A Sketchbook of Birds by C.F. Tunnicliffe R.A.

A Sketchbook of Birds (Gollancz 1979 in Dust Jacket, Tunnicliffe Bird Studies)

Field Sketches of Britain's Birds from Five Decades of Observation by the Celebrated Wildlife Artist C.F. Tunnicliffe

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: A Sketchbook of Birds
• Author: C.F. Tunnicliffe R.A.
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 1979
• ISBN-10: 0575026405
• Edition Details: First Gollancz Edition, London, 1979. Introduction by Ian Niall.
• Binding: Publisher's brown cloth boards with a small black publisher's monogram stamped to the lower right of the front board, in a pictorial dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Large oblong format with colour and black-and-white illustrations of bird sketches and field studies, with handwritten notes on the drawings.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Boards: The brown cloth boards are clean and bright beneath the jacket, with a small black publisher's monogram stamped at the lower right of the front board. The spine is straight and the corners are sharp.
• Interior: The pages are clean and bright, with colour plates of bird sketches. The binding is tight, and there is no foxing, writing or marking.
• The Dust Jacket: Present, protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover. The cream jacket shows some toning and slight edge wear at the top right of the front panel, with a few marks to the back. The spine of the jacket is clean and the front flap with the author biography is intact.

Synopsis & Historical Value

A Sketchbook of Birds, published by Victor Gollancz in London in 1979, reproduces pages from the working sketchbooks of C.F. Tunnicliffe, in which he recorded birds in the field between 1932 and 1962. The drawings carry his handwritten observations, and the book gives a rare view of how one of Britain's finest wildlife artists studied his subjects before turning them into finished work.

The sketches are grouped by type: seabirds, waders, geese, ducks and swans, birds of prey and miscellaneous birds. There are location notes to the sketches and an introduction by Ian Niall. It is regarded as something of a retrospective, and the last Tunnicliffe book prepared for publication with his co-operation.

Tunnicliffe died in 1979, the year of publication, which gives this volume a place as a closing statement of his lifelong devotion to observing birds. It will appeal to collectors of wildlife art, natural history and British bird illustration.

Author Profile: C.F. Tunnicliffe R.A.

Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe was born in Langley, Cheshire, on 1 December 1901 and died at Malltraeth, Anglesey, in 1979. He studied at Macclesfield, Manchester and the Royal College of Art, where he took a diploma in painting. His wood engravings for Henry Williamson's Tarka the Otter in 1932 established his reputation.

Over some forty years he illustrated more than eighty full-length books and also published his own. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1944 and a full Royal Academician in 1954, and received the Gold Medal of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1975.

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