{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1257498"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1257498/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML2885/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML2885/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020ML2885","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JE6342","copyright":"© Frederick Warne & Co.","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2019MC9522","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1257498","accessionNumber":"BP.473(B)","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Gentleman mouse bowing beside a teacup","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is one of the world's best-loved children's authors and illustrators.   She wrote  the majority of the   twenty-three Original Peter Rabbit Books between 1901 and 1913.  The Tale of Peter   Rabbit  (Frederick Warne, 1902) is her   most famous and best-loved tale.\r\n\r\nThe Tailor of Gloucester  was Beatrix's favourite of her little books and the second to be privately printed prior to publication by   Frederick Warne & Co. in 1903.  Many of Beatrix Potter’s stories begin ‘Once upon a time…’.  The Tailor  of Gloucester  is   unusual in that the story takes place at a specific period – ‘the time of swords and periwigs’ – between  about 1735 and 1785.    Beatrix went to extraordinary lengths to create an authentic setting. Passing a tailor’s shop in Chelsea one day, she   deliberately tore a button off her coat and took it in to be mended so she could observe at first hand the tailor’s posture, tools  and workbench.  She sought inspiration for the costumes in 18th-century clothes owned by her local museum, the Victoria  and Albert Museum (then known as the South Kensington Museum). In March 1903 she wrote to her publisher, Norman  Warne: ‘I had been looking at them for a long time in an inconvenient dark corner of the Goldsmith’s   Court, but had no idea  they could be taken out of the case.  The clerk says I could have any article put on a table in one of the   offices, which will be  most convenient.’  Her sketches of the Museum's costumes are so accurate that it is possible to identify the original  garments, including the mayor’s waistcoat, ‘worked with poppies and corn-flowers’.\r\n\r\nThis is a variant for the illustration that appears on p. 25 of the 2002 edition of book, 'Out stepped a little gentleman mouse, and made a bow to the tailor!'","physicalDescription":"Mouse dressed in eighteenth century dress curtseys in front of a bone china tea-cup.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"A18000"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28674"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour and pencil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Books","id":"THES48986"},{"text":"Illustration","id":"THES48938"},{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Clothing","id":"THES48975"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Animals and Wildlife","id":"THES250852"},{"text":"Anthropomorphism","id":"THES252998"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2020ML2885","2016JE6342","2019MC9522"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"SK Temp 8","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1903","earliest":"1903-01-01","latest":"1903-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"LOAN:LINDER TRUST.207-1994","id":"O1257500"},"association":"Study for"},{"object":{"text":"BP.473A","id":"O1257494"},"association":"Pair"}],"creditLine":"Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number]","dimensions":[],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Drawn by Beatrix Potter, probably in 1903. Note in published catalogue entry states, 'Dr Renshaw exchanged them with Nurse Edwards for an oil painting'.  Acquired by the V&A from Leslie Linder (1904- 1973) in 1973 as  part of the Linder Bequest, a collection of ca. 2150 watercolours, drawings, literary  manuscripts,  correspondence, books, photographs, and other memorabilia associated with Beatrix Potter  and her family.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Watercolour and pencil drawing of a gentleman mouse bowing beside a teacup; variant illustration for The Tailor of Gloucester; drawn by Beatrix Potter, probably in 1903;  Linder Bequest catalogue no:  LB.794","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"'Hobbs and Whalley, Beatrix Potter : the V&A Collection, London, 1985'","id":"AUTH315806"},"details":"Brief catalogue entry, p. 86","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"mouse","id":"x35692"},{"text":"teacup","id":"AAT43226"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["The Tailor of Gloucester"],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["BP.473(B)"],"accessionNumberNum":"473","accessionNumberPrefix":"BP","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Linder Bequest catalogue no.","id":"THES57120"},"number":"LB.794"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-13","recordCreationDate":"2012-11-21","availableToBook":false}}