Paddington Bear First Editions: The Michael Bond Collector's Guide

A Paddington first edition is a Collins, London hardback with Peggy Fortnum's pen and ink drawings. There are eleven of them, from A Bear Called Paddington, published on 13 October 1958, to Paddington Takes the Test in 1979, and the first is the one that matters: Bellmans, Forum Auctions and Jonkers all call it rare or scarce in its jacket, and it is the only Paddington book that has made four figures at auction. A first printing has no impression statement on the title page verso, and its blue and white jacket is priced 8s 6d net. The Houghton Mifflin edition of 1960, in a yellow jacket, is the first American edition and came two years later. This guide gives the tests that two or more dealers, auction houses or Bond references agree on, says which titles are scarce, and lists what has sold.

We record the editions and their printings on the pages for A Bear Called Paddington, More About Paddington, Paddington Helps Out, Paddington Abroad, Paddington at Large, Paddington at Work and Paddington Goes to Town, and on the Michael Bond author page.

The books at a glance

Dates follow the Wikipedia list of Paddington books, which agrees with the dealer catalogues cited below. Jonkers and Ulysses Rare Books both count eleven original novels, all drawn by Fortnum; Wikipedia counts Paddington's Blue Peter Story Book (BBC, 1973) as a tenth, which is why some lists say twelve. Hornseys dates Paddington Marches On to 1962, against 1964 everywhere else; we take 1964.

No.	Title	Year	Illustrator	First publisher
1	A Bear Called Paddington	1958	Peggy Fortnum	Collins, London
2	More About Paddington	1959	Fortnum	Collins
3	Paddington Helps Out	1960	Fortnum	Collins
4	Paddington Abroad	1961	Fortnum	Collins
5	Paddington at Large	1962	Fortnum	Collins
6	Paddington Marches On	1964	Fortnum	Collins
7	Paddington at Work	1966	Fortnum	Collins
8	Paddington Goes to Town	1968	Fortnum	Collins
9	Paddington Takes the Air	1970	Fortnum	Collins
10	Paddington on Top	1974	Fortnum	Collins
11	Paddington Takes the Test	1979	Fortnum	Collins

The picture books are a separate run. Fred Banbery drew the first large-format series for Collins from 1972 (Paddington at the Circus, 1973, and Paddington at the Seaside, 1978, are among the titles whose original artwork Peter Harrington offers); the official Paddington site counts six Banbery books. David McKee took over a smaller-format series from 1984, beginning with Paddington at the Zoo, and R. W. Alley has illustrated the HarperCollins books since 1997, including Bond's last, Paddington at St Paul's (2018). None of those is a Fortnum first.

The bear and the book

Bond's own account, repeated by Wikipedia and the Gulf News interview, is that he bought a lone toy bear in a London store (Selfridges, in most tellings) on Christmas Eve 1956 as a present for his wife, named it after the station near their flat, and had a book in ten days. Collins published it in October 1958; the sequels followed roughly every two years until 1979.

How Collins marked its firsts

Collins did not use a number line in 1958. The first printing carries the year on the title page and its verso and nothing more; the reprints announce themselves. Ulysses Rare Books catalogues a 1964 copy of A Bear Called Paddington as the "Fourth Impression", Stella & Rose's Books a 1964 Paddington at Large as a second impression, World's End Bookshop a 1961 More About Paddington as the first reprint, and John Atkinson a 1971 Paddington Takes the Air as a first reprint. We have not seen the exact wording of the verso reproduced by any dealer, so treat the rule as: a dated verso with no impression or reprint line is a first printing, and any added line is not. Our guide to first editions versus first printings explains why that distinction is the whole game with Collins.

The first-printing tests

The 1958 book. Octavo, 128 pages, Fortnum's drawings in line. Dealers disagree on the colour word for the cloth: Jonkers, Dominic Winter and Ulysses say red, Bellmans and Lycanthia pink, Bauman rose. They are describing the same cloth, which fades, and Bellmans adds that the spine is lettered in silver. The jacket is blue and white with Paddington on the front panel.

The jacket price. Hornseys, Bellmans, Jonkers, Lycanthia and John Atkinson all record 8s 6d net on the 1958 jacket, and Jonkers and Hornseys say outright that it is the correct price. Prices on the sequels rest on single listings: John Atkinson reports 8s 6d on More About Paddington (1959) and 10s 6d on Paddington Abroad (1961) and Paddington Goes to Town (1968), so a 1959 jacket at 8s 6d and a 1960s jacket at 10s 6d are consistent with firsts. Most surviving jackets are price-clipped, which is why unclipped copies are priced apart; our guide to dust jackets explains what clipping does to a book's value.

The bindings of the sequels. Jonkers describes More About Paddington in turquoise cloth with a red pictorial jacket, Paddington Helps Out in red boards, and Paddington Abroad in blue cloth lettered in silver, which St Mary's Books confirms. Bauman records Paddington Goes to Town in rose cloth, and Ulysses Paddington Takes the Test in orange cloth lettered in silver. A sequel in the wrong cloth has been rebound or is a later issue.

