Beatrix Potter Record

At Sotheby's London auction, Beatrix Potter's watercolour The Rabbits' Christmas Party (1890s) set a new record by becoming the most expensive book illustration ever sold at auction. It went under the hammer for £289,250 to a private British collector. It's pre-sale estimated value was between £40,000 and £60,000. Book and magazine illustrations have long been ignored by the Brit. Anti-art Establishment, which promotes its favoured purveyors of pretentious tripe, so it's good to see prices of illustrations moving in the right direction. Love or loath Beatrix Potter's anthropomorphism, you must admit she was a fine artist.