Auction for Beatrix Potter letter
Published March 9th, 2006
A letter from Beatrix Potter to a young fan apologising for the quality of one of her books, is expected to fetch up to £2,500 at auction in Exeter.
The four-page letter to Joy Shapland was written by the Peter Rabbit author in 1913.
In it, Potter apologises for her book The Tale of Pigling Bland, explaining that she had been poorly.
Auctioneer Rachel Littlewood of Hampton and Littlewood said: “This letter is such a unique piece of history.”
“We have already had a lot of interest and I have been responding to e-mails from all over the world.”
In the letter, Potter – whose other books included Mrs Tiggy Winkle and Jemima Puddleduck – explained she had been so ill she “thought it was the last of Peter Rabbit”.
She then goes on to say that her printers had urged her to produce another book in time for Christmas.
The letter will be auctioned on 15 March. It is part of a wider sale of 18th and 19th Century costume books, as well as some 400 lots of antiquarian books.