The pictures. Every Fortnum first is in black and white. Colour pictures mean a picture book, a later illustrated edition or a reissue coloured by other hands.

The points of issue guide explains how tests like these are established, and the first edition checker runs them for a book in your hand.

The scarce titles

A Bear Called Paddington, 1958. Bellmans calls it rare and cites Connolly's Children's Modern First Editions (no. 60); Forum Auctions says the first two titles are scarce with jackets in good condition; Jonkers calls it the scarce first appearance of the bear. Enough copies survive for six dealers to have one in stock at the time of writing, so it is scarce rather than rare, but a clean unclipped jacket is genuinely hard to find.

More About Paddington, 1959. Jonkers calls it the uncommon second book, and both auction and dealer prices put it a long way above the rest of the run.

Paddington Helps Out, 1960. John Atkinson calls the third book very tricky to find in superb condition, and prices a fine copy above its More About Paddington.

Signed and inscribed copies. Bond signed a great deal late in life: Jonkers, Bauman and Raptis all offer 1958 firsts signed in 2010 or later. A contemporary inscription is another matter. The Bellmans copy inscribed to Nina Froud, who worked at his literary agency, made nearly five times its top estimate, and Lycanthia asks a premium for a copy signed in the month of publication.

The American first

Houghton Mifflin published A Bear Called Paddington in Boston in September 1960, with Fortnum's drawings, in a yellow jacket with the title lettered in several colours; Kirkus reviewed it on 14 September 1960 as Paddington's introduction to American children, and the New York Times reviewed it the same year at $2.50. Later American titles followed Collins by a year or two. Our guide to first editions versus first American editions covers the general rule; here the British book is first by two years and there is no argument.

Traps

Impressions in first jackets. The 1958 jacket was reprinted with the book, and a jacketed "1958" copy is often a fourth impression of 1964 wearing a later jacket, or a first jacket married to a reprint. Read the verso, not the jacket.

The omnibus. The Adventures of Paddington (Collins, 1965) reprints the early books in one volume. Shapero excludes it from its set of firsts for exactly that reason, and a 1977 Book Club Associates printing of the same omnibus is reported by an Alibris listing. Neither is a first edition of anything; our guide to book club editions explains how to spot the BCA book.

The 1970s reprints. Collins kept the Fortnum novels in print in the same format through the 1970s, so Paddington Takes the Air exists as a 1970 first and a 1971 reprint that John Atkinson sells at half the price. The later reprints carry their impression line.

The picture books and later illustrators. Banbery, McKee and Alley books are firsts of their own titles, priced accordingly (John Atkinson asks £45 to £95 for 1970s and 1980s picture-book firsts), but they are not firsts of the novels.

Clipped jackets and sunned spines. Nearly every jacket in the John Atkinson eleven-volume set is clipped, and the spines of the 1960s jackets fade badly. An unclipped, unfaded jacket is the difference between the top and bottom of the price range.

What they have sold for

Public results are thin, because most Paddington firsts change hands through dealers. These are the results we could tie to a named sale; they are not valuations.

Book	Sale	Price
A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, pink cloth, unclipped 8s 6d jacket, inscribed by Bond to Nina Froud	Bellmans, Billingshurst, 8 December 2022, lot 518	£4,800 hammer (estimate £700 to £1,000); the Antiques Trade Gazette reported the buyer as American
A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, red cloth, jacket with some wear	Dominic Winter, 14 December 2023, lot 507	Sold for £1,600 (the house's record does not say whether that includes premium)
A Bear Called Paddington, first, gift inscription, jacket price-clipped, with More About Paddington, first	Forum Auctions, 26 March 2026, lot 117	£2,200 hammer (estimate £1,000 to £1,500)

Dealer asking prices for the 1958 book run from Shapero's £1,900 (now sold) and Hornseys' £3,450 for an unclipped copy, through John Atkinson's £4,250 for a copy in a clipped jacket, Bookbid's $4,000 and Peter Harrington's £4,500 for a copy rebound by the Chelsea Bindery without its jacket, to Lycanthia's £6,750 for a copy signed in the month of publication and Raptis's $12,500 for an inscribed copy in a clamshell box. For the sequels: More About Paddington at £600 (John Atkinson) to £650 (Maggs, Hornseys); Paddington Helps Out at £950 (John Atkinson, fine); Paddington Abroad at £185 (St Mary's, clipped) to £600 (John Atkinson, fine); Paddington Marches On at £285 to £475 (John Atkinson) and £395 (Hornseys); Paddington at Work at £485 (John Atkinson); Paddington Takes the Air at £150 (Maggs); Paddington on Top at £65 and Paddington Takes the Test at €195 (Ulysses). John Atkinson asks £7,500 for a set of all eleven firsts and £22,500 for nine inscribed to the daughter of the film producer Alec Snowden, with the correspondence. Fortnum's original Paddington book illustrations almost never appear for sale, Jonkers says.

If you own one of these books, grade it honestly, check the verso and the jacket price, and compare it with sold copies in the same state rather than with the asking prices.