Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes
Encyclopedia
Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes is a collection of nursery rhymes written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter
, and published by Frederick Warne & Co
. in October 1917. Potter had a lifelong fascination with rhymes, and proposed a book of short verses called Appley Dapply to Warne following the release of The Tale of Peter Rabbit
in 1902. Warne preferred Potter's original fantasies to her derivative work, and gave Appley Dapply little encouragement. The book was set aside in favour of other projects.
In 1917 Frederick Warne & Co. suffered a scandal, and asked Potter for a book in an effort to stave off the firm's complete ruin. Potter was unwilling to become involved in the intense labour of preparing an entirely new book, and suggested the publisher raid the Appley Dapply dummy book prepared a decade and a half earlier. Seven rhymes with their accompanying illustrations were chosen and published as Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes. The book sold well.
Modern critics consider Appley Dapply an uneven compilation of illustrations spanning decades and styles across Potter's career and suggest that it fails as a unified work. The rhymes of Potter's composition are critically considered not particularly memorable, and one critic has described the book as "the last squeezings of an almost dry sponge."
's 1899 bestseller Little Black Sambo
, and privately published her work in December 1901 after a series of publishers' rejections. Frederick Warne & Co
. had rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the burgeoning and lucrative small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the endorsement of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke
. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations for the trade edition, and chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours. On 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
was released.
Potter continued to publish for Warne (usually two books per annum) and in 1905 bought Hill Top
, a working farm of 34 acres (13.8 ha) in the Lake District
, with profits from the sales of her books and a small legacy from an aunt. Her small format books thereafter took inspiration from the farm, its natural surroundings, and neaby villages. Her career came to an end in 1913 when marriage to William Heelis, the demands of an aged mother, failing eyesight, and the business of operating Hill Top prevented her from investing any time and attention in book production. She continued to publish sporadically after 1913, but her work lacked the brilliance of her earlier years and depended upon the retrieval of decades-old artwork and concepts rather than artistic growth and expansion.
.
Her interest in rhymes was partly an attraction to the rhythms of older forms of English, and partly to the mysteries and riddles many rhymes presented. Potter took inspiration from childhood favourite Randolph Caldecott
, especially his rhymes that gave prominent place to animals, and, in her 1902 correspondence with her editor Norman Warne
about the publication of Peter Rabbit, indicated she "sometimes thought of trying some of the other rhymes about animals, which [Caldecott] did not do."
Following the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit
in 1902, Potter planned a book of nursery rhymes called Appley Dapply, but Warne preferred her original (rather than her derivative work) and offered only modest encouragement. The project was dear to Potter's heart, and she continued to develop the concept while working on other productions for Warne. Potter planned Appley Dapply as a large format book with page borders and decorations in a style reminiscent of Walter Crane
and Randolph Caldecott, and even considered publishing the book at her own expense if Warne lost what little interest he had in the project. In late 1904 she offered Warne a dummy book of ninety-four pages and thirty rhymes, twenty-one of which Warne approved for future publication. When Warne died suddenly and unexpectedly in August 1905, the book of rhymes was set aside, and Potter turned her attention to other projects.
Early in 1917, Frederick Warne & Co. faced financial ruin after then publisher Harold Warne was convicted of forgery and sentenced to eighteen months of hard labor in a London prison. Potter was the company's greatest creditor and artistic property, and, when asked to do what she could to save the firm, she agreed to provide a book for Christmas: "I hope Appley Dapply will be in time to be useful, and that it will be as good a season as can be had during this war."
She had other interests and concerns at the time, and did not look forward to the intense labour necessary to prepare a book for publication. She suggested instead the company raid the dummy book of 1904 for material and publish their choices in a small format book similar to The Story of Miss Moppet
from 1906. "I'm afraid this sounds very lazy," she wrote Fruing Warne, Harold Warne's brother and then head of the publishing firm, "But you don't know what a scramble I live in; and the old drawings are some of them better than any I could do now."
