"AND APPLEY DAPPLY IS SO FOND OF PIES!"

POTTER, Beatrix. Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes. London and New York: Frederick Warne and Co., [1917]. 12mo, original green paper boards, mounted cover illustration, pictorial endpapers. Housed in a custom half morocco slipcase. $2000.

First edition of Potter's original nursery rhymes for children, with title vignette and 15 color plates.

"Beatrix Potter had always been interested in traditional rhymes,… but the majority of the Appley Dapply rhymes were of her own composition… One or two of them are delicious" (Linder, 225, 228). Potter began work on Appley Dapply as early as 1902, but continually put the project aside in favor of other opportunities. In June 1917, however, when Warne asked Potter for a new story, she replied, "Would it be too shabby to put Appley Dapply into a booklet the size of Miss Moppet? I find I could scrape together sufficient old drawings to fill one… Some of them [are] better than any I could do now." It appeared in October. Stamped in variant red ink; no priority. Without scarce dust jacket. Quinby 23. Early ink owner gift inscription.

A lovely copy in about-fine condition.