POTTER, Beatrix. [Complete set of deluxe editions:] The Tale of Peter Rabbit; The Tailor of Gloucester; The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin; The Tale of Two Bad Mice; The Tale of Benjamin Bunny; The Pie and the Patty-Pan; The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle; The Tale of Jeremy Fisher; The Tale of Tom Kitten; The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck; The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies; The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse. Published: London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1902–10.
Presented by Pom Harrington of Peter Harrington Rare Books.
12 works: 11 sextodecimo, 1 small quarto. Original gilt decorated cloth, pictorial labels to front boards, pictorial endpapers, except: Peter Rabbit bound in yellow cloth lettered red, grey patterned endpapers; Squirrel Nutkin and Tailor of Gloucester in floral cloth with gilt-lettered vellum labels, pictorial endpapers; Pie and the Patty-Pan in pale blue cloth lettered blue, white moiré endpapers. Each book housed in a custom folding case. An excellent set. Some hinges split but holding, a few with light finger-marks to contents, some with contemporary gift inscriptions, a little rubbing to extremities. The Pie and the Patty-Pan with bookplates of H. Bradley Martin and Mildred Greenhill, and misbound at p. 14.
Complete set of the first deluxe editions of the Peter Rabbit series. Priced at 1/6- rather than 1/- for the paper-covered books, the deluxe editions went through three iterations before a consistent style was settled upon. The first deluxe binding of Peter Rabbit was issued in two colours, yellow and green. Potter felt this unimpressive, writing, “I thought last year there was not sufficient difference between the two styles of binding – that if the cloth binding had been more distinctly different, and pretty, there might have been more inducement to buy it.” She obtained some samples of patterned cloth from her grandfather’s textile printing works: Edmund Potter & Co. of Manchester, one of the largest calico printers in Europe. An art fabric binding, which Potter referred to as “a flowered lavender chintz, very pretty” was selected for the deluxe issues of the Tailor of Gloucester and Squirrel Nutkin in 1903, and vellum labels used for the title and author’s name, as it was impracticable to print directly onto the fabric. The following October, a brightly coloured moiré cloth decorated in gilt was chosen for the deluxe issue, coinciding with the publication of Benjamin Bunny and the Two Bad Mice. Potter contributed to the gilt design, noting in a letter to the Warnes that “I will do some sketches of designs for the cover while I am at Melford.” This design, with some minor alterations to the gilt decoration, was adopted for the deluxe editions of the rest of the series.
