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.
Comical Customers at the New Stores of Comical Rhymes and Stories
London: Ernest Nister, 1896. Item #06127
The first published appearance of Beatrix Potter's 'Froggie'
Ten years before 'The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher'
[POTTER, Beatrix], [WAIN, Louis], illustrators. [WEEDON, Lucy L.] & [BINGHAM, Clifton]. Comical Customers At the New Stores of Comical Rhymes and Stories. London: Ernest Nister, [1896].
First edition. Quarto (10 x 8 1/8 inches; 254 x 206 mm.). [1-48] pp. Mounted color frontispiece, numerous black and white line drawings throughout the text by Louis Wain, W. Foster and others.
The penultimate story in the book by C[lifton] B[ingham] 'A Frog he would a fishing Go' illustrated with ten charming line drawings, nine of them by Beatrix Potter, each one signed 'HBP'.
The book also contains a separate full-page illustration of "Sqintina Tabby" to accompany "The Story of Violante and the Silver Sixpence", after a pen and grisaille drawing heightened with gouache by Potter. Beatrix Potter's uncle Sir Henry and Aunt Lucy Roscoe owned a cat called Squintina or Squinty. Potter's frog illustrations appeared in two collections by Nister this year: the present publication and the Holiday Annual.
Original dark blue cloth backed glazed pictorial boards. Pale blue floral endpapers. The front cover with a very colorful scene depicting four young cats visiting the local [cat] storekeeper. Contemporary pencil ownership inscription on half title dated 1896.
Extremities of boards a little worn otherwise an excellent copy of this extremely scarce Beatrix Potter/Louis Wain item.
Price: $2,750.00