Two volumes of Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds to go under hammer in Yorkshire saleroom

Bewick's History of British Birds was one of the first field guides

A PRE-SALE guide price of between £100 and £200 has been placed on four books that are due to go under the hammer as a single lot later this month. 

They comprise

* Two 1804 volumes of Thomas Bewick's History of British Birds

* A 1792 third edition of  A General History of Quadupeds by Bewick and other authors

* An 1806 tenth edition of The Looking Glass for The Mind by J. Harris and others 

The two-volume Bewick Birds is reckoned to be one of the first field guides for birders and is still greatly admired for its often amusing wood engravings.

There are several reference to it in Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre.

In one of his poems, The Two Thieves, William Wordsworth expressed appreciation for Northumberland-born Bewick's skill when he wrote: 

Oh now that the genius of Bewick were mine,

And the skill which he learned on the banks of the Tyne.

The sale is being conducted by Tennants of Leyburn in North Yorkshire at 10.30am on December 13.

                                

James Ramsay's portrait of Bewick (1753 - 1828)

Bewick's enchanting study of a snipe