Fruing grabbed at Potter's proposal. Applely Dapply's Nursery Rhymes was released in October 1917 with a revised edition of Peter Rabbit's Painting Book and the new Tom Kitten's Painting Book. Applely Dapply sold well. Potter was satisfied and wrote Warne in late October, "I am much pleased with A. D., it makes a pretty book." It was reprinted in November 1917, and, by the end of the year, 20,000 copies had been sold. The dummy book would be raided again in 1922 to compile a collection of nursery rhymes called Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
as a companion to Appley Dapply.
The following rhyme tells of Peter Rabbit's sister, Cotton-tail, and her implied courtship by a little black rabbit who leaves a gift of carrots at her door. In The Tale of Mr. Tod
, Cottontail is married to the black rabbit. Like the first rhyme, the little black rabbit rhyme is of three stanzas accompanied by three illustrations.
The third rhyme tells of Old Mr. Pricklepin, a hedgehog, who, elsewhere in Potter is identified as Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's uncle. His shining eyes, his wrinkled paws, and his human shoes emphasize their relationship. The single stanza is accompanied by an illustration Potter believed to be the finest she ever produced.
As early as 1893 Potter illustrated and made a booklet of "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
". There, the Old Woman's children are depicted as scampering mice, and their mother as a mouse whipping her children in a shoe in the background. In Appley Dapply however, the author speculates upon the identity of the old woman in two stanzas, believing she was a mouse. In the first illustration, the mouse and her children tumble from an elaborately beaded turquoise-blue shoe, and, in the illustration accompanying the second stanza, the mouse knits peacefully – presumably while the children are in bed.
The fifth rhyme tells of Diggory Delvet, the first mole in Potter's work. He may have been inspired by the mole in Hans Christian Andersen
's Thumbelina
or possibly Moley in Kenneth Grahame
's The Wind in the Willows
. "Diggory Delvet" and the last rhyme in the book about a guinea pig are two of the few limerick
s written for children by someone other than Edward Lear
.
The sixth rhyme is a single stanza and accompanied by an illustration depicting a pig in a dress sitting in a high-backed chair and peeling potatoes:
The seventh and last rhyme is a limerick about an "amiable guinea-pig" (the first guinea pig in Potter's work) who brushes his hair back like a periwig and dons a blue tie. The verse is accompanied by three illustrations depicting the guinea pig in various stages of coiffing and dressing. Guinea pigs would have their own story told in the tale of Tupenny in Potter's The Fairy Caravan
of 1929.
Ruth K. MacDonald of the New Mexico State University
observes in Beatrix Potter (1986) that Potter recommended to Warne that Appley Dapply be printed in a format similar to Miss Moppet, which had originally been printed in a panorama style but, in 1916, had been reprinted in a format slightly smaller than the other books in the Peter Rabbit collection. Miss Moppet was intended for babies and very young children, and MacDonald believes Potter's suggestion indicated she also intended Appley Dapply for the very young who are satisfied with vignettes and the sorts of simple, isolated incidents nursery rhymes present, rather than longer, more complex plots.
M. Daphne Kutzer of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh
argues in Beatrix Potter; Writing in Code that the charm of Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes lies in the illustrations rather than the text, and that the book (like other nursery rhyme collections) is not a sustained narrative but a series of short verses. Such collections are typically unified in style and design, but Appley Dapply lacks this unity because the illustrations range over a number of years in which Potter's style changed significantly.
The illustrations for the opening verse about Appley Dapply, for example, date from 1891 and reveal an artist with an original vision, technical mastery, and a near obsession with almost photographic realism, but the looser, more fluid illustration for the sixth rhyme about gravy and potatoes (recycled from The Tale of Pigling Bland
of 1913) is less concerned with straight lines, microscopic detail, and photographic realism. The latter illustration displays Potter's development and maturity as an artist and the effect her failing eyesight had on her style.
