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POTTER (BEATRIX) 'Wetting the Yarn', FINE ORIGINAL INK, PENCIL AND WATERCOLOUR DRAWING of a mouse at a spinning wheel, [1890s] image 1

POTTER (BEATRIX) 'Wetting the Yarn', FINE ORIGINAL INK, PENCIL AND WATERCOLOUR DRAWING of a mouse at a spinning wheel, [1890s] image 2

Lot 80

POTTER (BEATRIX)
'Wetting the Yarn', FINE ORIGINAL INK, PENCIL AND WATERCOLOUR DRAWING of a mouse at a spinning wheel, [1890s]

Withdrawn

Amended

20 November 2024, 13:00 GMT

London, Knightsbridge

£15,000 - £20,000

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POTTER (BEATRIX)

'Wetting the Yarn', FINE ORIGINAL INK, PENCIL AND WATERCOLOUR DRAWING of a mouse at a spinning wheel, on paper, signed with initials ("HBP"), the reverse with a pen & ink vignette of a tape measure and tailor's scissors, inscribed by Potter "Wetting the Yarn", diamond-shaped card window mount and frame, oval image 141 x 930mm., mount 255 x 205mm., [1890s]

Footnotes

'WETTING THE YARN' - A CHARMING BEATRIX POTTER WATERCOLOUR WITH AN AUTOGRAPH INSCRIPTION & VIGNETTE ON THE REVERSE. An early example of Potter's interest in mice as a subject, most famously illustrated in her book Two Bad Mice, and in particular mice spinning, as featured in The Tailor of of Gloucester. Our work probably relates to a concertina format booklet that Potter worked on in about 1892, for which the subject was the nursery rhyme 'Three little mice sat down to spin'.

"Three little Mice sat down to spin
Pussy passed by, and she peeped in
'What are you at, my fine little Men?'
'Making coats for Gentlemen'
'Shall I come in, and cut off your threads?'
'Oh no! Miss Pussy, you'd bite off our heads'"

She produced several pen and ink studies and several finished watercolours based on these lines, but the intended project never came to completion. Sketches and drawings for this unpublished work are held in the Victoria and Albert Museum (cf. Stevenson Hobbs, pp.92-93), and a very similar drawing to the present example, dated 1890, sold at auction in 2008 (Sotheby's, 17 December 2008, lot 192).

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