I have been in the rare and antiquarian book business for over forty years; my family has been in the rare books business since 1876. Rare books are in my blood.
Story of Miss Moppet, The
New York & London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1906. Item #06097
Beatrix Potter’s “Miss Moppet” Panorama
POTTER, Beatrix. The Story of Miss Moppet. New York & London: Frederick Warne & Co., [1906].
First edition, second printing (printed December 1906), with “New York & London” on the back of the wallet and with lavender marbled endpapers.
Oblong twelvemo (3 3/4 x 4 1/2 inches; 95 x 114 mm.). With fourteen color illustrations separated by fourteen pages of text printed in green. Mounted on pale green linen back and folded accordion-style into the original gray cloth wallet-style case. Oval color pictorial label on front cover. Slight vertical crease on first page of text, slight wear to front inner hinge, tab strengthened on the under-flap of the front cover. Aside from the above this is one of the cleanest copies that we have seen.
"On the back of some wallets are the words 'London & New York', and on others 'New York & London'. The former is believed to be the November printing. In 1916 this title was first printed in book form." (Linder)
“At the beginning of 1906 when working on The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, Beatrix Potter was also planning some stories for very young children. Each story contained fourteen pictures and fourteen pages of simple text. The pictures and text were arranged in pairs and were in panoramic form, mounted a long strip of linen, and folded concertina-wise into a wallet with a tuck-in flap. Three stories were written in this form—The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit, The Story of Miss Moppet, and The Sly Old Cat; but only the first two were published” (Linder, p. 183).
One of only two Peter Rabbit books aimed at younger children and issued in concertina-style format (see lot 17; a third, The Sly Old Cat, was planned but not published in the author's lifetime); the pair were reissued in a format uniform with the rest of the popular series after booksellers complained about the book being too easily damaged by perusing children and adults.
Linder, p. 426. Quinby 11. V & A 1559.
Price: $1,250.00