"TIDDLY, WIDDLY, WIDDLY, MRS. TITTLEMOUSE!"

POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse. London and New York: Frederick Warne, 1910. 16mo, original blue paper boards, mounted cover illustration, pictorial endpapers. $1850.

First edition of this scarce Potter title, with color frontispiece and 26 color plates.

This book is one of Potter's "comedies of manners… [and] the most subtle" of them (Carpenter, 148-49). "Potter found delight in drawing the various intruders in Mrs. Tittlemouse's house… Long ago she had studied the habits and characteristics of these small creatures, and had painted many pictures of them—including microscopic studies showing the beautiful colored scales of butterflies' wings and the highly magnified anatomy of spiders and beetles" (Linder, 205). "The year 1910 appears on the front of the title page of the first two printings, which are believed to be identical" (Linder, 429). Without scarce original glassine dust jacket. Quinby 18. Contemporary owner signature.

Only mild toning to spine. A very nearly fine copy.