Why William Weston Young's British Birds watercolours are so rare

Original watercolours by William Weston Young are extraordinarily rare. Better remembered today as the artist and entrepreneur behind some of Wales's finest pottery, Young left very little work on paper, which makes this album a genuinely uncommon find.

Titled simply British Birds and dated 1804, it contains 41 finely observed watercolour drawings, painted while Young was working as a draughtsman at the celebrated Cambrian Pottery in Swansea.

We are pleased to offer this rare album in our forthcoming Welsh Sale Part (II). A chance for collectors of Welsh art and ceramics to acquire a piece of the country's artistic heritage.

Young's name carries real weight among collectors of Welsh ceramics. As the draughtsman who decorated wares at the Cambrian Pottery, and the man who later rescued the Nantgarw Pottery, his hand lies behind objects now held in major museum collections.

Yet his original watercolours rarely appear on the market. That combination of true rarity, his standing in Welsh ceramic history, and an appealing natural-history subject makes the album especially desirable at a Welsh art auction.

The appeal is twofold. These are accomplished ornithological studies in their own right, and a direct link to the natural history interests that defined Young's painted pottery.

William Weston Young was born in Bristol on 20 April 1776 into a devout Quaker family, the third son of the merchant Edward Young. He led a diverse and entrepreneurial life, but an early bankruptcy forced him into paid employment.

In January 1803, he moved with his wife Elizabeth to Swansea, where he found work under fellow Quaker Lewis Weston Dillwyn as a draughtsman at Dillwyn's Cambrian Pottery, on a salary of £75 a year. The British Birds watercolours date from this period, which lasted until August 1806.

Dillwyn and Young, both in their mid-twenties, struck up a close friendship over a shared passion for natural history. Many of Young's painted wares feature accurately depicted flora and fauna, complete with the taxonomic names of the species and these bird studies in watercolour have the same scientific precision. Examples can be seen today at the V&A, the National Museum of Wales and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery in Swansea.

The album comprises 41 fine watercolour drawings of birds, each measuring approximately 16.3 x 25.7cm, tipped in and mounted, with many captioned in pencil on the mount.

It is bound in nineteenth-century calf leather, the upper cover blocked in gilt: 'British Birds / By / William Weston Young / Neath. 1804'. The binding was expertly rebacked by Bayntun of Bath around 1940.

The quality of observation reflects the same eye for natural detail Young brought to his decorated pottery, and the gilt-lettered cover leaves no doubt as to the artist's hand.

The album's provenance is exceptional, tracing back to the eminent naturalist William Yarrell. The chain runs from Yarrell through the booksellers Charles J. Sawyer and J. Kyrle Fletcher Ltd. to the collector F.E. Andrews of Cardiff around 1941, and then by descent to the present private Cardiff collection.

Loosely inserted in the album are three autograph letters and two carbon typed copies from the bookseller J. Kyrle Fletcher to Andrews, documenting the album's rediscovery. The first, dated 13 February 1935, records that 'Mr William Weston Young made the drawing for Mr Dillwyn's valuable work on British Confervae and a series of drawings of British Birds now in the possession of Mr Yarrell'.

A further autograph note explains that the drawings were sent by Young in 1804 to Yarrell, and that it was on account of them that Yarrell proposed Young as a member of the Zoological Society. For collectors, this documented history is as valuable as the watercolours themselves.

Young's story did not end at the Cambrian Pottery. In 1814, recovered from his debts, he became the major investor in the Nantgarw Pottery established by William Billingsley and Samuel Walker.

When the pair left the struggling business in 1820, Young took full control and managed its debts through the careful marketing and sale of remaining stock. Nantgarw porcelain is today among the most prized of all Welsh ceramics.

His talents were not confined to art. Drawing on his experience of firing ceramics and an amateur interest in geology, Young conceived a heat-proof, blast-furnace brick using silica from the head of the Neath Valley - the basis of the Dinas Firebrick Works. Despite these achievements, his profit share amounted only to a modest pension, and he died in relative poverty in Lower Mitton, Kidderminster, on 5 March 1847.

Welsh fine art and ceramics continue to attract dedicated collectors, both in Wales and internationally. Works with genuine scarcity and documented provenance perform especially well.

This album sits at the meeting point of fine art, natural history and ceramic history, three strands that rarely overlap in a single lot. For anyone following the Welsh art auction market, it is an unusually rich opportunity.

A separate archive relating to William Weston Young will also be offered in the same sale (estimate £6,000–10,000); full details to follow in the catalogue.

The Welsh Sale takes place at our Cardiff saleroom. View the full catalogue online here.

Related reading: Antiquarian & Collectable Books — Rogers Jones Co · Nantgarw & Swansea Porcelain — Rogers Jones Co

William Weston Young (1776–1847) was a Bristol-born Quaker artist and entrepreneur who worked as a draughtsman at the Cambrian Pottery in Swansea and later took control of the Nantgarw Pottery. He is also credited with inventing the Dinas firebrick.

His original work on paper is extremely rare, and his name is closely tied to two of Wales's most celebrated potteries. Documented provenance, which in this case goes back to the naturalist William Yarrell, makes such pieces especially desirable.

It is an 1804 album of 41 fine watercolour drawings of birds by William Weston Young, bound in calf leather with a gilt-lettered cover and accompanied by letters documenting its history.

Collectors can buy Welsh fine art and ceramics through specialist auction houses including Rogers Jones, whose Welsh Sales regularly feature significant Welsh lots.