THE STORY OF A FIERCE BAD RABBIT

First edition, second issue (with "New York & London" on the rear cover). Publisher's original green cloth wallet with pictorial paper onlay, titles and decoration in dark blue, enclosing concertina-style folding plates featuring 14 colour illustrations by the author. A better than very good copy, the binding firm with a little rubbing to the extremities, the tab, heightened in silver, is still present and firm. The contents, with light crease to the far edge of the first fold (not affecting illustration) are otherwise clean and bright and sound throughout. An excellent example, in entirely original condition of this fragile Beatrix Potter first edition.

Frederick Warne, in 1906 produced two books by Beatrix Potter in this panoramic form: The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit and The Story of Miss Moppet. The fragile nature of the binding meant that the books were easily damaged on inspection by potential purchasers, the result being (by the author's account) "the shops sensibly refused to stock them because they got unrolled and so bad to fold up again" (Linder). The panoramic design was discontinued and in 1916 the book re-issued in the uniform format of the rest of the series. (Leslie Linder: A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter, pp. 183 and 426).