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== Merchandise ==
== Merchandise ==
[[File:JF Jack Stickleback.JPG|thumb|left|upright|alt=A frog fishing from a lily pad lands a fish|The image of Jeremy landing a fish inspired a Beswick porcelain figurine.]]
[[File:JF Jack Stickleback.JPG|thumb|left|upright|alt=A frog fishing from a lily pad lands a fish|The image of Jeremy landing a fish inspired a Beswick figurine.]]


In 1950, [[Beswick Pottery]] issued a porcelain figurine of Jeremy and figurines of Isaac and Ptolemy in the 1970s. Other figurines of Jeremy have been produced over the years as well as a Jeremy mug.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 30,35</ref>
The characters from ''Jeremy Fisher'' have appeared as porcelain figurines, plush toys, and other merchandise since their creation. In 1950, [[Beswick Pottery]] issued a porcelain figurine of Jeremy and figurines of Isaac and Ptolemy in the 1970s. Other figurines of Jeremy have been produced over the years as well as a Jeremy mug.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 30,35</ref> Jeremy was one of the first eight [[plush]] toys released by Eden Toys, Inc. of New York in 1973. The following year, he was released as a {{convert|37|inch|cm}} "Giant" intended for store displays, and during the [[Beanie Baby]] craze as a [[beanbag]] collectible. Isaac Newton was on store shelves for two years.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 91&ndash;2,101</ref>


In 1973, Jeremy Fisher was one of the first eight [[plush]] toys released by Eden Toys, Inc. of New York, and released in 1974 as a {{convert|37|inch|cm}} "Giant" intended for store displays. In 2000, Jeremy was issued as a [[beanbag]] collectible. Isaac Newton was released for two years.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 91&ndash;2,101</ref>
Jeremy Fisher was one of the first ten character music boxes released by Schmid & Co. in 1977. Ptolemy and Isaac boxes were released in the 1980s. Ceramic Christmas ornaments of Jeremy have been released by schmid.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 106,120</ref> Other merchandise includes a variety of Crummles enamelled boxes, an ANRI wood carving and ANRI Toriart figurines and ornaments, and [[Huntley & Palmer]] [[biscuit tin]]s.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 78&ndash;9,130,134,138</ref>

Jeremy Fisher was one of the first ten character music boxes released by Schmid & Co. in 1977. Ptolemy and Isaac boxes were released in the 1980s. Ceramic Christmas ornaments of Jeremy have been released by schmid.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 106,120</ref>

Other merchandise includes a variety of Crummles enamelled boxes, an ANRI wood carving and ANRI Toriart figurines and ornaments, and [[Huntley & Palmer]] [[biscuit tin]]s.<ref>DuBay 2006, pp. 78&ndash;9,130,134,138</ref>
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Revision as of 01:15, 17 November 2010

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher
First edition cover
AuthorBeatrix Potter
IllustratorBeatrix Potter
LanguageEnglish
GenreChildren's literature
PublisherFrederick Warne & Co.
Publication date
July 1906
Publication placeEngland
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
Preceded byThe Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan 
Followed byThe Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit 

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher is a children's book, written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was released by Frederick Warne & Co. in July 1906. Jeremy's origin lies in a letter she wrote to a child in 1893. She revised it in 1906, and moved its setting from the River Tay to the English Lake District. The tale reflects her love for the Lake District and her admiration for children's illustrator Randolph Caldecott.

Jeremy Fisher is a frog who lives in a "slippy-sloppy" house at the edge of a pond. One rainy day he collects worms for fishing, and sets off across the pond on his lily-pad boat. He plans to invite his friends for dinner if he catches more than five minnows. He encounters all sorts of setbacks to his goal, and escapes a large trout who tries to swallow him. He swims for shore, decides he will not go fishing again, and hops home.

Potter's tale pays homage to the leisurely summers her father and his buddies passed sport fishing at rented country estates in Scotland. Following the tale's publication, a child fan wrote Potter suggesting Jeremy find a wife. Potter responded with a series of miniature letters on the theme as if from Jeremy and his pals. After Potter's death in 1943, licences were issued to various firms to produce the Potter characters. Jeremy and his friends were released as porcelain figurines, plush toys, and other merchandise.

Plot

Jeremy Fisher is a frog who lives in a damp little house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond. His larder and back passage are "slippy-sloppy" with water, but he likes getting his feet wet; no one ever scolds and he never catches cold. One day, Jeremy finds it raining and decides to go fishing. Should he catch more than five minnows, he will invite his friends to dinner. He puts on a Macintosh and shiny goloshes, takes his rod and basket, and sets off with "enormous hops" to the place where he keeps his lily-pad boat. He poles to a place he knows is good for minnows.

