Pumpkin carriage drawn by three pairs of rabbits
Drawing
ca.1890s (made)
ca.1890s (made)
| Artist/Maker |
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale.
In the 1890s Potter sketched illustrations for fairy tales including Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. Her later idea to publish her ‘more or less written’ version of Cinderella within ‘a set of fairy tales in thin volumes’ (see Judy Taylor (ed.) Beatrix Potter’s Letters, Frederick Warne, 1989, p.346) never materialised, but some of her manuscripts and sketches can be viewed in the V&A collections. There are two other drawings relating to Cinderella in the Linder Bequest; both relate to this illustration of Cinderella’s coach, with the present drawing presenting the most finished version of the subject. In Potter’s interpretation, Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage is drawn by three pairs of rabbits, while the coachmen are mice.
In the 1890s Potter sketched illustrations for fairy tales including Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. Her later idea to publish her ‘more or less written’ version of Cinderella within ‘a set of fairy tales in thin volumes’ (see Judy Taylor (ed.) Beatrix Potter’s Letters, Frederick Warne, 1989, p.346) never materialised, but some of her manuscripts and sketches can be viewed in the V&A collections. There are two other drawings relating to Cinderella in the Linder Bequest; both relate to this illustration of Cinderella’s coach, with the present drawing presenting the most finished version of the subject. In Potter’s interpretation, Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage is drawn by three pairs of rabbits, while the coachmen are mice.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Pumpkin carriage drawn by three pairs of rabbits |
| Materials and techniques | pen and ink with wash on paper |
| Brief description | Pen and ink and wash illustration to 'Cinderella' drawn by Beatrix Potter, ca.1890s; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.974 |
| Physical description | Detailed illustration showing Cinderella's pumpkin carriage drawn by three pairs of rabbits, with mice as coachmen, passing through a medieval-looking town by moonlight. Mice, voles and a mole carry sedan-chairs and lanterns. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'Cinderella's carriage going to fetch her from the ball, intended for moonlight. H. B. Potter.' (Inscribed on the verso by the artist.) |
| Gallery label | Potter composed several drafts of a Cinderella story, suggesting an early serious attempt at writing. Setting the story in the Kingdom of Nowarra (perhaps ‘nowhere’), she had Cinderella’s troubles begin once her step-sisters become her guardians. The fairy godmother, Madame La Fée, turns the pumpkin into the ‘most beautifullest gold coach’ but leaves the rabbits, mice, lizards and impressively ‘whiskered’ coachman (a rat) in animal form. A surviving design omits lizards and adds a mole carrying a lamp and guinea pigs carrying sedan chairs.(November 2019) |
| Credit line | Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number] |
| Object history | Drawn by Beatrix Potter, ca.1890s. Acquired by the V&A from Leslie Linder (1904-1973) in 1973 as part of the Linder Bequest, a collection of ca. 2150 watercolours, drawings, literary manuscripts, correspondence, books, photographs, and other memorabilia associated with Beatrix Potter and her family. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators. She wrote the majority of the twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her most famous and best-loved tale. In the 1890s Potter sketched illustrations for fairy tales including Cinderella, Puss-in-Boots, Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty. Her later idea to publish her ‘more or less written’ version of Cinderella within ‘a set of fairy tales in thin volumes’ (see Judy Taylor (ed.) Beatrix Potter’s Letters, Frederick Warne, 1989, p.346) never materialised, but some of her manuscripts and sketches can be viewed in the V&A collections. There are two other drawings relating to Cinderella in the Linder Bequest; both relate to this illustration of Cinderella’s coach, with the present drawing presenting the most finished version of the subject. In Potter’s interpretation, Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage is drawn by three pairs of rabbits, while the coachmen are mice. |
| Bibliographic reference | Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection : the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material : watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985.
p.106; no.974
Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection: the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material: watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985. p.106; no.974. The catalogue records Leslie Linder's note that the illustration was 'damaged by Mrs Gaddum's dog'; presumably Linder acquired the work from Mrs Gaddum. |
| Other number | LB.974 - Linder Bequest catalogue no. |
| Collection | |
| Library number | BP.452 |
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| Record created | October 27, 2016 |
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