Author: POTTER, Beatrix
Title: Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, the
Description: London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1903. First Edition of “Squirrel Nutkin” POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. London: Frederick Warne and Co. [August] 1903. First edition, first printing. Twelvemo (5 7/16 x 4 1/8 inches; 138 x 105 mm.). 84, [1], [1, printer’s imprint] pp. Color frontispiece and twenty-six color plates (included in pagination). Black and white vignette on title-page. Original dark blue boards ruled and lettered in white on front cover and lettered in white on spine. Color pictorial label on front cover within a blind circular panel outlined in blind. Color pictorial endpapers (Quinby Plate I, a single-page endpaper occurring four times). Previous owner’s ink name on front fee endpaper, small library label on front paste-down. A very fine copy. “The year 1903 appears on the front of the title-page of the first three printings [August, September, and November 1903]. The difference between the first and third printings is that the title-page of the latter bears the words ‘Author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit’ under Beatrix Potter’s name. It is believed that this change was not made until after the second printing” (Linder, p. 423). A fine copy of the book that had its origins in an American story Beatrix referenced in one of her famous picture letters, this time to to Noel Moore. The scenery for the illustrations was derived from the author's summer stays near Keswick around Derwentwater, whilst the squirrels were taken from two she had purchased in 1903, noting to a friend in a letter "I am trying to make a squirrel book at present, I have got a very pretty little model; I bought two but they weren't a pair, and fought so frightfully that l had to get rid of the handsomer - and most savage one - The other squirrel is rather a nice animal, but half one ear has been bitten off, which spoils his appearance!" Linder, p. 423; Quinby 5. .

Keywords: Illustrated Books


See more books from our catalog: Children's Books