Last year marked 150 years since his birth and inspired a series of events, but in 2017 an auctioneer based on the doorstep of Potter’s beloved Lake District offers an interesting handwritten letter from Beatrix Heelis, as she became after getting married at the age of 47. It goes on sale at 1818 Auctioneers on February 6.
Heelis wrote to Kendal Mayor Henry Airey on August 30, 1937, on thin tissue paper. She begins by saying “you may remember my name” and goes on to congratulate him on a speech he gave a year earlier to celebrate the town’s success in obtaining Catherine’s little prayer book. Parr, sixth and last wife of Henry VIII.
The mayor had campaigned to raise money to buy this because of an important connection to Kendal: Parr’s father, Sir Thomas Parr (c.1483-1517) was an English knight, courtier and lord of the manor of Kendal in Westmorland.
However, the main reason for the letter is, she says, to reassure him of his plans for a loom she bought that day: Kendal’s latest loom. She writes “I won’t take a relic from Kendal without telling you” and that she won’t go to the “Kendal Museum, a dreary jumble of stuffed birds and miscellaneous items…” but perhaps to “Coniston at the workshop” of the estate. .”.
She ends her letter by saying that they are both “sentimental antique dealers”.
This letter, a copy of the prayer book and photographs of the ceremony are sold by Airey’s great-grandson. The copy of the Bible was presented to Airey at the ceremony by renowned writer Hugh Walpole – who also signed it with Margaret Strickland of Sizergh Castle.
1818 Auctioneers appraiser David Brookes valued the collection at around £1,500. Last October 1818 sold another Potter letter, signed and dated November 27, 1929, for a low estimate of £1500.
Written to Miss Roberts from H Roberts Booksellers of Kendal by Beatrix Heelis this described her reasons for not publishing The Fairies’ Caravan delivers to UK.
Brookes says of Potter’s latest offer: “The double-sided letter is a delight to read. He is witty and reinforces his passion and commitment to preserving local skills and traditions. Given the mayor’s successful efforts to obtain the queen’s devotional book, we can understand why she wanted to reassure him of his motives regarding Kendal’s last loom.
Tribute to the potter
Last year the Royal Mint issued a series of 50 pence coins featuring characters from its books to mark the 150and anniversary.
A December 13 Sotheby’s sale featured one of the first color drawings of rabbits produced by Beatrix Potter, depicting cycling rabbits believed to be prototypes of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter. It sold for the hammer price of £16,000. Signed and dated 1895 in the lower right corner, it was sent to sisters Elinor and Elizabeth Lupton, whose great-aunt was Potter’s grandmother.
In the auction world, a December 13 sale featured one of Potter’s first full-color drawings of rabbits, depicting cycling rabbits believed to be prototypes of Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. It sold for a hammer price of £16,000 at Sotheby’s.
Signed and dated 1895 in the lower right corner, it was sent to sisters Elinor and Elizabeth Lupton, whose great-aunt was Potter’s grandmother.
The 1895 date is significant, as it was only about 15 months earlier that Potter had sent a letter to Noel Moore in which she told a story about four little rabbits with names that were to become familiar to millions. people later.