This collection of rarely seen editions of Beatrix Potter’s much loved debut, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, features exquisite facsimiles from the archive of her publisher Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., charting the transformation from Peter’s initial appearance in a picture letter, to the glorious full-colour deluxe first commercial edition.

Collectors can follow the emergence of the miniature masterpiece from the seeds of the story in a now famous picture letter written to entertain a sick child, through Beatrix Potter’s privately printed edition with its distinctive line drawings, to the mock-up book – or maquette – handwritten in Potter’s beautiful script showing exactly how she wished the words and pictures to appear. With the full-colour commercial deluxe version first produced in 1902, the transformation is complete.