December 2019 Auction Ends Thursday, December 12th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/12/2019
Beatrix Potter autograph letter signed, datelined Hill Top Farm on 30 August 1907, shortly after she bought the farm in 1905. Very content with agricultural life, Potter wrote some of her most cherished works while at Hill Top, while also running the working farm, details of which she shares here, including the killing of lambs. Potter writes to Millie Warne, the sister of Potter's fiance and publisher Norman Warne, who died two years prior. Letter reads in full,
''My dear Millie, There was so much rain yesterday it has broken up the roses. I can only find two or three buds worth sending - and it is not worth while for you to take them to Highgate. Will you put the southernwood in water and keep it till the next time you go there? It is what the village people call Lad's Love.
It is such a glorious autumn day - thick white [?] frost on the grass this morning. I am going back tomorrow I only came up a day or two, I thought I might as well travel so far with my cousin, it took me 4 hours!
I think my next going away is to Wales, very possibly next Saturday; I wish I could come to London & to stay with you. I will be sure & write to ask if you could take me in, & if you could not I could stay with Miss Hammond, it rather depends on how long my parents stay at Keswick, whether I come up to London before the general going home.
If it got near the time of going home it would seem a long way to come up & then back to Keswick to help them to pack up. One of the cows is giving over 16 quarts of milk in a day, but I suppose that doesn't compare well with the Jerseys? Ask Mrs. Warne. There is a show at Hawkshead on Tuesday, Mrs. Cannon is going to show butter (in 3 exhibits) & a loaf of bread. Also the colley, but he hasn't a chance, his head is wrong shape.
I have been photographing this morning - photographing the lambs before they depart. Oh shocking! It does not do to be sentimental on a farm, I am going to have some lambskin hearthrugs. I hope you will get a maid as good as Lydia. / Yours aff. Beatrix Potter''. Four page letter on bifolium, card-style stationery measures 4'' x 6.25'' as folded. Fold, and mild toning and wear. Very good plus condition.
Beatrix Potter 1907 Autograph Letter Signed as ''Beatrix Potter'' -- ''...I have been photographing...the lambs before they depart. Oh shocking! It does not do to be sentimental on a farm...''
Click above for larger image.