![POTTER, Beatrix (1866-1943). The Tale of Peter Rabbit. [London: Privately Printed, 1901].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1999/NYR/1999_NYR_09178_0132_000(115055).jpg?w=1)
Details
POTTER, Beatrix (1866-1943). The Tale of Peter Rabbit. [London: Privately Printed, 1901].
Small 8o (134 x 102 mm). Colored frontispiece and 41 black and white illustrations by Potter. (Slight foxing on title-page.) Original light gray pictorial boards, flat back (spine slightly age-darkened and rubbed). Provenance: C.E. Cobb (signature dated "June 1902" on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (one of 250 copies), of the author's first book. INSCRIBED BY POTTER on the title-page in pencil: "F. Warne & Co. 15 Bedford St. Strand to be published in the autumn 1902." "[Potter] sent the manuscript to at least six publishers without success. Finally, in 1901, she decided to have the book privately printed, at her own expense... The first issue comprised 250 copies... The books were ready on 16 December and Miss Potter began giving them away to selected friends and relatives and selling them to others at one shilling two pence each. By this time, however, Beatrix Potter's career had already been given its first impetus, for the publisher Frederick Warne & Co. had agreed to accept the book for publication in a regular trade edition. But in February 1902, before the trade edition was ready, Miss Potter ordered another 200 copies to be printed of her private edition; this second issue had a rather better binding, with rounded back and darker printed boards. In October 1902 the Warne commercial edition was published. The first printing of 6000 copies was sold out before publication, and The Tale of Peter Rabbit has been in print ever since..." (Gottlieb).
This copy bears Potter's own inscription announcing the forthcoming publication of the trade edition through Warne--establishing the relationship which continues to this day. A VERY IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY. Gottlieb/Morgan Library, Early Children's Books and Their Illustration 220; Linder, p. 420; Quinby 1; V & A 1622.
Small 8o (134 x 102 mm). Colored frontispiece and 41 black and white illustrations by Potter. (Slight foxing on title-page.) Original light gray pictorial boards, flat back (spine slightly age-darkened and rubbed). Provenance: C.E. Cobb (signature dated "June 1902" on front free endpaper).
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (one of 250 copies), of the author's first book. INSCRIBED BY POTTER on the title-page in pencil: "F. Warne & Co. 15 Bedford St. Strand to be published in the autumn 1902." "[Potter] sent the manuscript to at least six publishers without success. Finally, in 1901, she decided to have the book privately printed, at her own expense... The first issue comprised 250 copies... The books were ready on 16 December and Miss Potter began giving them away to selected friends and relatives and selling them to others at one shilling two pence each. By this time, however, Beatrix Potter's career had already been given its first impetus, for the publisher Frederick Warne & Co. had agreed to accept the book for publication in a regular trade edition. But in February 1902, before the trade edition was ready, Miss Potter ordered another 200 copies to be printed of her private edition; this second issue had a rather better binding, with rounded back and darker printed boards. In October 1902 the Warne commercial edition was published. The first printing of 6000 copies was sold out before publication, and The Tale of Peter Rabbit has been in print ever since..." (Gottlieb).
This copy bears Potter's own inscription announcing the forthcoming publication of the trade edition through Warne--establishing the relationship which continues to this day. A VERY IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY. Gottlieb/Morgan Library, Early Children's Books and Their Illustration 220; Linder, p. 420; Quinby 1; V & A 1622.