RARE FIRST BEATRIX POTTER ILLUSTRATED BOOK (CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.) POTTER, BEATRIX and Weatherly, Frederic. A Happy Pair. 6 chromolithographed illustrations, together with front wrapper design (repeated from the text), each signed "H.B.P." Square 12mo, original pictorial stiff wrappers, tied with silk cord finished with two tassels, all edges gilt, rubbed along spine fold with partial split, few faint stray marks, two soft creases to bottom of front wrapper; first plate with one punched hole pulled from cords; contents clean and unmarked. London: Hildesheimer & Faulkner, [1890]
unrestored copy of the first and only edition of the first book illustrated by potter. Thought to survive in a very limited number of copies. This copy lacking a title-page, though it is almost certain that some of these were issued without one: the drawings appeared both as a series of separate chromolithographed prints as well as in book form, and no specific mention of a title-page is given in any of the auction records since 1997.
In the spring of 1890 Potter produced a series of paintings using as her subject her pet rabbit Benjamin Bouncer: "My first act was to give Bounce ... a cupful of hemp seeds, the consequence being that when I wanted to draw him the next morning he was partially intoxicated and wholly unmanageable" (Lear, 73). Frederic Weatherly provided the verses for this publication which comprises the first book illustrated by Potter and pre-dates Peter Rabbit (the first book of her own) by over a decade. The chromolithographs were meticulously produced using heavy, oil-based inks imparting a texture and sheen akin to an oil painting. a great rarity in uncommonly good condition. Quinby, p. 115.
