11 years before Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter's first published illustrations appearing in a small 1890 booklet called A Happy Pair when she was just 24 years old. Her brother hand-delivered the six drawings to a London publisher who bought them on the spot for £6.

The drawings were modelled on her pet rabbit, Benjamin Bouncer, and printed as chromolithographs alongside verses. This copy, bound in its original card covers with a silk tasseled tie, represents the true first appearance of Beatrix Potter's art in print.