River Landscape in Cumbria, England

Such a peaceful winter scene in the Lake District of the English countryside. No wonder Beatrix Potter decided to settle in this region.



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Happy Birthday Beatrix Potter

She did love her rabbits, didn't she. Today marks 142 years since her birth. Beatrix Potter was born July 28, 1866 and died December 22, 1943 but her books will live on forever. Enlarge the photo and you'll see that she's wearing a Sherlock Holmes Deerstalker cap. Elementary my dear Watson. image

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Beatrix Potter Hated Publicity

I'm so glad she succeeded in becoming an old woman. On moving to the Lake District, Potter became engrossed in breeding and showing Herdwick sheep. She became a respected farmer, a judge at local agricultural shows and President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders' Association. Read more . . .

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Unusual Animals on Leashes

Isn't this the sweetest photo you've ever seen? Don't you love this little girl's coat? Isn't the kitten cute? Don't you love the car with the running board? My mother walks her fat cat Tabitha on a leash too. Beatrix Potter walked her pet rabbit on a leash that looks more like a string.

  This is one of my antique Christmas cards featuring a pig with a string leash tied to his leg.

Happy Friday. Have a great weekend and take your pet for a long walk. xo, Rosemary 

Beatrix Potter With The Real Peter Rabbit

This is a genuine photo of Beatrix Potter with a pet rabbit on a string leash.


I highly recommend the DVD on her life called MISS POTTER


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Peter Rabbit Easter Egg Hunt Game

Peter Rabbit Help Peter Rabbit find his lost eggs in the egg hunt. Other games on this site too. You know how much I love Beatrix Potter.






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Vintage Beatrix Potter Tom Kitten Doll

When I came home from a garage sale recently, Webster wanted this wonderful Tom Kitten doll in the worst way. He does a funny little bite, bite, bite thing with his teeth when he adores something and wants to de-flea it. He was heartbroken when he found out Tabitha (our cat) was the recipient of the toy of his dreams after he had covered it with love bites. So far, he hasn't tried to steal it from her. She loves Tom who is beautifully dressed in a blue velvet outfit with his name embroidered on the jacket. He's in great shape and has always been well cared for. I don't think I've ever seen another, have you?




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Rabbits' Christmas Party | Beatrix Potter Watercolors Auctioned in London . . .

I hope you have as much fun at all of your Christmas parties as these Beatrix Potter rabbits are having at theirs.

The Rabbits' Christmas Party - 'The Arrival'
Sold at Sotheby's London July 18, 2008 ~ £121,250

The Rabbits' Christmas Party - Roasting Apples
This painting was not in the auction.
It is in the Victoria & Albert Museum.

This is one of a set of four watercolours by Beatrix Potter showing the successive stages of a Christmas party. Here the rabbits are roasting apples on the hearth. These pictures were given to Beatrix Potter's aunt, Lady Roscoe, wife of Sir Henry Roscoe. The date of these watercolours is unknown although the series pre-dates the publication of the 'Tale of Peter Rabbit' in 1901 when Beatrix had begun publishing some of her rabbit drawings as Christmas cards.

This painting is in the movie "Miss Potter" (one of my all-time favorites). She painted it as a Christmas present for Norman Warne, her publisher (and more). I won't give you any more information. Click on my link for Miss Potter and watch a trailer of this wonderful movie. Why not give a DVD to someone on your Christmas list? I have a request for this perfect gift on mine. I hope Santa remembers.

The Rabbits' Christmas Party - Dancing to a Piper
Sale Price - £22,500

The finished watercolour shows eight rabbits (compared to seven as present here) dancing to a piper. Rhubarb stalks are present in a large pot in the upper left corner. The rhubarb and pot are shown here in faint pencil outline. The floor was changed from evenly laid pinkish terracotta tiles to rather haphazard grey flagstone tiles. this version is entirely unknown.The scene was later redrawn with a rabbit playing a 'cello surrounded by five dancing rabbits (and two rabbits nuzzling each other by the back wall).In 1987 Frederick Warne united the four V&A illustrations with the two paintings originally given to Henry P. Coolidge. A fold-out panorama was published as The Rabbits' Christmas Party.

The Rabbits' Christmas Party - 'The Departure'
Sold - £289,000
Multiply 2x for price in US dollars.
On that date 1 British Pound = $2.00 US.

Beatrix Potter’s Christmas rabbits fetch £289,000 at Sotheby's
July 18, 2008 - London:
A previously unseen watercolour by Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) fetched £289,500 at auction yesterday, a record for a book illustration.

The painting, depicting rabbits leaving a Christmas party, was the final piece of a trio painted by Potter, in about 1892. It was sold to a private collector at Sotheby’s in London for nearly five times its upper estimate.

The first in the series - showing five rabbits swathed in overcoats - fetched £121,250 and it was originally given to Potter’s aunt, Lucy, the wife of Sir Henry Roscoe.

The third painting, which shows guests dancing, sold for £22,500.

The watercolours formed part of an archive of illustrations, Christmas cards and letters that fetched £748,200 in total. The archive originated from the collection of Potter’s brother, Bertram, who encouraged his sister’s early efforts to sell her artwork. Potter painted the watercolours more than nine years before paying to have 250 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit printed in December 1901 after rejections from at least six publishers.