Potter biographer Judy Taylor argues Appley Dapply is an uneven book and produces the impression of a compilation rather than a unified original work. The Appley Dapply rhyme at the opening of the book is illustrated with framed pictures and evidence suggests the material was intended for a small booklet of its own. Some illustrations are executed in a fluid manner while others are in the style of Potter's early dry-brush technique. The simple nursery rhymes Potter composed capture the rhythm of such verse, but none of the rhymes are especially memorable. Taylor describes the book as "the last squeezings of an almost dry sponge."Taylor 1987, pp. 155-6
In 1947 Frederick Warne & Co. gave Beswick Pottery
of Longton, Staffordshire
rights and licenses to produce the Potter characters in porcelain. Nine figurines based on Appley Dapply were released beginning in 1959: Old Woman in a Shoe; Amiable Guinea Pig; Appley Dapply; Little Black Rabbit; Diggory Diggory Delvet; Old Mister Pricklepin; Old Woman in a Shoe, Knitting; Mrs. "Cottontail" at Lunchtime; another figurine of the Amiable Guinea Pig; and Two Gentelman Rabbits from the frontispiece. All the figurines were retired by 2002.
In 1975 Crummles of Dorset
began producing 1 and 5/8 inch (41.3 mm) diameter enamelled boxes depicting scenes and characters from the Potter tales. Little Black Rabbit and Old Mr. Pricklepin were the only two characters from Appley Dapply released. In 1994 and 1995 Crummles was commissioned to create exclusive works for an American distributor. Little Black Rabbit was produced, and a stamp box depicting scenes from both Appley Dapply and Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
. Crummles closed its doors abruptly in 1995, and only 80 of the planned 150 stamp boxes were produced.
In 1977 Schmid & Co. of Toronto
and Randolph, Massachusetts
was granted licensing rights to Beatrix Potter. In 1978 the firm released an Old Woman in a Shoe music box and in 1981 an Amiable Guinea Pig music box. In the middle 1980s, music boxes featuring Gentleman in the Snow from the frontispiece (playing "Try to Remember"), Appley Dapply, another Old Woman in the Show, and Diggory Delvet were released. In 1984 flat ceramic Christmas ornaments were released depicting Amiable Guinea Pig, Gentleman in the Snow, Old Woman in a Shoe, Old Woman Knitting, Little Black Rabbit, and Diggory Delvet. Schmid became the exclusive importer of Potter figurines from the Italian firm of ANRI. The Potter figurines were sculpted in a synthetic material called Toriart. Gentleman in the Snow and Amiable Guinea Pig were released.
In 1973 The Eden Toy Company of New York was the first American firm to acquire rights to manufacture stuffed Potter characters in plush. Little Black Rabbit was issued in 1976 and Amiable Guinea Pig in 1984. In 1999 C & F Enterprise distributed a Christmas needlepoint pillow depicting the Two Gentlemen Walking in Snow from the frontispiece. Linda Long Original has produced hand-stitched, free-standing figures in fabric of Two Gentlemen in the Snow and Little Black Rabbit.
Beatrix Potter
Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.Born into a privileged Unitarian...
, and published by Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co was a British publishing firm famous for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter. It was founded in 1865 by a bookseller, who gave his own name to the firm.- History :...
. in October 1917. Potter had a lifelong fascination with rhymes, and proposed a book of short verses called Appley Dapply to Warne following the release of The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea...
in 1902. Warne preferred Potter's original fantasies to her derivative work, and gave Appley Dapply little encouragement. The book was set aside in favour of other projects.
In 1917 Frederick Warne & Co. suffered a scandal, and asked Potter for a book in an effort to stave off the firm's complete ruin. Potter was unwilling to become involved in the intense labour of preparing an entirely new book, and suggested the publisher raid the Appley Dapply dummy book prepared a decade and a half earlier. Seven rhymes with their accompanying illustrations were chosen and published as Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes. The book sold well.
Modern critics consider Appley Dapply an uneven compilation of illustrations spanning decades and styles across Potter's career and suggest that it fails as a unified work. The rhymes of Potter's composition are critically considered not particularly memorable, and one critic has described the book as "the last squeezings of an almost dry sponge."
