London

A previously unseen watercolour by Beatrix Potter fetched £289,500 at auction yesterday, a record for a book illustration.

The painting, depicting rabbits leaving a Christmas party, was the final piece of a trio painted by Potter, in about 1892. It was sold to a private collector at Sotheby’s in London for nearly five times its upper estimate.

The first in the series - showing five rabbits swathed in overcoats - fetched £121,250 and it was originally given to Potter’s aunt, Lucy, the wife of Sir Henry Roscoe.

The third painting, which shows guests dancing, sold for £22,500.

The watercolours formed part of an archive of illustrations, Christmas cards and letters that fetched £748,200 in total. The archive originated from the collection of Potter’s brother, Bertram, who encouraged his sister’s early efforts to sell her artwork. Potter painted the watercolours more than nine years before paying to have 250 copies of The Tale of Peter Rabbit printed in December 1901 after rejections from at least six publishers.

She gave many of them away to friends, and sold the rest for 1s 2d (less than 6p), although they are now worth in the region of £30,000.

Potter invented the character Peter Rabbit in an illustrated letter to the child of her former governess in 1893. It remains the world’s bestselling children’s book, with more than 80 million copies in circulation.

Other paintings include cats, horses, bears, deer and cows, and the collection includes private Christmas cards depicting rabbits painted by Potter for her friends and to illustrate first-edition books and letters to relatives.

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