POTTER, Beatrix — Tale of Mr. Tod, the

London: Frederick Warne and Co. 1912. First Edition of "The Tale of Mr. Tod" POTTER, Beatrix. The Tale of Mr. Tod. London: Frederick Warne and Co. 1912. First edition. Twelvemo (5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches; 137 x 105 mm.). 93, [1] pp. Color frontispiece and fourteen color plates (included in pagination). Black and white vignette on title-page and forty-one black and white vignettes in the text. Publisher's gray boards decoratively stamped and lettered in dark green on front cover within a dark green single rule border and decoratively stamped and lettered in dark green on spine. Large color pictorial label on front cover within a blind rectangular panel surrounded by a broad dark green single rule border. Color pictorial endpapers (Quinby Plate XI). Minimal darkening to spine, otherwise a fine copy. "The year 1912 appears on the front of the title-page of the first two printings, which are believed to be identical." (Linder). "Unlike Beatrix Potter's earlier books, the principal characters are villains!" Linder, A History of the Writings, p.210. A fine copy of the author's first book to be so well illustrated with pen & ink drawings, largely due to a loss of enthusiasm for making so many colour plates on her part. As a result Warne decided to create a wholly new series, 'The Peter Rabbit Books, Series II, New Style', with a new style of binding, which ran to two titles (the second being Pigling Bland), after which the books' format reverted to that of the others. Linder, p. 429; Quinby 21; V & A 1605. .