Auctions | March 4, 2016

Extremely Rare First Edition of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"

Peter Rabbit 1.jpgThe Royal Mint in the UK recently announced that they are making a series of special coins to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter.

Beatrix Potter was a famous author who wrote children's stories about lots of different animals, like Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle.

Four coins will be made featuring different characters from her stories, and a special collector's 50p coin showing a colour picture of Peter Rabbit will also be released.

The Royal Mint, who make all of the UK's money, say the new coins are meant to give a snapshot of Britain over the past 1,000 years.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is one of the world’s most beloved children’s books.

Written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter it follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea. 

The tale was written for five-year-old Noel Moore, son of Potter's former governess Annie Carter Moore, in 1893. It was revised and privately printed by Potter in 1901 after several publishers' rejections but was printed in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1902. The book was a success and multiple reprints were issued in the years immediately following its debut. It has been translated into 36 languages [1] and with 45 million copies sold it is one of the best-selling books of all time.

Cape Town based rare book auction business, AntiquarianAuctions.com are now selling a copy of one of the first, privately printed editions that were printed before Warne & Co. took over production of the book. Therefore the book on auction is an extremely rare edition. Still visible is the bookplate of the previous owner, Henry Frederick Thynne, the 6th Marquess of Bath.

The book is estimated at US$ 25,000. 

AntiquarianAuctions.com is an online auction site dedicated to the sale of rare and out-of print books, maps & prints, documents, letters, ephemera and vintage photography. 

Dealers and collectors worldwide have been selling and bidding on the site since 2010. Only established booksellers who are members of major national trade associations such as ABA, ABAA, PBFA or SABDA or are of good standing in the trade are permitted to sell on the site. 

Auctions are held every five weeks and run on the model of a timed auction for one week.

All pricing is done in US$. No buyer’s premium is charged. 

Next auction:  Auction #50:  14-21 April 2016

Contact:
Antiquarian Auctions:  Paul Mills  P.O. Box 186  7848 Constantia, Cape Town South Africa
E-mail: support@antiquarianauctions.com   Tel: +27 21 794 0600