Tale of Beatrix’s £30,000 classic

A RARE first edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit – including a handwritten note by author Beatrix Potter saying ‘please buy it somebody’ – is to go up for sale.

The privately printed book, pictured, is one of just 250 copies and could fetch up to £30,000 at auction. Dated February 1902, Miss Potter’s note calls the classic ‘a genuine curiosity’, adding: ‘Please buy it somebody, in aid of a noble cause [Scottish Women’s Hospitals]’.

It will be sold by Great Western Auctions in Glasgow on March 23. Initially unable to find a publisher, Miss Potter printed her book herself. The first impression, produced in December 1901, was an edition of 250. But within two weeks Miss Potter commissioned a second impression, ready in February 1902.

That October, a regular trade edition was released by publisher Frederick Warne, which proved to be a bestseller.