She gave many of them away to friends, and sold the rest for 1s 2d (less than 6p), although they are now worth in the region of £30,000.

Potter invented the character Peter Rabbit in an illustrated letter to the child of her former governess in 1893. It remains the world’s bestselling children’s book, with more than 80 million copies in circulation.

Other paintings include cats, horses, bears, deer and cows, and the collection includes private Christmas cards depicting rabbits painted by Potter for her friends and to illustrate first-edition books and letters to relatives.

The 3 photos with black outlines courtesy BibliOdyssey.

Footnote:
Hobbs, in the Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition catalogue, noted "The attitudes are both rabbit-like and human. Only an artist with an intimate knowledge of anatomy could convey so well both musculature and the texture of fur. Remarkable, as in all Potter's animal drawing, is her observation of ears."

Life's Little Instruction Book Page 143 + A Drawing by Beatrix Potter

The original drawing is by Beatrix Potter. I don't know anything about the history but I like to think this was her cottage bedroom. You know how much I love her! I must have been dreaming about being in this bed because I slept much later than usual this morning. - Rosemary

Beatrix Potter Easter Eggs + Video . . .

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."

Enjoy this wonderful video even though it's about mice and not bunnies.

Hedgehog pincushion + Beatrix Potter | Perfect Day + Peter Rabbit BBC Videos

I know, I know, I wrote about this fantastic hedgehog pincushion yesterday. I think this is a better picture so that you can appreciate his real beauty. I found a wonderful video on YouTube that shows him in real life in a few shots. I don't know how I could possibly have missed this television series.

It was produced by the BBC and was called: The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends. One of my readers told me about it in a comment on one of my previous posts about Beatrix Potter. No, this is not a blog about Miss Potter...she just keeps coming up lately for some reason.

Anyway...this video is in two parts. Let me know if you like it.

The show's theme song 'Perfect Day' is also on YouTube. It is hauntingly beautiful and I recommend it highly. Here's hoping today is your perfect day!

You will enjoy the DVD boxed set The Beatrix Potter Collection based on the BBC Series


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Beatrix Potter quote and illustration . . .

"Thank goodness I was never sent to school;
it would have rubbed off some of the originality. "

Beatrix Potter, born in London, was educated privately at home. Both parents were from Unitarian families that became prosperous through the cotton trade. She grew up isolated from most other children, with drawing, nature, pets, her little brother, and governesses as her contacts with the outside world. In the 1890s, Beatrix Potter carried out experiments in natural history, illustrating animals, plants, lichen, and fungi. When the difficulties of succeeding as a woman scientist became clear, she began a career as an illustrator of children's writing.

Her best-known book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, began as a letter to the young son of her former governess. It was first privately published in 1901. After she married at age 47 and bought a farm in England's Lake District, her writing tapered off. She focused on her personal life with her husband, preserving (protecting)the natural landscape from developers, and raising sheep. In 1930 she became the first woman president of the Herdwick Sheep Breeder's Association.

Beatrix Potter wrote a diary in code from ages 14 to 31, deciphered and published in 1966. I never tire of learning more and more about this fascinating woman. Imagine writing a diary in code! I wonder who broke it? She must have been very protective of her private thoughts. I must look for this book at the library. I hope it is illustrated with her delightful drawings.

A watercolour of an unknown rabbit painted by Beatrix Potter has been sold at auction in London for £15,600.

Who is the mystery bunny who loves tea? And why didn't she get her own story? The watercolour of a girl rabbit with a pink ribbon tied daintily around her neck has left experts puzzled. The subject of this highly-finished painting never appeared in any of Beatrix Potter's rabbit tales. It has been in a private UK collection for the past fifty years.

Cropped version of the unknown watercolour.

Uncropped version of the unknown watercolour.

Bonham's
Knightsbridge London
Lot No: 275

Beatrix Potter (British, 1866-1943)
The little bunny drinking tea
signed 'H.B.P.' (lower right)
watercolour
12.5 x 10cm (4 15/16 x 3 15/16in)
unframed
Sold for £15,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium
Provenance: A private UK collection for over fifty years.

The present lot was not published in any of Potter's childrens books. It exists in another version with contains exactly the same components except that the animal is a kitten, rather than a bunny. This reflects Potter’s practice of making a number of versions of her pictures and experimenting with poses and props. The version which depicts the kitten is much sketchier than the present lot which suggests that Potter found the composition with the bunny far more satisfactory. The version depicting the kitten was painted circa 1895 and was originally offered to Ernest Nisbet (see Anne Stevenson Hobbs, Beatrix Potter The artist and her world (Warne 1987), p. 58). Another press release regarding this sale.

Take care of your antiques and they will take care of you.

One of my favorite things...

I have had this little hedgehog pincushion for so long I can't even remember where it got him. He was completely black and was full of holes and I didn't really know what he was. I think this was one of the items I found in a desk drawer. Believe it or not someone once sold me a desk and said the purchase included the contents of the drawers! I had such fun going through them and found some treasures.

He is from England you know! The hallmarks on his belly say that he's sterling (the English always say solid silver) made in Birmingham in 1903. He is stuffed with some kind of hair. He really took on a new personality once I filled all the holes with pins. Isn't he wonderful? I have always loved hedgehogs...just like Beatrix Potter! I can just see her mending while using this item and suddenly see it come to life!




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