In November 2004 the Cotsen Children's Library at Princeton University became the home of Mr. Lloyd Cotsen's extensive collection of Beatrix Potter manuscripts, original art, photographs, and related ephemera. To mark the occasion of this very special gift, the Cotsen Occasional Press produced this lavish, oversized catalogue full of illustrations and photographs of the diverse items in the collection.
Part I of the Catalogue is divided into separate sections covering original artwork, manuscripts, printed ephemera, photographs, books, and commercial merchandise (such as the unique Jemima Puddleduck doll pictured below). Each item in the collection is described in detail, and many of the items are pictured as well.
Part II includes complete facsimile reproductions of the thirty picture letters included in the collection that Potter wrote to some of her many young friends. The volume also contains an Introduction that provides a brief overview of the Potter collection's place in the larger whole of the Cotsen Children's Library, and offers readers a brief-but remarkably informative and detailed-account of Beatrix Potter's life and work The volume is concluded with a bibliography, a list of illustrations, and a detailed index.
The Beatrix Potter Collection of Lloyd Cotsen was published in an extremely limited edition of 500 copies.