They are stylistically similar to an illustration titled Rabbits in the Snow’ reproduced in Leslie Linders’ The Art of Beatrix Potter (1972) and indeed another watercolour sold in the auctioneers’ Knightsbridge salerooms in 1997, and they could be part of a series of such drawings produced c.1892-93, possibly as Christmas card designs; but they are unlike Beatrix Potter
drawings issued as cards by Hildesheimer and Faulkner around 1890.
Neither illustration, each of which
measures 5 x 31/2in (13 x 9cm) and is signed with the initials HBP, seems ever to have been published, and at Bonhams’ New Bond Street salerooms earlier this month they were given what proved to be pretty accurate estimates of £15,000-20,000 apiece. On the day they sold at £16,000 and £18,000 respectively to Christiaan Jonkers.
HBP’s bunnies in the snow raise £32,000
Two early watercolour drawings of rabbits in snowy settings were offered as part of a Bonhams sale of April 1. That seen right shows one rabbit making a snowball while another leans on a fence, while in the illustration reproduced below right, the two rabbits are building a snowman.
