The Tale of Mr. Tod
Price: $12,500.00
Potter, Beatrix. Hard Cover. London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., 1912. First Edition. Very Good.
Illustrated by Potter with a color frontispiece and 14 color plates, and black and white illustrations in the text. First edition (first and second printings are identical), with the dedication uncorrected from "William Francis" to "Francis William." Signed and inscribed by Potter on the front free endpaper: "To Little James Airey / In 'Mr. Tod's' Kitchen. / With love from Miss Potter / Oct. 17th [19]12". Publisher's tan boards, stamped in brown, with color pictorial paper label showing a fox in a brown coat, and illustrated endpapers. Very good, with light rubbing to spine, thin chip to bottom inch of rear spine joint, some scratches to rear board, and corners rubbed to boards. Overall, a wonderful association. Quinby No. 21. Inspired in part by the famous "Uncle Remus" stories, this book continues Beatrix Potter's motif of animal characters and tells of a clash between two villains, Tommy Brock, a badger, and his archenemy Mr. Tod, a fox. Tommy Brock steals the children of Benjamin Bunny and his wife Flopsy and brings them to Mr. Tod's kitchen to eat them while Mr. Tod is out. When Mr. Tod returns and finds that Tommy has invaded his home the two engage in a pots-and-pan-rattling struggle. The Tale of Mr. Tod was intended to be the first in a new series of longer and more elaborately bound books by Potter following her Peter Rabbit series. However, the public did not take to the new style, and the publisher soon reverted to the old format. This copy is inscribed to James Airey, the son of the landlord of The Sun Inn in Hawkshead. In her inscription, Potter alludes to the Sun Inn's kitchen being the inspiration for the kitchen in The Tale of Mr. Tod, which is the setting of the climactic brawl between Mr. Tod and Tommy Brock. Notably, the historic area of Hawkshead provided Potter with inspiration for many of her stories. Potter met her future husband William Heelis in Hawkshead in 1909 and the two married in 1913. William's law office, which was only 150 meters from The Sun Inn, is now the home of the Beatrix Potter Gallery. Item #BP035
