Peter Rabbit and friends proved to still be highly in demand, with the two signed cards (lots 14 and 15) selling for £2,480 and £1,612 respectively.  The true first printing of Peter Rabbit, published by the author herself, sold for £24,800, and the second private printing achieved an excellent £14,880; in general this section of the auction was strong with many good prices achieved, especially for the inscribed books.

The first, ‘autographed edition’ of Beatrix Potter’s The Fairy Caravan failed to sell unfortunately, but the ‘copyright edition’ (lot 119) with original correspondence exceeded top estimate, fetching £12,400; the true first of Ms Potter’s Tale of a Faithful Dove fetched a perfectly respectable £1,612, with the limited Warne edition of Wag-by-Wall making £682 all-in.

Photographs proved to be one the surprise hits of the auction; the owner Mark Ottignon had specified that they should be sold separately to allow private buyers as much opportunity as possible to obtain such a personal insight into Beatrix Potter’s life, and this definitely paid off, with prices ranging from £372 to £1,178.

The Collectables section of the sale saw some impressive highs alongside some prices within estimate, and some remaining unsold; the two Richard Wawrzesta sculptures did not sell during the auction, but both sold post-sale for £148.80.  The notorious Steiff Peter Rabbit proved still to be able to create a storm, with several phone and online bidders taking it to £2,976.  The intriguing papier-mache figures made lower estimate, £992. R. John Wright’s plush mohair dolls mostly sold once post-sales were taken into account.

The higher value Grimwade & Wedgwood all sold, with the various lower priced items either being picked up by collectors during or after the sale; undoubtedly one of the star sections of the sale had to be the Beswick figurines, which certainly generated the most pre-sale enquiries and condition reports, as well as numerous phone bidders throughout the section; the notably scarce Duchess with Flowers lived handsomely up to its reputation, achieving £6,200 on the day, with the scarce issue Mrs Rabbit making a strong £1,364.

Beatrix Potter: The Catalogue

The catalogue for the Mark Ottignon Collection of Beatrix Potter is now available online as a PDF here. You can also view the catalogue on the Bloomsbury Auctions website here.

There is also a printed catalogue available. If you would like to request a copy, we are offering visitors to this website a special discounted price of £10 – just submit the form here quoting H33LI5 in the message field.

It is not so often that Beatrix Potter treasures are offered for sale and even less often that they are of such quality and in such quantity. This collection has obviously been carefully assembled and chosen with great taste.

Beatrix Potter was just twenty-four years old when her brother suggested she might send some of the drawings of her rabbit, Benjamin, to the greetings-card publisher, Hildesheimer & Faulkner. Delighted with them, they paid her £6, and proceeded to use the pictures many times – on cards, and as illustrations in various publications. In this sale there are copies of those (now rare) cards and booklets.

Not enough people know that Beatrix was a knowledgeable botanist, a painter from an early age of flowers, fungi and fruit. Her original watercolours are rarely to be found now but here is an exquisite 1883 painting, on one side ‘berries on a stem’ and on the reverse an unidentified flower.

Then there are the books, not only first editions of Beatrix’s treasured stories published by Frederick Warne – some still with their relatively undamaged glassine jackets, others in de-luxe bindings, a few signed by Beatrix herself – but also copies of her later works, up to the last book for which she wrote the text, Sister Anne, published in 1932, only in America and with illustrations not by her. Then there are the colouring books and the Peter Rabbit race game, all designed by Beatrix Potter.

In 1893 Beatrix bought a Belgian rabbit in London ‘for the exorbitant sum of 4/6’, smuggled him into the house in a paper bag and christened him Peter Piper. He was, of course, the inspiration for her first book, which would be published nine years later. In 1903 she made a Peter Rabbit doll and registered it herself at the Patent Office in London in December that year. The following year the German toy manufacturers, Steiff, made a Peter Rabbit doll – and here in the sale is one of them, in remarkable condition and still with the precious Steiff button in his ear!

During her lifetime Beatrix’s interest in the merchandise of characters from her books was considerable and she was involved with the production of much of it. Over the years, her characters have featured in every conceivable product. I am not knowledgeable about collectibles but in this sale there is a remarkable assembly of (mostly Wedgwood) bone china – a delight for any small child who, of course, would not be allowed to play with any of it! But what intrigues me most are the four papier mache figures, bearing the Frederick Warne stamp, that I have not only never seen before – but never heard of before.

In this sale there are also photographs, a letter from Beatrix Heelis (her married name), a touching hand-written letter from the great Potter collector and cataloguer, Leslie Linder, returning to its original owner a Potter-signed copy of the copyright edition of The Fairy Caravan which had been mistakenly sold.

This collection is a tribute to Beatrix Potter’s extraordinary talent, not only as an artist and storyteller but as a business woman and entrepreneur.

Judy Taylor

Vice President and Former Chairman
The Beatrix Potter Society

The books will be offered at the Exhibition at a special discount price:

• 

  Turner (J.R.) Unauthorised American Editions of Peter Rabbit

  £38 £34

• 

  Linder (Leslie, compiler) The Beatrix Potter Papers at Hill Top

  £15 £10

• 

  Quinby (Jane) Beatrix Potter. A Bibliographical Check List

  £29 £25

Visit Ian Hodgkins’ website for contact information.

This website will include all the latest news & updates on the collection scheduled for February 2013, and will also feature images and descriptions of some of the rarer and more collectable pieces from the auction.