London: Privately printed, 1902. First edition. One of 500 copies privately printed for the author, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in black ink: “For Elizabeth Tyson with kind regards from Beatrix Potter. Sept 6. 1933,” together with an annotation on front pastedown, “1st edition, privately printed Dec 1901,” in Potter's hand. A Very Good copy. Sextodecimo. Color frontispiece and fifteen color plates by the author. Original pink paper boards with printed title and vignette. Binding very slightly soiled, small bump to top edge of rear board, browning to endpapers. Boards a bit rubbed and bumped with some minor soiling and toning. Minor foxing to preliminaries, otherwise very fresh and clean.

This, the original appearance of the book, appeared a year before Warne’s trade edition. It was issued in the same month, and in a similar format to the second privately-printed Peter Rabbit. The printed dedication in The Tailor of Gloucester is dated Christmas 1901, and the title-page gives the date of publication as December 1902. Linder notes that “by the middle of December [1902] the edition of 500 copies was ready." Potter’s father’s copy is dated December 18, 1902, and Norman Warne was sent his copy on December 17. Thirty years later, Potter evidently couldn’t remember the correct year of publication, and annotated this copy with a note incorrectly citing a date of December 1901.

The text of this edition is considerably longer than that of the first trade edition and the cover incorporates a vignette illustration that was not used again. The Tailor of Gloucester was first written and illustrated for Freda Moore as a Christmas present in 1901. Potter had the tale privately printed, as Warne had not yet published The Tale of Peter Rabbit and she did not think her publishers would want a second book from her so soon.

The story is unique in the series with its period setting (Potter drew the costumes from the collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, then the South Kensington Museum), and was based on a true story that Potter had heard while staying with her cousin Caroline Hutton in Gloucestershire: an elaborate waistcoat had been commissioned for a grand mayoral occasion, but the tailor lacked the time to complete it and needed another packet of cherry-coloured silk – though more prosaically, it was his two assistants who had secretly finished the work. In 1916 Potter inscribed a copy of the Warne edition stating “this is my own favourite amongst my little books.” Linder notes, however, that “the privately printed edition... was the one she liked better.” The author inscribed a copy of the privately printed edition in 1918 with the note, “this is my favourite amongst the little books and I like this first edition because it contains more of the old rhymes...”

Elizabeth Tyson (1878 - 1970) ran an antiques shop in Ambleside that supplied pottery, furniture and other items to Beatrix Potter for her home at Hill Top in Sawrey. This volume was presented to Tyson at the beginning of her dealings with Potter. The relationship continued until Potter’s death in 1943. Very Good + (Item #7968)