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Toy Picture

1890 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Toy picture with lift-the-flap part, featuring image of wainscotting and floorboards and two mice, one of which is disappearing into a hole in the wainscotting. The floor boards lift up to reveal mice below-floor level eating at a dining table.

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read Leslie Linder and the Beatrix Potter collection On his death in 1973, the scholar and collector Leslie Linder (1904 – 73) left the V&A his unrivalled personal collection of about 2,400 Beatrix Potter drawings, manuscripts and books (many of which were first editions owned by Beatrix or her family), as well as photographs by her father R...

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Watercolour on paper, collage
Brief description
Toy picture made, pen and ink, watercolour and collage, made by Beatrix Potter for Walter Gaddum, Great Britain, 1890; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.1731
Physical description
Toy picture with lift-the-flap part, featuring image of wainscotting and floorboards and two mice, one of which is disappearing into a hole in the wainscotting. The floor boards lift up to reveal mice below-floor level eating at a dining table.
Production typeUnlimited edition
Gallery label
Besides writing letters to children, Potter also made toy pictures. This playful lift-the-flap design contrasts the human world above the floor and the imaginary world below it. Potter links the two in both time and space by a mouse below floor, who looks up simultaneously as the mouse enters the hole in the wainscoting.(March 2019)
Credit line
Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number]
Object history
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
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.187; no.1731 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.187; no.1731
Other number
LB.1731 - Linder Bequest catalogue no.
Collection
Library number
BP.552

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Record createdOctober 4, 2018
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