Claude W. Wyatt | British Birds, London, 1894, 2 vols, contemporary calf gilt

Books from a Private Collection

Claude W. Wyatt

British birds: being coloured illustrations of all the species of passerine birds resident in the British Isles. London: William Wesley & Son, 1894-1899

FIRST EDITION, 2 volumes, 4to (325 x 250mm.), 67 hand-coloured lithographed plates after Wyatt, contemporary red calf gilt, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers

GERALD DURRELL'S COPY, WITH HIS DISTINCTIVE DODO BOOKPLATE.

"Except in ornithological circles, this very good artist and author is unknown... He was an amateur among the world of professional draughtsmen with big names and reputations at the close of the 19th century" (Jackson, Bird Illustrators, pp.100-102). Claude W. Wyatt lived from 1842 to 1900.

PROVENANCE:

Gerald Durrell (1925-1995), naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, and author of My Family and Other Animals, bookplate

LITERATURE:

Fine Bird Books, p.116; Mullens & Swann, p.667; Nissen IVB 1027; Zimmer, p.69