Is My The Tailor of Gloucester a First Edition?

The points of issue

• True 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 privately printed Peter Rabbit and a useful confirmation
• Text point: the private printing carries the long passage (roughly eight to nine pages) of Simpkin's Christmas Eve wanderings through Gloucester and the bulk of Potter's rhymes and verses, all cut by the publisher from the trade edition, and three of its illustrations were dropped from the trade edition
• First trade edition (Frederick Warne & Co., October 1903

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Confirm the first-edition statement — look for “First Edition,” “First Printing,” or the publisher’s equivalent wording.
3. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
4. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
5. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
6. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

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 because the two differ substantially in text and plates, they are not interchangeable. There is no US or foreign-language precedence question. The census claim is confirmed as stated.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

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 printing; it is neither, and it is not a facsimile of the printed 1902 book. Within the trade edition, the December 1903 second printing is told by the double-page endpaper occurring twice, and twentieth-century Warne reprints in the standard small format are common. No book-club edition is documented in the sources consulted.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of The Tailor of Gloucester a first edition?

A first edition of The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter (Privately printed for the author by Strangeways & Sons) is identified by: True 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).

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. 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.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

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 printing; it is neither, and it is not a facsimile of the printed 1902 book. Within th

I have a first edition of The Tailor of Gloucester — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.