THE TALE OF MR. TOD.
London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1912. Original light grey paper-covered boards with front cover color plate.
First Edition of Beatrix Potter's eighteenth book, and the first title to appear in the "New Series" that was unfortunately issued in a binding almost as fragile as the earlier titles.
Unlike Beatrix Potter's earlier books, the principal characters are villains! and in the opening paragraph we get a hint of this fact. When sending Warne some of the book drawings, Beatrix Potter referred to the one about the fight between [the fox] Mr. Tod and [the badger] Tommy Brock [on page 86] -- which she found difficult to draw: "You will see a very confused one of the combat. I could hardly shirk one picture of it; but it was difficult to work out in detail so I made it dark." [Linder]
This copy is in light grey boards (buff was another option -- no precedence). It is in near-fine condition (spine slightly browned as always, a couple of small edge-chips in the front-cover plate). Linder pp 210-212 and p. 429. Item #15060
Price: $425.00