Potter, Beatrix.. The Fairy Caravan.. Philadelphia; David McKay Company, 1929., 1929.

Price: US$2308.81 + shipping

Description: INSCRIBED U.S. FIRST EDITION (preceding the U.K. First Edition). Octavo, pp. 225, [1]. Six colour plates including frontispiece, plus numerous line drawings within text including head- and tail-pieces and full page illustrations. Publisher's bottle green cloth with gilt titles and decoration to spine with printed title onlay illustrated in colour to upper board. Housed in a custom-made black morocco silk-lined clam-shell box, with gilt titles and decoration to upper. Cover cloth stained to lower board, gilt dulled; minor wear to spine tips and corners; onlay slightly scuffed but bright. Ownership name & address to front paste-down. Boldly inscribed to title page "Copyright of the Author in Great Britain witheld, entered at Stationers Hall" in Beatrix Potter's hand, and "Philadelphia" crossed through by her in the publisher's imprint. Inner margin p. 108/9 creased otherwise contents clean. A Very Good copy in fine clam-shell box. In 1929, Beatrix Potter realised that the U.S. publication of The Fairy Caravan would leave her lacking a British copyright; so she requested that her American publisher David McKay send her 100 sets of sheets to be privately published in Britain. These were bound up by George Middleton in Ambleside in a signed limited edition of 100 copies. Its seems highly likely that in writing such an explicit inscription to the title page Ms Potter was asserting her right to the copyright and using this copy to illustrate this to her UK publisher, as well as to provide him with the text for the UK title-page.

Seller: Keel Row Bookshop Ltd - ABA, ILAB & PBFA, Whitley Bay, United Kingdom

POTTER, Beatrix.. The Fairy Caravan.. [Ambleside: for the Author,] 1929, 1929.

Price: US$5772.03 + shipping

Description: First edition, UK issue, one of 100 copies of a tale written by Beatrix Potter "for her own amusement" and considered "too personal - too autobiographical" for her to publish commercially in the UK. Only 100 copies were issued in the UK to secure English copyright. Potter had no intention of publishing another book after Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes (published in 1922). However the American publisher Alexander McKay persuaded her that this book should be published only in the US. The tale is about a travelling circus which is invisible to humans. Having made enquiries about copyright in the UK, Potter found that she needed to issue her own small edition. She requested 100 sets of sheets from the US printing to be sent to her. A local printer and publisher in Ambleside, George Middleton, then substituted a UK printing of the first 18 pages. The dedication and preface were discarded, but an additional page was added on which Potter provided printed sketches of dogs. Henry Bacon Collamore (c.1894-1975) was an American and correspondent of Beatrix Potter who started collecting her work in the 1950s. By the 1960s he was the Chairman of the Board of the Pittsburgh Steel Company and, with a fine income, he established connections with dealers in the Lake District who could source significant material. He eventually accumulated over 100 watercolours, sketches or drawings. A large amount of his collection is in the Free Library of Philadelphia. Some volumes from his collection formed, as here, part of the library of Maurice Sendak, although the artist has not marked this volume. Linder p. 431; Quinby 29. Large octavo. Original grey green boards with dark green cloth spine, front cover lettered in black, all edges untrimmed. 6 colour and numerous monochrome illustrations in the text by the author. book label of Henry Bacon Collamore on front pastedown. Head and foot of spine slightly bumped, slight creases to spine, minor toning and marks to covers, corners bumped, slight browning to contents; a very good and attractive copy.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom

[POTTER, Beatrix] HEELIS, Beatrix. THE FAIRY CARAVAN. Privately printed Ambleside, 1929.

Price: US$7696.04 + shipping

Description: First edition, one of 100 copies to be privately printed by the author. Small 4to. Cloth backed blue-grey paper covered boards with title printed on upper cover in black. A fine copy. Exceptionally clean and crisp. Internally perfect and largely unopened. Illustrated by Beatrix Potter with six colour plates and numerous black and white line drawings. This book, which is of a semi-autobiographical nature, was written from Potter's personal jottings about her beloved Lakeland and its people. "She had no intention of producing another book until Alexander McKay came over from Philadelphia and persuaded her to do so. It was intended that this book should be published only in America, and would contain some of her writings about her farm animals in a fairy caravan setting. Beatrix Potter did not wish for an English edition of The Fairy Caravan, because she felt the stories were 'too personal - too autobiographical'. Her next concern was to obtain English copyright. So she asked for one hundred sets of sheets to be sent over in order to have them bound privately. This was done by George Middleton, printers and publisher's Ambleside, Westmorland. In the privately bound copies of the The Fairy Caravan, the first eighteen pages of the American edition, including the preface and the dedication page, were discarded and a new set of pages printed at Ambleside. An additional page was added on which were sketches of dogs that she knew, with there names written underneath." (Linder - The History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter).

Seller: Jonkers Rare Books, Henley on Thames, OXON, United Kingdom

POTTER, Beatrix, as Beatrix Heelis.. The Fairy Caravan.. [Ambleside: for the Author,] 1929, 1929.

Price: US$25653.46 + shipping

Description: First edition, UK issue, number 26 of 100 copies only. A touching presentation copy, inscribed by Potter on the front free endpaper, "To Mr & Mrs Wight of Graythwaite - in affectionate remembrance - from Beatrix Heelis. June. 10th 1930", together with an autograph letter from Potter to the Wights laid-in. The letter consoles the Wights on the loss of Mollie, their daughter, and states that she had had it in mind to bring a copy of the book over for her: "I hope time is softening the pain of parting and that you can take comfort in thinking of her safe from the storms and cold of this earthly pilgrimage." She writes of her plans to visit soon, and notes an amusing anecdote of Mrs Wight's father ("I was taken aback when I joked about Mount Everest and he said he had been there!"). Several years later this copy made a serendipitous journey: it was mistakenly sold by Mrs Wight to a Kendal bookseller, resold to a bookseller in Hertford, and finally purchased by Leslie Linder. In a letter laid-in from Linder to Mrs Wight, he returns the book to its rightful owner, and asks in return not for payment but for any memories Mrs Wight might have of Potter. There is no record of Mrs Wight's reply, but Linder's response to her note also accompanies the book, thanking her "for the account of Mrs Heelis. I know from experience that notes like these are not written in five minutes." A photograph of Mr and Mrs Wight is also laid in. Linder p. 431; Quinby 29. Large octavo. Original grey green boards with dark green cloth spine, front cover lettered in black, all edges untrimmed. Housed in a custom blue velvet-lined folding box. 6 colour and numerous monochrome illustrations in the text by the author. Spine ends rubbed, front hinge split but holding, some spotting to first few leaves.

Seller: Peter Harrington. ABA/ ILAB., London, United Kingdom