Hammer comes down at £480 on superb painting of Spoonbill by Suffolk artist Raymond Watson

                                            

This handsome study of a Spoonbill achieved a hammer price of £480 when it sold at an auction conducted earlier this month by Tennants of Leyburn in North Yorkshire. It is the work of  Ipswich-born Raymond Cyril Watson (1935-1994) who particularly loved to observe and paint in Norfolk and Scotland. Even in birding circles, he is far from well known, but many of his studies are so lifelike that they almost take the breath away. Watson illustrated two book, Birds of the British Coast and Song Birds.