Beatrix Potter First Editions

• The Tailor of Gloucester — 1902 · Privately printed for the author by Strangeways & SonsTrue first (privately printed): December 1902, printed for the author by Strangeways & Sons, London, in an edition of 500 copies (Quinby 3; Linder 117 and 420). 12mo, roughly 131 x 102 mm, [96] pp., with a colour frontispiece and fifteen colour illustrations. Original pink pictorial boards, stamped and lettered in black on the front cover, with a rounded rather than a flat back — a binding difference from the…. The two-stage pattern is confirmed and matches Peter Rabbit: the December 1902 privately printed edition (500 copies, Strangeways & Sons for the author) precedes the October 1903 Frederick Warne & Co. trade edition, which cuts the text and adds new illustrations. Both are collected and both should be named: the 1902 private printing is the true first, the 1903 Warne is the first published (trade) edition — and…. The trap for this title is facsimiles and later Warne printings rather than a book club. Warne's 1968 'The Tailor of Gloucester: A Facsimile of the Original Manuscript and Illustrations' (limited to 1,500 copies, with an introduction by Leslie Linder and Potter's twelve original watercolour sketches) reproduces the manuscript and early artwork and is regularly mistaken for — or catalogued as — the 1902 private….
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit — 1902 · Frederick Warne & Co.Three separate printings must be told apart. (1) First private printing, December 1901: 250 copies, printed by Strangeways & Sons, in fawn/grey-green paper-covered boards lettered in black with a FLAT spine; a single colour frontispiece (three-colour process) with black-and-white line illustrations throughout. (2) Second private printing, February 1902: 200 copies, distinguished chiefly by a ROUNDED spine (plus…. Precedence runs: December 1901 private printing (250 copies, flat spine) = the absolute true first; February 1902 second private printing (200 copies, rounded spine) = second; Frederick Warne, October 1902 = the first published/commercial edition (the 'trade first'). The two private printings are exceedingly rare and must not be conflated — they are two distinct printings (Dec 1901 vs Feb 1902), separated by the…. Within the Warne trade edition the 'wept big tears' reading (first three printings) versus 'shed big tears' (fourth printing, April 1903) is the key later-printing tell, alongside the switch to green boards after the first printing and the loss of the original leaf-pattern endpapers. Any 'Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd.' imprint post-dates May 1919. Modern reprints are obvious. The critical precedence distinction….
• The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin — 1903 · Frederick Warne & Co.First edition, 1903, Frederick Warne & Co. Original boards with a pictorial onlay mounted on the front cover and color illustrations throughout. This is the book in which Potter's now-familiar pictorial series endpapers were introduced. Early copies carry the publisher's 36 East 22d Street New York address on the title leaf. Note that bibliographers regard the first-edition first and second issues of this title…. Frederick Warne (London) is the true first; copies were also distributed in the United States, but the UK Warne edition takes precedence. As a rough dating aid, the list of Potter titles advertised in the book grows over successive printings, so a longer list indicates a later printing. A printed ISBN or modern jacket indicates a much later reprint.
• The Tale of Benjamin Bunny — 1904 · Frederick Warne & Co.First edition, first issue, Frederick Warne & Co., September 1904. The recognized first-issue textual points are both on page 15: the word spelled 'muffatees' (the misspelling was altered in later printings) and the word 'we' set in Roman rather than italic type. Original grey paper-covered boards printed in dark green with a color illustration mounted on the front board; frontispiece and color illustrations…. Frederick Warne (London) is the true first edition. Reprints followed within weeks of first publication. The advertised Potter title list lengthens in later printings, and a printed ISBN or modern price indicates a much later reprint.
• The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck — 1908 · Frederick WarneThe first edition is dated 1908 at the foot of the title page and again at the colophon, over the Frederick Warne & Co. London imprint. Binding is publisher's grey-green paper-covered boards, ruled and lettered in white on the front cover and lettered in white on the spine, with a colour pictorial label mounted on the front cover within a blind rectangular panel with arrowhead corners, outlined in blind. Collate…. UK true first, and the census claim is correct: Frederick Warne, London, 1908. Potter wrote in English for Warne of London and the tales originate there; no American or other-language edition precedes the Warne. Warne's New York issues of the tales are not the collected first. There is no competing edition to name here — unlike The Fairy Caravan, this title follows the normal Potter pattern of London origination. Later printings are dated later on the title page or are undated, so the 1908 date at the title-page foot and at the colophon is the first screen. Endpaper designs were revised across the life of the series, so a later endpaper design in an otherwise correct copy indicates a later impression or a made-up/rebound copy — endpapers and boards should agree with the Quinby Plate IV design for a 1908 copy. Warne….
• The Fairy Caravan — 1929 · David McKayAmerican origination: David McKay Company, Philadelphia, 1929 (published October 1929). Binding is publisher's dark green cloth with a large rectangular colour pictorial label mounted on the front cover and the spine lettered in gilt; small quarto (roughly 8-5/16 x 6-the printed price inches); 225, [3 blank] pp.; six inserted colour plates (the frontispiece is "Louisa Pussy Cat Sleeps Late", Potter's own cat,…. The census reversal is correct, with one refinement worth publishing. There was no UK trade edition in 1929 — Potter thought the stories "too personal, too autobiographical" for British readers. Realising that US-only publication would leave her without British copyright, she had McKay ship 100 sets of American sheets to be privately published at Ambleside, Westmorland by the printer George Middleton: the first…. The 1952 Frederick Warne UK edition and every later Warne printing are reprints / "first thus" — the 1952 date is the commonest trap because it is the first edition most British readers ever saw. No book-club issue is documented in the sources consulted. The specific made-up-copy risk sits on the Ambleside issue: it is McKay sheets with a locally printed first gathering, so a made-up copy is easy to assemble —….

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