The Tailor of Gloucester
London: Warne, 1903. First Edition. Hardcover. 1st trade edition, 1st binding (one endpaper design repeated 4 times). Her 3rd book. Green boards (also seen red with no priority). Fine in a 1st printing glassine dustjacket, a chip to the back taking a corner of the border (no text lost), other lesser wear to the edges, some wrinkles, else very good and integral (the jacket, when seen, is often in 2 pieces or shredded). 27 color pictures. An inferior, privately printed issue, with 11 fewer pictures and no jacket preceded but a hoard of them was found in the 1990s, in new condition, so they wlll be common for quite a while (78 sales at auction since 1975), and some copies were also bound in cloth and in leather, but boards in jacket is the way to have this book. ABPC lists only one copy in jacket sold at auction in the last 15 years (Christie’s, $8,125, Sep. 14, 2021). Fine half morocco case. fine / very good. Item #733
Peter Rabbit is Potter’s most famous character, but The Tailor of Gloucester is her best book and she always called it her favorite. It is a sensitive, tender, and humble story about selflessness, it is perfectly illustrated by her, the text is highly literate for a children’s book, and 119 years later it remains an exalted parable of Western literature.
Price:
$8,000.00