Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, The

London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1905. First Edition of The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle

POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1905.

First edition, first or second printing. Twelvemo (5 7/16 x 4 1/8 inches; 139 x 105 mm.). 84, [1], [1, printer’s imprint] pp. Color frontispiece and twenty-six color plates (included in pagination). Black and white vignette on title-page.

Publisher's gray boards, front cover lettered in white, with pictorial label in color, spine lettered in white, color pictorial endpapers (Quinby II). Neat ink name on verso of front free endpaper. A near fine copy.

A superb copy of one of the author's best-known and well-loved stories.

The first two printings are indistinguishable; both are dated 1905 on the title page.

With a chief protagonist inspired by a Scottish washerwoman the Potters employed during summers in Perthshire, a real child called Lucie, from Little-town in the Newlands valley, and a Lake District backdrop, The Tale of Mrs.
Tiggy-Winkle was primarily aimed at girls, set chiefly indoors and focussed on the more domestic chores. The story was inspired by an encounter between the author and the Carr sisters in Lingholm, and in particular an incident where one of them, Lucie, left a glove behind, which Beatrix transformed into the fictional Lucie's propensity for losing her hankies.

Linder p. 425; Quinby 8. (Inventory #: 06094)