Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, The
London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1908. Item #06101
Presentation Copy of One of Beatrix Potter's Greatest Tales
Inscribed by the Author Only One Year After Publication
POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1908.
First edition. Presentation copy inscribed on front free endpaper “For/Mr... Worrimer? /with Miss Potter’s/Compliments./ Oct 17th 09.”
Twelvemo (5 7/16 x 4 1/8 inches; 139 x 105 mm.). 84, [1], [1, printer’s imprint] pp. Color frontispiece and twenty-six color plates (included in pagination). Black and white vignette on title-page.
Publisher's gray-green boards, ruled and lettered in white on front cover and lettered in white on spine. Color pictorial label on front cover within a blind rectangular panel with arrowhead corners, outlined in blind. Color pictorial endpapers (Quinby Plate IV). Spine very slightly darkened. A near fine copy housed in a quarter red morocco over green cloth clamshell case, spine with four raised bands, lettered in gilt in compartments.
Published at the height of Beatrix Potter's extraordinary creative powers, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck is among the most autobiographical of all her little books. The landscape, farm buildings, and barnyard inhabitants were drawn directly from Hill Top, the seventeenth-century farmhouse in Near Sawrey that Potter had purchased only three years earlier and which had become both her sanctuary and artistic inspiration. Jemima herself was based upon one of Potter's own ducks, while Kep the collie and the surrounding Lakeland scenery were equally drawn from everyday life on the farm.
The story also marks an important moment in Potter's development as a writer. Beneath its charming surface lies one of her most sophisticated narratives - a gentle satire on innocence and misplaced trust in which Jemima's hopeful determination to hatch her own eggs nearly leads to disaster before she is rescued by Kep. The balance between humor, tension, and exquisite observation of animal character has long caused the tale to be regarded as one of Potter's finest achievements.
The present copy is especially desirable as a contemporary presentation copy, warmly inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Mr. Worrimer [or Worriner?] with Miss Potter's Compliments. Oct. 17th 09."
Books inscribed simply with Potter's compliments were typically presented personally or sent to acquaintances during the period when demand for her books had made her Britain's most celebrated children's author. Such copies possess a particular immediacy, preserving the personal connection between author and recipient only a year after the book's publication.
Linder, p. 427. Quinby 14. V & A 1589.
Price: $9,500.00