A frog sits on a lily-pad fishing
Jeremy sits cross-legged on his lily-pad, waiting for a bite.

Once there, he sits cross-legged on his lily-pad and arranges his tackle. He has "the dearest little red float". His rod is a stalk of grass and his line a horsehair. An hour passes without a nibble. He takes a break and lunches on a butterfly sandwich. A water beetle tweaks his toe, and rats rustling about in the rushes force him to seek a safer location. He drops his line into the water and immediately has a bite. It is not a minnow but little Jack Sharp, a stickleback. The fish escapes but not before Jeremy pricks his fingers on Jack's spines. A shoal of little fishes come to the surface to laugh at Jeremy.

Jeremy sucks his sore fingers, but a trout rises from the water and seizes him with a snap. The trout dives to the bottom, but finds the Macintosh tasteless and spits Jeremy out, swallowing only his goloshes. Jeremy bounces "up to the surface of the water, like a cork and the bubbles out of a soda water bottle", and swims to the pond's edge. He scrambles up the bank and hops home through the meadow, quite sure he will never go fishing again.

In the last few pages, Jeremy has put sticking plaster on his fingers and welcomes his friends, Sir Isaac Newton, a newt, and Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise, a tortoise. Isaac wears a black and gold waistcoat and Ptolemy brings a salad in a string bag. Jeremy has prepared roasted grasshopper with ladybird sauce. The narrator describes the dish as a "frog treat", but thinks "it must have been nasty!"[1][2]

Background

A frog and a newt converse
Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Jeremy Fisher

In addition to the frogs and other amphibians Potter kept as pets in her childhood,[3][4] the influences on Jeremy were Potter's sport fishing father Rupert William Potter and British illustrator Randolph Caldecott. In 1871, and for ten years thereafter, the Potter family summered at Dalguise House, a country estate in Scotland renowned for its outstanding fishing.[5] The young Beatrix may have heard the fish stories of her father and his buddies.[3][6] Margaret Lane, author of The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter believes the picture of Jeremy relating his mishap with the trout to Sir Isaac is "so rich in observation, both of amphibians and elderly gentlemen, that one is ever afterwards prone to confuse them in memory."[3]

Mr. Potter and his daughter shared an enthusiasm for British illustrator Randolph Caldecott. Potter's father owned several of Caldecott's drawings.[7] In Jeremy Fisher, Potter consciously tried to copy Caldecott but felt she had failed. "I did try to copy Caldecott," she stated, "but ... I did not achieve much resemblance."[8] She declared, "I have the greatest admiration for his work – a jealous appreciation; for I think that others, whose names are commonly bracketed with his, are not on the same plane at all as artist-illustrators."[7]

Production

A river winds through the countryside
The River Tay (2004)

The origin of The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher lies a story letter Potter wrote to a child in September 1893 while summering on the River Tay.[9] The letter begins, "Once upon a time there was a frog called Jeremy Fisher, and he lived in a little house on the banks of a river."[10] The following year, she produced nine sketches called "A Frog he would a-fishing go" for publisher Ernest Nister,[11] but the firm declined and wrote Potter: "[P]eople do not want frogs now."[12] Nister finally gave Potter the price she wanted.[11] The sketches were published with verses by Clifton Bingham in a 1896 Nister children's annual.[12][13]

Energized by the success of The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902, Potter decided to develop the frog story and bought her drawings and Nister's printer's blocks to protect any future copyright concerns.[13] She wrote her editor Norman Warne, "I should like to do Mr. Jeremy Fisher too some day ... I think I can make something of him."[14][11]

The tale was set aside while Potter and Warne developed other projects, but in 1905 he approved the frog tale for development. As Potter expanded the manuscript, she moved the setting from the River Tay to Esthwaite Water and Moss Eccles Tarn, small bodies of water in the environs of Sawrey, Hawkshead, and her Hill Top farm.[15]

A small body of water with sky overhead
Moss Eccles Tarn (2005)

In August 1905, Norman Warne died. His brother Harold became Potter's editor and she wrote to him indicating his brother had approved the frog project: "We had thought of doing the larger half-crown book of verses "Appley Dapply" & the frog "Mr. Jeremy Fisher" to carry on the series of little ones. I know some people don't like frogs! but I think I had convinced Norman that I could make it a really pretty book with a good many flowers & water plants for backgrounds."[16] Harold Warne finally agreed to the Jeremy Fisher tale.[17]