Background
Beatrix Potter's career as a children's author and illustrator was launched in 1900 when she revised a tale written in 1893 about a humanized rabbit, fashioned a dummy book in imitation of Helen BannermanHelen Bannerman
Helen Bannerman was the Scottish author of a number of children's books, the most notable being Little Black Sambo. She was born in Edinburgh and, because women were not admitted as students into British Universities, she sat external examinations set by the University of St. Andrews and attained...
's 1899 bestseller Little Black Sambo
Little Black Sambo
The Story of Little Black Sambo is a children's book written and illustrated by Helen Bannerman, and first published by Grant Richards in October 1899 as one in a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children....
, and privately published her work in December 1901 after a series of publishers' rejections. Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co
Frederick Warne & Co was a British publishing firm famous for children's books, particularly those of Beatrix Potter. It was founded in 1865 by a bookseller, who gave his own name to the firm.- History :...
. had rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the burgeoning and lucrative small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the endorsement of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke
L. Leslie Brooke
Leonard Leslie Brooke was a British artist and writer who was born on 24 September 1862, in Birkenhead, England. His skillful and witty illustrations in Andrew Lang's Nursery Rhyme Book established his reputation as a leading children's book illustrator of pen-and-ink line drawings and watercolors...
. Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations for the trade edition, and chose the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours. On 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea...
was released.
Potter continued to publish for Warne (usually two books per annum) and in 1905 bought Hill Top
Hill Top, Cumbria
Hill Top is a 17th-century house in Near Sawrey near Hawkshead, in the English county of Cumbria. It is an example of Lakeland vernacular architecture with random stone walls and slate roof...
, a working farm of 34 acres (13.8 ha) in the Lake District
Lake District
The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...
, with profits from the sales of her books and a small legacy from an aunt. Her small format books thereafter took inspiration from the farm, its natural surroundings, and neaby villages. Her career came to an end in 1913 when marriage to William Heelis, the demands of an aged mother, failing eyesight, and the business of operating Hill Top prevented her from investing any time and attention in book production. She continued to publish sporadically after 1913, but her work lacked the brilliance of her earlier years and depended upon the retrieval of decades-old artwork and concepts rather than artistic growth and expansion.
Composition and publication
Potter was enthralled with nursery rhymes and enjoyed rewriting traditional rhymes to refer to her animal characters. Her early work was crammed with rhymes, as evidenced in the privately printed edition of The Tailor of GloucesterThe Tailor of Gloucester
The Tailor of Gloucester is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, privately printed by the author in 1902, and published in a trade edition by Frederick Warne & Co. in October 1903...
.
Her interest in rhymes was partly an attraction to the rhythms of older forms of English, and partly to the mysteries and riddles many rhymes presented. Potter took inspiration from childhood favourite Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott
Randolph Caldecott was a British artist and illustrator, born in Chester. The Caldecott Medal was named in his honor. He exercised his art chiefly in book illustrations. His abilities as an artist were promptly and generously recognized by the Royal Academy. Caldecott greatly influenced...
, especially his rhymes that gave prominent place to animals, and, in her 1902 correspondence with her editor Norman Warne
Norman Warne
Norman Dalziel Warne was the third son of publisher Frederick Warne, and joined his father's firm Frederick Warne & Co. as editor. In 1900 the company rejected Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but eventually reconsidered and published the book in October 1902 to great success...
about the publication of Peter Rabbit, indicated she "sometimes thought of trying some of the other rhymes about animals, which [Caldecott] did not do."
