{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1390675"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1390675/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML1254/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2020ML1254/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2020ML1254","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London / courtesy of Frederick Warne & Co. ","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX2495","copyright":"© Frederick Warne & Co.","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1390675","accessionNumber":"BP.401(B)","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Five beetles","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\nFrom early childhood Beatrix Potter spent time drawing the many pets that she kept in her schoolroom: over the years, her pets included lizards, snails, bats, mice, rabbits and many other animals. During the family’s long summer holidays to rural areas she also took the opportunity to draw the plants and animals she saw in the countryside. Even her earliest childhood drawings show a serious interest in natural history, her sketches annotated with information about the species concerned. \r\n\r\nAs a young woman Beatrix Potter studied natural history with some seriousness, exploring the collections of the Natural History Museum, including the insect cases and fungi specimens. She had a collector’s cabinet full of specimens, from shells to dead butterflies and moths, and used a magnifying glass and a microscope to examine them more closely. She made numerous carefully observed studies of animals and plants from life. \r\n\r\nThis sheet, which includes studies of five different beetles, may date to 1884 or 1886, when Potter made two visits to Gorse Hall, Stalybridge in Cheshire, the home of her maternal grandparents – it is completed on ‘Gorse Hall’ headed letter paper. The beetles have been identified as: burying beetle; dor beetle; Prionus coriarius (a species of longhorn beetle); oil beetle; Pterostichus (ground beetle). \r\n","physicalDescription":"Watercolour study showing five beetles, on writing paper headed: Gorse Hall, Staley Bridge. ","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Beatrix Potter","id":"A18000"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"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":"Tourism & Travel","id":"THES250702"},{"text":"Animals and Wildlife","id":"THES250852"},{"text":"Watercolours","id":"THES277714"},{"text":"Woman Artist","id":"THES387590"},{"text":"Science","id":"THES48898"}],"styles":[{"text":"British","id":"AAT111159"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2020ML1254","2017JX2495"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLE","id":"THES49657"},"free":"","case":"SK Temp 9b","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour (painting)","id":"AAT78925"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1884 - ca.1886","earliest":"1879-01-01","latest":"1890-12-31"},"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":"175","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"110","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Drawn by Beatrix Potter, possibly at Gorse Hall, Stalybridge in 1884 or 1886. 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":"Study of five beetles by Beatrix Potter, ca. 1884-1886; Linder Bequest cat. no. LB.310","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. 34; no. 310","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. 34; no. 310"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"natural history","id":"AAT251095"},{"text":"insects","id":"x30217"},{"text":"beetles","id":"AAT24198"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["BP.401(B)"],"accessionNumberNum":"401","accessionNumberPrefix":"BP","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"Linder Bequest catalogue no.","id":"THES57120"},"number":"LB.310"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-02-09","recordCreationDate":"2017-05-03","availableToBook":false}}