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Tailor of Gloucester, The
London: Frederick Warne and Co, 19031. Item #06620
First Published Edition
The Tailor of Gloucester
POTTER, Beatrix. The Tailor of Gloucester. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1903.
First published edition, second printing (December 1903).
Twelvemo (5 7/16 x 4 1/16 inches; 138 x 104 mm.). 85, [1, printer’s imprint] pp. Color frontispiece and twenty-six color plates (included in pagination). Eleven of the illustrations are repeated from the December 1902 privately printed edition and seventeen are entirely new for this edition.
Publisher's maroon boards stamped in white on front cover and spine. Color pictorial label on front cover within a blind panel in the shape of a truncated pyramid outlined in blind. Color pictorial endpapers. Ink ownership inscription on half-title, dated “Christmas 1904.” Spine a little faded. Small 1 inch split at top of inside front hinge, still an excellent copy.
The Tailor of Gloucester was first printed privately in December 1902, in an edition of 500 copies. The format was the same as that of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and the book was bound in pink paper boards.
“The year 1903 appears on the front of the title-page of the first two printings. The first printing [October 1903] has a single-page end-paper occurring four times, and the second printing [December 1903], a double-page end-paper occurring twice. Both pictures were printed on one sheet, which was cut in half, and each half used as a tipped-in frontispiece." (Linder, p. 423).
Linder, p. 423; Quinby 4; V & A 1576.
Price: $850.00