Printing Block thumbnail 1
Printing Block thumbnail 2
Not on display

Printing Block

ca. 1900 - ca. 1901 (made)
Artist/Maker
Art Reproduction Company (made)
Potter, Beatrix (artist)
Place of origin
London (made)

Printing block: Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail with a basket of berries.

Object details

Categories
Printmaking Techniques
Animals and Wildlife
Anthropomorphism
Children & Childhood
Illustration
Woman Artist
Object type
printing block
Parts
This object consists of 3 parts.

  • Printing Block
  • Print
  • Print
Materials and techniques
Line block etching on zinc, mounted to wood
Zinc
Wood
Line-Block
Brief description
Woodblock, mounted with zinc line block for the first privately printed edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Made by Art Reproduction Company after drawings by Beatrix Potter, ca. 1900-1. Also a modern print taken from the block. Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.2143.
Physical description
Printing block: Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail with a basket of berries.
Dimensions
  • Height: 5cm (Note: block)
  • Width: 6cm (Note: block)
Production typeUnique
Gallery label
(August 2019)
The line block process faithfully reproduces simple pen and ink outlines. Beatrix Potter had her drawings made into line blocks for her privately published edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit. As she funded the project herself, she left most images in black and white, partly to save money and partly to imitate the ones she ‘scribbled’ in the first, letter version of her story. She thought an entire book of ‘rabbit-brown and green’ sounded too dull to have in colour.
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.
Subject depicted
Rabbits
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. 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.
Other number
LB.2143 - Linder Bequest catalogue no.
Collection
National Art Library
Library number
BP.1434(B)

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Record createdFebruary 27, 2019
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1481146/printing-block-potter-beatrix/
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