POTTER, Helen Beatrix. Autograph letter, signed, to Elizabet...

Estimate

£1,000 - £1,500

POTTER, Helen Beatrix. Autograph letter, signed, to Elizabeth Tyson. Castle Cottage, Sawrey, October 16, 1943. Unpublished and unrecorded.

Bifolium, separated, 18 x 11cm, partial watermark, 4 pages, creased where folded, generally clean

A lengthy letter discussing a forthcoming auction sale and her collecting with a local antique dealer written two months before her death

"I have been reading in the Gazette advert. of furniture etc of Revd Dawson of Troutbeck. I wonder if you are likely to go to the sale at Bowness? Perhaps like me the weather may have been too much for you - I had a hanging-on cold in August and bronchitis in September. I am getting on rather slowly - I go out in the Sun... I did not know that Dawsons had old furniture [two lines crossed out] my man's wife - Mrs Storey* says they had old furniture [and] some land which was sold when old Col Dawson died. I notice there are two longcase clocks. I have always wanted to get one with local connections for Troutbeck Park farm house. I'm afraid the Barber requires daily winding as the other is specified to be 7 days and I have one Barber, in another house; and there is unfortunately no panelling at the Park so a nice clock by another local maker in a-case would not come amiss. I don't understand "carved oak" it makes one think of the horrid carving that is sometimes added by well meaning people like Clara Brown's father. Whatever is the refectory table? The Franks have some fine oak; I don't know about Revd Dawson. Perhaps it's not worth bothering about. It could have been possible to get it away. B Dixon* goes to Kendal Fridays and could bring to Sawrey. I always regret a clock that belonged to Mrs Braithwaite* the old fashioned couple that kept the ironmonger's shop near Windermere station. It was a clumsy ugly case, but there was Eve offered [sic] the apple to Adam every time the pendulum swung. I did not go to their sale - I forgot who was ill - perhaps it was my mother - I think it sold for about £17. There is a moving clock on the same principle in a farm house at Hawkshead, a ship that rocks with the pendulum.
I have not bought any thing for a long time, a friend bought me a nice Delph [Delft] plate the other day, which I stare at opposite my bed and several of yours also hang up. It hardly seems right to spend on one's self in war time.
Do you remember your brother found a Kipling mss inside a book at Belmount Hall. I sent 2 letters about him which Miss Owen* had received & kept - written by her from Georgiana Craik*. I gave them to the Bodleian Library at Oxford and I had a very appreciative letter from the librarian. What a season it has been for rain! We are very lucky to snatch the corn between times. Apples etc a complete failure. I am quite comfortable and cheerful - I have had many worse coughs but unless dry weather keeps away it strikes me. I may spend a good deal of this winter indoors. I have stopped upstairs today on acct. of the east wind. Hope you & Florrie keep well?" [with postscript] "I think I should like to buy that table if it is oak. By what Storey tells me, Sunday morning, the Dawsons had old furniture; if not one of the original ancient families they would be in Troutbeck where local furniture was despised. I think and hope that the Browne house & contents will be preserved intact. As for the Barber clock think a 7 day painted face would be appropriate for as well as ornament in the Arm House. I will perhaps ring you up - I go down stairs"

*Freda Storey (1920-1971) Wife of Tom Storey (1896-1986) Beatrix Potter's Farm Manager and Head Shepherd
*Bruce Arthur Dixon (1883-1965) General Carrier of Far Sawrey
*Joseph Braithwaite (1853-1934) and Mary Ann Braithwaite (1855-1932) of Church Street, Windermere, Ironmonger and 'Ironmonger's Assistant'
*Miss Rebekah Owen (1858-1939) a wealthy and eccentric collector with literary interests who bought Belmount Hall, Hawkshead
*Georgiana Marion Craik (1831-1895) Novelist and friend of Rudyard Kipling

Provenance: Elizabeth Tyson (1878-1970) thence by descent in her extended family to the present vendor