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The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Book
1902 (printed and published), 1901 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Printed book, 84 unnumbered pages. 41 monochrome line block illustrations throughout the text made from zinc blocks and three-colour-process printed frontispiece. With bookplate of Rupert Potter on inside upper cover and formerly the author's own copy, with pencil inscription by Beatrix Potter: "2nd printing / 200". Also with "2" written on recto upper flyleaf. Case binding of pale green paper over boards with rounded spine. Upper cover with title, author, line illustration and "Copyright" blocked in black.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Tale of Peter Rabbit (published title)
Materials and techniques
Case bound printed book of pale green paper over boards. Line block and halftone illustrations and letterpress text
Brief description
Book, The tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter, second printing of privately printed edition printed in an edition of 200 copies. Annotated by the author. Linder Bequest cat. no. LB 1624. NAL accession no. BP.7. Library's copy F.
Physical description
Printed book, 84 unnumbered pages. 41 monochrome line block illustrations throughout the text made from zinc blocks and three-colour-process printed frontispiece. With bookplate of Rupert Potter on inside upper cover and formerly the author's own copy, with pencil inscription by Beatrix Potter: "2nd printing / 200". Also with "2" written on recto upper flyleaf. Case binding of pale green paper over boards with rounded spine. Upper cover with title, author, line illustration and "Copyright" blocked in black.
Dimensions
  • Height: 14cm (Note: rounded to nearest cm on library catalogue)
Production typeLimited edition
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
With bookplate of Rupert Potter on inside upper cover and formerly the author's own copy, with pencil inscription by Beatrix Potter: "2nd printing / 200". Also with "2" written on recto upper flyleaf.

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.
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.
Other numbers
  • BP.7 - NAL accession number
  • LB.1624 - Linder Bequest catalogue no.
Collection
Library number
BP.7

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Record createdMay 1, 2019
Record URL
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