Following the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter that follows mischievous and disobedient young Peter Rabbit as he is chased about the garden of Mr. McGregor. He escapes and returns home to his mother who puts him to bed after dosing him with camomile tea...
in 1902, Potter planned a book of nursery rhymes called Appley Dapply, but Warne preferred her original (rather than her derivative work) and offered only modest encouragement. The project was dear to Potter's heart, and she continued to develop the concept while working on other productions for Warne. Potter planned Appley Dapply as a large format book with page borders and decorations in a style reminiscent of Walter Crane
Walter Crane
Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...
and Randolph Caldecott, and even considered publishing the book at her own expense if Warne lost what little interest he had in the project. In late 1904 she offered Warne a dummy book of ninety-four pages and thirty rhymes, twenty-one of which Warne approved for future publication. When Warne died suddenly and unexpectedly in August 1905, the book of rhymes was set aside, and Potter turned her attention to other projects.
Early in 1917, Frederick Warne & Co. faced financial ruin after then publisher Harold Warne was convicted of forgery and sentenced to eighteen months of hard labor in a London prison. Potter was the company's greatest creditor and artistic property, and, when asked to do what she could to save the firm, she agreed to provide a book for Christmas: "I hope Appley Dapply will be in time to be useful, and that it will be as good a season as can be had during this war."
She had other interests and concerns at the time, and did not look forward to the intense labour necessary to prepare a book for publication. She suggested instead the company raid the dummy book of 1904 for material and publish their choices in a small format book similar to The Story of Miss Moppet
The Story of Miss Moppet
The Story of Miss Moppet is a tale about teasing featuring a kitten and a mouse, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was published by Frederick Warne & Co for the 1906 Christmas season. Potter was born in London in 1866, and between 1902 and 1905 published a series of small format...
from 1906. "I'm afraid this sounds very lazy," she wrote Fruing Warne, Harold Warne's brother and then head of the publishing firm, "But you don't know what a scramble I live in; and the old drawings are some of them better than any I could do now."
Fruing grabbed at Potter's proposal. Applely Dapply's Nursery Rhymes was released in October 1917 with a revised edition of Peter Rabbit's Painting Book and the new Tom Kitten's Painting Book. Applely Dapply sold well. Potter was satisfied and wrote Warne in late October, "I am much pleased with A. D., it makes a pretty book." It was reprinted in November 1917, and, by the end of the year, 20,000 copies had been sold. The dummy book would be raided again in 1922 to compile a collection of nursery rhymes called Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in December 1922. The book is a compilation of traditional nursery rhymes such as "Goosey Goosey Gander", "This Little Piggy" and "Three Blind Mice". It was...
as a companion to Appley Dapply.
Summary
The book opens with a three-stanza rhyme about Appley Dapply, a mouse who raids cupboards for treats, and is accompanied with three illustrations, one which depicts a little mouse running away from a cupboard with a tray of pies:- Appley Dapply
- has little sharp eyes,
- And Appley Dapply
- is so fond of pies!
The following rhyme tells of Peter Rabbit's sister, Cotton-tail, and her implied courtship by a little black rabbit who leaves a gift of carrots at her door. In The Tale of Mr. Tod
The Tale of Mr. Tod
The Tale of Mr. Tod is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1912. The tale is about a badger called Tommy Brock and his neighbour Mr. Tod, a fox. Brock kidnaps the children of Benjamin Bunny and his wife Flopsy, and hides them in...
, Cottontail is married to the black rabbit. Like the first rhyme, the little black rabbit rhyme is of three stanzas accompanied by three illustrations.
The third rhyme tells of Old Mr. Pricklepin, a hedgehog, who, elsewhere in Potter is identified as Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's uncle. His shining eyes, his wrinkled paws, and his human shoes emphasize their relationship. The single stanza is accompanied by an illustration Potter believed to be the finest she ever produced.
As early as 1893 Potter illustrated and made a booklet of "There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
"There Was an Old Woman Who Lived In a Shoe" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19132.-Lyrics:The most common version of the rhyme is:There was an old woman who lived in a shoe....
". There, the Old Woman's children are depicted as scampering mice, and their mother as a mouse whipping her children in a shoe in the background. In Appley Dapply however, the author speculates upon the identity of the old woman in two stanzas, believing she was a mouse. In the first illustration, the mouse and her children tumble from an elaborately beaded turquoise-blue shoe, and, in the illustration accompanying the second stanza, the mouse knits peacefully – presumably while the children are in bed.
