First edition of this tale of a village shop run by a cat and a dog, based upon a store local to Potter's own Hill Top farm.
Near fine.
Price: $600.00
"but it would never do to eat our customers"
Potter originally composed this story as a Christmas present for Louie Warne, the daughter of her publisher. In it, she drew from her own experiences visiting the general store in Sawrey, which Margaret Lane notes was "the focus of village life, as much a centre for meeting and gossip." In the published version, Potter dedicated the book to the real shop's owner, John Taylor, who "thinks he might pass as a Dormouse" – and indeed, Mr. John Dormouse and his daughter appear at the end of the book.
Read more: Quinby, Beatrix Potter: A Bibliographical Check List, 17; Linder, A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter, 197-204; Lane, The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter, 181.
First printing. London: Frederick Warne and Co, 1909. 7'' x 5.25''. Original tan paper boards stamped in green, pictorial paste-on. Color pictorial endpapers. Illustrated by Potter with 10 full-page color plates and black-and-white in-text illustrations. 52 pages. Small bookseller ticket on front pastedown gutter. Faint spotting around margins of boards. Light marginal foxing to text.
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