Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes

London: Frederick Warne & Co., 1917. First American Edition of “Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes,”
In the Original Printed Glassine Dust Jacket

POTTER, Beatrix. Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes. New York: Frederick Warne & Co., [n.d., 1917].

First American edition (printed in either October or November 1917). Twelvemo (4 13/16 x 4 1/8 inches; 123 x 105 mm.). 52, [1], [1, blank] pp. Color frontispiece and fourteen color plates (included in pagination). Black and white vignette on title-page.

Publisher's light green boards ruled and lettered in dark blue on front cover and lettered in dark blue on spine. Color pictorial (truncated) label on front cover within a blind rectangular panel with rounded corners, outlined in blind. With the correct color pictorial endpapers (Quinby Plates XIIa and XIV). A near fine copy in the original plain glassine dust jacket (lightly chipped at edges).

“There is no year on the title-page. It is believed that a first edition can be identified only if inscribed as a ‘first’, or with an inscription dated 1917. (Correct end-papers would indicate a 1917 printing” (Linder).

The book was originally planned at the time Peter Rabbit was published, developing on Beatrix Potter's interest in traditional nursery rhymes combined with her enjoyment of the illustrations of Walter Crane and Randolph Caldecott.

Linder, p. 430; Quinby 23b; V & A 1532. (Inventory #: 06112)