The fifth rhyme tells of Diggory Delvet, the first mole in Potter's work. He may have been inspired by the mole in Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
's Thumbelina
Thumbelina
"Thumbelina" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Traveling Companion" in the second installment of Fairy Tales Told for Children. "Thumbelina" is about a tiny girl and...
or possibly Moley in Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame was a Scottish writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows , one of the classics of children's literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon; both books were later adapted into Disney films....
's The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animal characters in a pastoral version of England...
. "Diggory Delvet" and the last rhyme in the book about a guinea pig are two of the few limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
s written for children by someone other than Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised.-Biography:...
.
The sixth rhyme is a single stanza and accompanied by an illustration depicting a pig in a dress sitting in a high-backed chair and peeling potatoes:
- Gravy and potaotes
- In a good brown pot —
- Put them in the oven,
- And serve them very hot!
The seventh and last rhyme is a limerick about an "amiable guinea-pig" (the first guinea pig in Potter's work) who brushes his hair back like a periwig and dons a blue tie. The verse is accompanied by three illustrations depicting the guinea pig in various stages of coiffing and dressing. Guinea pigs would have their own story told in the tale of Tupenny in Potter's The Fairy Caravan
The Fairy Caravan
The Fairy Caravan is a book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was first published in 1929. The story follows the adventures of Tuppenny, a young guinea pig who runs away from home to join a travelling circus....
of 1929.
Ruth K. MacDonald of the New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University at Las Cruces , is a major land-grant university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States...
observes in Beatrix Potter (1986) that Potter recommended to Warne that Appley Dapply be printed in a format similar to Miss Moppet, which had originally been printed in a panorama style but, in 1916, had been reprinted in a format slightly smaller than the other books in the Peter Rabbit collection. Miss Moppet was intended for babies and very young children, and MacDonald believes Potter's suggestion indicated she also intended Appley Dapply for the very young who are satisfied with vignettes and the sorts of simple, isolated incidents nursery rhymes present, rather than longer, more complex plots.
Illustrations
MacDonald believes the illustrations are some of Potter's best, but the book suffers from its small format and would be better suited to the larger format Potter originally intended. Much detail in the illustrations, MacDonald argues, is obscured with the reduction in book size.M. Daphne Kutzer of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh
State University of New York at Plattsburgh
The State University of New York at Plattsburgh is a four-year, public liberal arts college in Plattsburgh, New York. The college was founded in 1889 and opened in 1890. The college is currently part of the State University of New York system and is accredited by the Middle States Association of...
argues in Beatrix Potter; Writing in Code that the charm of Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes lies in the illustrations rather than the text, and that the book (like other nursery rhyme collections) is not a sustained narrative but a series of short verses. Such collections are typically unified in style and design, but Appley Dapply lacks this unity because the illustrations range over a number of years in which Potter's style changed significantly.
The illustrations for the opening verse about Appley Dapply, for example, date from 1891 and reveal an artist with an original vision, technical mastery, and a near obsession with almost photographic realism, but the looser, more fluid illustration for the sixth rhyme about gravy and potatoes (recycled from The Tale of Pigling Bland
The Tale of Pigling Bland
The Tale of Pigling Bland is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter and first published by Frederick Warne & Co. in 1913...
of 1913) is less concerned with straight lines, microscopic detail, and photographic realism. The latter illustration displays Potter's development and maturity as an artist and the effect her failing eyesight had on her style.
