A first edition copy of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901) is up for auction at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury.
It's expected to make £25,000-35,000 ($33,033-46,246) in the July 28 sale in London.
 The Tale of Peter Rabbit is one of the most successful children's books of all time |
The book is one of the original run of 250 self-published copies and is inscribed to the author's goddaughter, Helen Burton.
Peter Rabbit was the first entry in Beatrix Potter's remarkable bibliography and remains one of the most popular children's books of all time.
It was inspired by the stories she used to write for the children of her old teacher, Annie Moore.
Moore was impressed by the quality of her work and suggested she try and publish them.
Potter jumped at the suggestion, but was unable to generate much commercial interest.
She decided to self-publish.
The book proved a huge hit with friends and family - with Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle being among the first to procure a copy.
Less than a year later publisher Frederick Warne & Co took the project on.
Since then it has sold well over 45m copies worldwide.
Dreweatts describes this copy as an excellent example of the true first printing of one of the most important children's books of the twentieth century."
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