The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle: The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
eBook
(LSP Digital Books Publishing, July 20, 2014)
• All original illustrations remastered and digitally enhanced.Once upon a time there was a little girl called Lucie, who lived at a farm called Little-town. She was a good little girl — only she was always losing her pocket-handkerchiefs. After asking a kitten and a chicken about her things, she decides to investigate further away from home...As a young woman, Beatrix Potter had a nice Scottish washerwoman, Kitty MacDonald, who later became the inspiration for the character of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Since Kitty was not a hedgehog, Beatrix Potter used Mrs. Tiggy, her own pet hedgehog, as a model for her drawings, with the aid of a dummy dressed up like the character and who used to terrify her pet rabbit. Together, Kitty MacDonald and Mrs. Tiggy make the lovely Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, a hedgehog washerwoman who lives in a little cottage in the fells of the Lake District, where Beatrix Potter by the time she wrote this book already had a house of her own. As for Lucie, her model was Lucy Carr, daughter of the vicar of Newlands Church, Beatrix Potter's friend. One of the characters of "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle" was Peter Rabbit, an old acquaintance of most children from previous Beatrix Potter's books. His mother, like many other characters from the tales of Beatrix Potter, was a client of the nice washerwoman. In this lovely book we also meet Benjamin Bunny, Peter Rabbit mischievous cousin and the hero of a book of his own (The Tales of Beatrix Potter, 4), as well as other popular characters from other tales."The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle" was written mostly for little girls, and that is the reason why most of the story takes place indoors and has to do with household chores. It is also the first book by Beatrix Potter whose main characters are not exclusively animals.Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle was always one of Beatrix Potter's most popular characters and one of those whose commercial possibilities were first exploited by Frederik Warne & Co. In 1948, the little hedgehog was one of the ten porcelain figurines produced by Beswick Pottery. Although Beswick kept this line of products for a long time, today the first set is still the most collectable. Toy manufacturers were also interested in Beatrix Potter's characters from the beginning. Although the author had a keen commercial sense, she was also highly demanding and never granted her license to any manufacturer. It was only long after her death that her publisher granted a license to produce plush toys inspired in her characters. House of Nesbit produced several plush toys, among them the nice Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Unfortunately they were so detailed and they took so long to make that they never gave a profit and the project had to be abandoned. Today there are several other toys inspired by this and other figures, some of them marketed by the original publishing house, now an imprint of Penguin books."The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle" was first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1905.