In July 1906, 20,000 copies of The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher were released in both red or grey-green paper boards at one shilling and in decorated cloth at one shilling six pence in a 138 by 105 millimetres (5.4 in × 4.1 in) format. Another 5,000 copies were published in September 1906 and another 5,000 in September 1907.[18] The book was dedicated to Stephanie Hyde Parker, the daughter of Potter's cousin Ethel, Lady Hyde Parker: "For Stephanie from Cousin B.".[19] Jeremy sold as well as other Potter productions.[3]

Commentaries

MacDonald notes that The Tale of Jeremy Fisher is short and simple, and appropriate for children about the same age as that for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Although a specific time period is not addressed by the author, the reader may assume the British Regency is intended as evinced in Jeremy's dress. [20] Judy Taylor and her colleagues indicate in Beatrix Potter 1866–1943: The Artist and Her World that the simple story is rife with Potter's keen observation of nature, and her fictional animals conduct themselves in the ways their real world models would recognize – Jeremy likes wet weather, for example, and Ptolemy eats vegetable matter.[21]

M. Daphne Kutzer, Professor of English at State University of New York at Plattsburgh and author of Beatrix Potter: Writing in Code, observes that the social positions of Jeremy and his friends are established through the clothing they wear: Jeremy wears the dress of a Regency gentleman, Sir Isaac Newton wears a black and gold waistcoat and tailcoat, and Alderman Ptolemy Tortoise wears the chain and medallion of his office. Potter is not as critical of Jeremy as she is of her other indolent upper class characters such as the dolls in The Tale of Two Bad Mice. Although she sharply critiqued the upper class elsewhere, Kutzer observes that in Jeremy Fisher her tone has mellowed. She suggests that Potter's relocation to Sawrey and Hill Top farm may have produced in her a willingness to accept "the silliness of the aspiring middle class as well as the eccentricities of the upper classes" without being overly judgemental.[22]

File:JF Trout.JPG
Jeremy flees the trout

MacDonald points out that although Potter regarded the lives of her father and his pals as comical and even beneath notice, yet she clearly respected and valued their outdoor pursuits and the pleasure they took in the natural world from the bemused treatment she accorded their sporting pastimes in Jeremy Fisher. She valued nature untouched by humans even more, MacDonald notes, as evidenced by the careful observation in the illustrations. Jeremy Fisher is not a complex story, and was written without the many revisions typical of Potter's other productions. The pictures appear effortless in their execution and are distinguished by the blues and the greens of the water and its marine growth. MacDonald writes, "Her ability to show human society without also implying its damaging effects on flora and fauna further underscores the book's felicitous composition and success."[23]

Lear writes, "[Potter] wanted to do a frog story for some time, because it was amusing and offered the opportunity for the naturalist illustrations she delighted in. [...] The story of a fisherman down on his luck reminded Beatrix of the 'fish stories' her father's friends had told in Scotland, as well as her brother's travails with rod and reel. She also recreated the gentlemen's club atmosphere absorbed from her father's reports of evenings spent at the Reform and the Athenaeum. [...] The text and illustrations for this story are some of the most balanced and compatible of all her writing. Nature is described and illustrated truthfully: beautifully tranquil as well as unpredictably aggressive. [...] Its carefully coloured botanical backgrounds of water plants, a frog with anatomically correct turned-out feet, a trout that any self-respecting fisherman would enjoy snagging, and a rather frighteningly rendered water-beetle who tweaks Jeremy's dainty toes, all made it a delight to look at as well as to read."[24]

Miniature letters

A frog in a waistcoat and tail-coat looks at a snail
Jeremy in his "slippy-sloppy" larder dressed in his sprigged waistcoat and maroon tail-coat

About 1907 Potter created miniature letters delivered to child fans in either a miniature mail bag or a miniature mail box. "Some of the letters were very funny," Potter wrote, "The defect was that inquiries and answers were all mixed up."[25]

Four Jeremy letters were written at about 1910 to Drew Fayle who thought Jeremy should marry. In one letter, Sir Isaac promises Master Fayle a piece of wedding cake should Jeremy marry and, in another letter, Ptolemy writes that Jeremy's parties "would be much more agreeable if there were a lady to preside at the table." Jeremy writes in the third letter: "When I bought my sprigged waistcoat & my maroon tail-coat I had hopes ... but I am alone ... if there were a 'Mrs. Jeremy Fisher' she might object to snails. It is some satisfaction to be able to have as much water & mud in the house as a person likes."

Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, a hedgehog washerwoman in another Potter tale, writes Master Fayle in the fourth letter:

Dear Master Drew,

If you please Sir I am a widow; & I think it very wrong that there is not any Mrs. Fisher, but I would not marry Mr. Jeremy not for worlds, the way he does live in that house all slippy-sloppy; not any lady would stand it, & not a bit of good starching his cravats.

Yr. obedient washerwoman,
Tiggy Winkle.[26]

Merchandise

A frog fishing from a lily pad lands a fish
The image of Jeremy landing a fish inspired a Beswick figurine.

The characters from Jeremy Fisher have appeared as porcelain figurines, plush toys, and other merchandise since their creation. In 1950, Beswick Pottery issued a porcelain figurine of Jeremy and figurines of Isaac and Ptolemy in the 1970s. Other figurines of Jeremy have been produced over the years as well as a Jeremy mug.[27] Jeremy was one of the first eight plush toys released by Eden Toys, Inc. of New York in 1973. The following year, he was released as a 37 inches (94 cm) "Giant" intended for store displays, and during the Beanie Baby craze as a beanbag collectible. Isaac Newton was on store shelves for two years.[28]

Jeremy Fisher was one of the first ten character music boxes released by Schmid & Co. in 1977. Ptolemy and Isaac boxes were released in the 1980s. Ceramic Christmas ornaments of Jeremy have been released by schmid.[29] Other merchandise includes a variety of Crummles enamelled boxes, an ANRI wood carving and ANRI Toriart figurines and ornaments, and Huntley & Palmer biscuit tins.[30]

Reprints and translations

As of 2010, all 23 of Potter's small format books remain in print, and are available as complete sets in presentation boxes,[31] and as a 400-page omnibus edition.[32] The English language editions of the tales still bore the Frederick Warne imprint in 2010 though the company was bought by Penguin Books in 1983. Penguin remade the printing plates in 1985, and all 23 volumes were released in 1987 as The Original and Authorized Edition.[33]

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher was published in French in 1940 as Jérémie Pêche-à-la-Ligne, and in Dutch as Jeremais de Hengelaar in 1946. The tale was republished in Dutch in 1970 as Het Verhaal van Jeremais Hengelaar and was published in the Initial Teaching Alphabet in 1965.[34] In 1984, the tale was again translated into French by M.A. James as L’histoire de Monsieur Jérémie Peche-a-la-Ligne.[35] In 1986, MacDonald observed that the Potter books had become a traditional part of childhood in both English-speaking lands and those in which the books had been translated.[36]

References

Footnotes
  1. ^ MacDonald 1986, p. 96
  2. ^ Potter 2002, pp. 6–57
  3. ^ a b c d Lane 1989, p. 152 Cite error: The named reference "Lane152" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ Lear 2007, p. 212
  5. ^ Lear 2007, p. 27
  6. ^ Lear 2007, pp. 27–8
  7. ^ a b Lear 2007, p. 47
  8. ^ Taylor 1987, p. 129
  9. ^ Lear 2007, pp. 211–2
  10. ^ Taylor 1987, p. 126
  11. ^ a b c Taylor 1987, pp. 126–7
  12. ^ a b Taylor 1996, p. 66
  13. ^ a b Collecting Caldecott
  14. ^ Taylor 1996, pp. 80–1
  15. ^ Kutzer 2003, p. 117
  16. ^ Taylor 1996, p. 111
  17. ^ Taylor 1996, p. 106
  18. ^ Linder 1971, p. 426
  19. ^ Lear 2007, pp. 211–3
  20. ^ MacDonald 1986, p. 96
  21. ^ Taylor 1987, p. 127
  22. ^ Kutzer 2003, p. 121
  23. ^ MacDonald 1986, p. 98
  24. ^ Lear 2007, pp. 212–3
  25. ^ Linder 1971, p. 72
  26. ^ Linder 1971, pp. 79–80
  27. ^ DuBay 2006, pp. 30,35
  28. ^ DuBay 2006, pp. 91–2,101
  29. ^ DuBay 2006, pp. 106,120
  30. ^ DuBay 2006, pp. 78–9,130,134,138
  31. ^ "The World of Peter Rabbit". Amazon.com. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  32. ^ "Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales". Amazon.com. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  33. ^ Taylor 1996, p. 216
  34. ^ Linder 1971, pp. 433–37
  35. ^ "L'histoire de Monsieur Jérémie Peche-a-la-Ligne". BYU. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  36. ^ MacDonald 1986, p. 130
Works cited
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