H.' Annie Maria Armitt (1850-1933), one of three gifted and well-educated sisters, was a novelist, poet, short story writer, and essayist. Unusually for the time Mr. Armitt wanted to give his talented daughters a first class education, but in 1867 this plan went awry when he died suddenly leaving the trio facing severe financial difficulties. Undaunted however, together they opened a school in Eccles, Lancashire, which thrived, allowing them to travel and continue their own studies. In 1912 the youngest sister, Mary Louisa, founded The Armitt Library, now known as The Armitt, a museum, library and gallery, devoted to preserving and sharing the cultural heritage of the Lake District. Beatrix Potter was one of the Armitt's earliest supporters, and the collection holds a number of her family's books, her own first edition copies of her books, and a large number of botanical watercolors by her. Annie Armitt married Stanford Harris in 1877 and went to live near Hawkshead in the Lake District. In 1882 Mary and Sophia received a substantial legacy and in 1894 they moved to Rydal, where they lived with Annie, now widowed, for the rest of their lives. Here the sisters enjoyed socializing with a large circle of distinguished friends, including John Ruskin as well as Beatrix Potter. Jemima Puddle-Duck is her poem about [Hill Top Farm] itself, and anyone who is curious to reconstruct its exact appearance in those days can do so from the pictures in that book…' (Margaret Lane). Another of the author's most famous creations, Jemima Puddle-Duck, with her naive &amp; trusting nature, was based on a real duck from Hill Top Farm, and proved immensely popular, spin-off merchandise including a Jemima painting book and illustrated fabric placemats hand-fashioned by Potter and distributed to friends.

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Beatrix%20Potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Beatrix Potter</a>'s story of what happens when an over-confident squirrel tries the patience of an owl.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1903.</li><li>86 pages.</li><li>Illustrated in color throughout.&nbsp;</li><li>Original dark grey paper boards with color pictorial center panel and white lettering, color decorative endpapers of other Beatrix Potter characters.</li></ul> "This is a Tale about a tail – a tail that belonged to a little red squirrel, and his name was Nutkin." Set in the scenic Lake District, where "the Potter family had spent a number of their summer holidays," The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is the classic Beatrix Potter mix of realistic and fantastic animal exploits (Taylor et al., 111). The sailing squirrels and the antics of Nutkin (and his eventual comeuppance) were an immediate hit with Potter's young readers, who wrote her letters about how much they enjoyed the "lovely" "Scell nuskin"; "I shall always have a strong preference for cheap books myself," Potter wrote to Norman Warne, "all my little friends happen to be shilling people" (Linder, 142).

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin First Edition

Deluxe edition, and first or second printing of The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1910.</li><li>Sextodecimo.</li><li>Color frontispiece, plain title vignette and 26 color plates, contemporary ink gift inscription dated Christmas 1910 to half-title.</li><li>Bound in publisher’s blue moiré cloth with fielded illustrative paste-down of Mrs. Tittlemouse, all edges gilt.</li><li>Custom-made solander box.</li></ul>

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First US edition</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=beatrix%20potter&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Potter</a>'s The Fairy Caravan, in the original dust jacket.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>Philadelphia:&nbsp;David McKay,&nbsp;(1929). </li><li>225 pages.</li><li>Illustrated by Potter with 6 color plates as well as 20 full-page and 42 smaller black-and-white images.&nbsp;</li><li>Original green cloth, pictorial paste-on, gilt-lettered spine, in original dust jacket.</li></ul> After Potter finished her Peter Rabbit series, it was her intention to stop writing. It was only with the persuasion of her American publisher, Alexander McKay, that she agreed to write this book meant only for the American market. Linder notes that Potter's Lakeland friends "were quick to recognize many of the pictures with their local settings."

The Fairy Caravan

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First US edition</a> of this charming prequel of sorts to Lear's Owl and the Pussycat, the final book in the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Peter%20Rabbit&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Peter Rabbit</a> series – in rare blue cloth binding.<ul><li>Beatrix Potter (English).</li><li>Philadelphia: David McKay Company, (1930).&nbsp;</li><li>141 pages.</li><li>Color frontispiece with 5 color plates, black-and-white line illustrations throughout.</li><li>Original blue cloth boards with pictorial paste-on, in original unclipped (no price) dust jacket with pictorial paste-on, pictorial endpapers of sailing ships.</li></ul> Though published at the end of her career, mention of The Tale Of Little Pig Robinson first appears in a letter from 1883, when Potter was only 17 – before all the other tales for which she is more famous. When seeking another story to feed her hungry publishers (she famously struggled with creating art "on demand"), Potter unearthed this early story and revised it for publication. Coming off the heals of The Fairy Caravan – which Potter uncharacteristically offered first to the US David McKay Company rather than her usual UK publisher Frederick Warne &amp; Co., causing more than a little editorial distress for the Warnes – she supplied the text and illustrations for The Tale Of Little Pig Robinson to McKay and Warne at the same time. The Warnes, though, according to Potter, were "inclined to save expenses at the expense of the appearance of the book" (Morse, 36-37), and cut out many of her black-and-white illustrations for the title; McKay happily accepted the 25 extra illustrations, and included them in their edition. In her landmark A History Of The Writings Of Beatrix Potter, Leslie Linder identifies the US edition as the first; Margaret Lane (133) and Jane Quinby (102) claim that the Warne and McKay editions were published simultaneously. However, in reviewing Whitaker's Cumulative Book List for 1930 and the Catalog Of Copyright Entries For The Year 1930, we find that Warne's copyright for the title dates to October 1930, and McKay's dates to November 1930.

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