Potter biographer Judy Taylor argues Appley Dapply is an uneven book and produces the impression of a compilation rather than a unified original work. The Appley Dapply rhyme at the opening of the book is illustrated with framed pictures and evidence suggests the material was intended for a small booklet of its own. Some illustrations are executed in a fluid manner while others are in the style of Potter's early dry-brush technique. The simple nursery rhymes Potter composed capture the rhythm of such verse, but none of the rhymes are especially memorable. Taylor describes the book as "the last squeezings of an almost dry sponge."Taylor 1987, pp. 155-6
Merchandise
Potter confidently asserted her tales would one day be nursery classics, and part of the process in making them so was marketing strategy. She was the first to exploit the commercial possibilities of her characters and tales with spinoff merchandise such as a Peter Rabbit doll, a board game called The Game of Peter Rabbit, and nursery wallpaper between 1903 and 1905. Other "side-shows" (as she termed the ancillary merchandise) were produced over the following two decades.In 1947 Frederick Warne & Co. gave Beswick Pottery
Beswick Pottery
J. W. Beswick was a pottery manufacturer, founded in 1892 by James Wright Beswick and his sons John and Gilbert in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. They are chiefly known for producing high-quality porcelain figurines such as farm animals and Beatrix Potter characters and have become highly sought after in...
of Longton, Staffordshire
Longton, Staffordshire
Longton is a southern district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and is known locally as the "Neck End" of the city. Longton is one of the six towns of "the Potteries" which formed the City of Stoke-on-Trent in 1925.-History:...
rights and licenses to produce the Potter characters in porcelain. Nine figurines based on Appley Dapply were released beginning in 1959: Old Woman in a Shoe; Amiable Guinea Pig; Appley Dapply; Little Black Rabbit; Diggory Diggory Delvet; Old Mister Pricklepin; Old Woman in a Shoe, Knitting; Mrs. "Cottontail" at Lunchtime; another figurine of the Amiable Guinea Pig; and Two Gentelman Rabbits from the frontispiece. All the figurines were retired by 2002.
In 1975 Crummles of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
began producing 1 and 5/8 inch (41.3 mm) diameter enamelled boxes depicting scenes and characters from the Potter tales. Little Black Rabbit and Old Mr. Pricklepin were the only two characters from Appley Dapply released. In 1994 and 1995 Crummles was commissioned to create exclusive works for an American distributor. Little Black Rabbit was produced, and a stamp box depicting scenes from both Appley Dapply and Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes
Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes is a children's book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, and published by Frederick Warne & Co. in December 1922. The book is a compilation of traditional nursery rhymes such as "Goosey Goosey Gander", "This Little Piggy" and "Three Blind Mice". It was...
. Crummles closed its doors abruptly in 1995, and only 80 of the planned 150 stamp boxes were produced.
In 1977 Schmid & Co. of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Randolph, Massachusetts
Randolph, Massachusetts
The Town of Randolph is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 32,112. Randolph adopted a new charter effective January 2010 providing for a council-manager form of government instead of the traditional town meeting...
was granted licensing rights to Beatrix Potter. In 1978 the firm released an Old Woman in a Shoe music box and in 1981 an Amiable Guinea Pig music box. In the middle 1980s, music boxes featuring Gentleman in the Snow from the frontispiece (playing "Try to Remember"), Appley Dapply, another Old Woman in the Show, and Diggory Delvet were released. In 1984 flat ceramic Christmas ornaments were released depicting Amiable Guinea Pig, Gentleman in the Snow, Old Woman in a Shoe, Old Woman Knitting, Little Black Rabbit, and Diggory Delvet. Schmid became the exclusive importer of Potter figurines from the Italian firm of ANRI. The Potter figurines were sculpted in a synthetic material called Toriart. Gentleman in the Snow and Amiable Guinea Pig were released.
In 1973 The Eden Toy Company of New York was the first American firm to acquire rights to manufacture stuffed Potter characters in plush. Little Black Rabbit was issued in 1976 and Amiable Guinea Pig in 1984. In 1999 C & F Enterprise distributed a Christmas needlepoint pillow depicting the Two Gentlemen Walking in Snow from the frontispiece. Linda Long Original has produced hand-stitched, free-standing figures in fabric of Two Gentlemen in the Snow and Little Black Rabbit.