{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1364964"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1364964/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT8273/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020MT8273/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020MT8273","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2016JJ3448","copyright":"© Frederick Warne & Co.","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1364964","accessionNumber":"BP.634(8)","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Three little Mice sat down to spin","type":""}],"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\nA number of Beatrix Potter’s narrative sequences of drawings were inspired by nursery rhymes. She explored the rhyme ‘Three little mice sat down to spin’ in around 1892, envisaging an illustrated booklet, possibly in a concertina format. She made detailed pen and ink studies and six finished watercolours: one for each line of the nursery rhyme (she omitted the last two lines of the usually eight-line rhyme). Potter also made a title-page and six decorated text pages. However, although the booklet reached this advanced stage of preparation it was never published. The fourth design, however, ‘Making coats for Gentlemen’, was adapted for her later book, The Tailor of Gloucester (1903). \r\n\r\nThe nursery rhyme, as she used it, reads:\r\n\r\nThree little Mice sat down to spin\r\nPussy passed by, and she peeped in\r\n‘What are you at, my fine little Men?’\r\n‘Making coats for Gentlemen’\r\n‘Shall I come in, and cut off your threads?’\r\n‘Oh no! Miss Pussy, you’d bite off our heads’\r\n\r\nThis finished watercolour illustrates the first line of the rhyme, ‘Three little Mice sat down to spin.’ For a related pen and ink study, see museum number BP.634(2).\r\n","physicalDescription":"Watercolour and pen and ink drawing showing three mice in an interior, spinning. The mice sit in bent-wood chairs (identified as Gebrüder Thonet make) and work at their spinning wheels in a low panelled room with a loom and recessed window.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"A18000"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"paper (fiber product)","id":"AAT14109"},{"text":"watercolour (paint)","id":"AAT15045"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour painting (technique)","id":"THES250889"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"watercolour and pen and ink on paper","categories":[{"text":"Illustration","id":"THES48938"},{"text":"Animals and Wildlife","id":"THES250852"},{"text":"Anthropomorphism","id":"THES252998"},{"text":"Children & Childhood","id":"THES48980"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Tools & Equipment","id":"THES48883"},{"text":"Textiles","id":"THES48885"},{"text":"Interiors","id":"THES48933"},{"text":"Furniture","id":"THES48948"},{"text":"Woodwork","id":"THES48877"},{"text":"Handicrafts","id":"THES260704"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"}],"styles":[{"text":"British","id":"AAT111159"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2020MT8273","2016JJ3448"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"012","id":"THES318143"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1892","earliest":"1887-01-01","latest":"1896-12-31"},"association":{"text":"drawn","id":"x30545"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Linder Bequest [plus object number; written on labels on the same line as the object number]","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"98","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"138","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"'HBP.'","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Inscribed in pencil by the artist, lower right. "}],"objectHistory":"Drawn by Beatrix Potter, ca. 1892. 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 showing three mice spinning, illustrating the rhyme 'Three little mice sat down to spin', drawn by Beatrix Potter, ca.1892; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.1066","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. <u>Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection : the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material : watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia.</u> London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985.","id":"AUTH315806"},"details":"p.121; no.1066","free":"Hobbs, Anne Stevenson, and Joyce Irene Whalley, eds. Beatrix Potter: the V & A collection: the Leslie Linder bequest of Beatrix Potter material: watercolours, drawings, manuscripts, books, photographs and memorabilia. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985. p.121; no.1066"},{"reference":{"text":"Taylor, Judy, Joyce Irene Whalley, Anne Stevenson Hobbs, Elizabeth M Battrick. Beatrix Potter 1866-1943: the Artist and Her World. 1987. London: Frederick Warne & Co.","id":"AUTH335742"},"details":"pp.55-6 (discussion of the series of drawings)","free":"Taylor, Judy, Joyce Irene Whalley, Anne Stevenson Hobbs, Elizabeth M Battrick. Beatrix Potter 1866-1943: the Artist and Her World. 1987. London: Frederick Warne & Co. pp.55-6 (discussion of the series of drawings)"},{"reference":{"text":"Beatrix Potter: artist & illustrator Frederick Warne & Co Ltd, 2005","id":"AUTH335587"},"details":"pp.92-3 (reproduced)","free":"Anne Stevenson Hobbs, Beatrix Potter: artist & illustrator, Frederick Warne & Co Ltd, 2005, pp.92-3 (discussion of the series of drawings)"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"nursery rhymes","id":"AAT202593"},{"text":"illustrations","id":"AAT15578"},{"text":"animals","id":"x30274"},{"text":"anthropomorphism","id":"AAT55956"},{"text":"mice","id":"AAT168291"},{"text":"mouse","id":"x35692"},{"text":"spinning","id":"AAT53661"},{"text":"spinning-wheel","id":"THES405842"},{"text":"interiors","id":"x31073"},{"text":"windows","id":"AAT2944"},{"text":"interior views","id":"AAT124520"},{"text":"wainscoting","id":"AAT2691"},{"text":"loom","id":"AAT247546"},{"text":"chairs","id":"AAT37772"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["BP.634(8)"],"accessionNumberNum":"634","accessionNumberPrefix":"BP","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Linder Bequest catalogue no.","id":"THES57120"},"number":"LB.1066"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2016-09-02","availableToBook":true}}