The rare book on display from our collection is: History of British birds: the figures engraved on wood by T. Bewick. Vol. 1, containing the history and description of land birds. Vol. 2., containing the history and description of water birds. Newcastle, 1797 and 1804.Balfour Library class mark: HBF 2 (1-2)
The book is open at: Vol. 2, p.54 - Curlew. This is a first edition copy of the work. This woodcut of a curlew beautifully defines the bird’s features, as well as the surrounding water, foliage and rocks, and conveys the sense of movement caused by the wind in the reeds. Bewick was a pioneer of wood engraving technique.
Thomas Bewick, a wood engraver, was born near Eltringham, Northumberland, on 10th or 12th August 1753, and died in Gateshead on 8th November 1828. He was apprenticed aged 14 to Ralph Beilby, a Newcastle engraver who taught him how to engrave metal, silver and copperplate.
Bewick entered into partnership with Beilby in 1777. Beilby apparently did not like wood engraving but Bewick preferred it. His skill soon became evident and well-known in the work he was producing for printers of children’s books and books of fables. He refined the ‘white line’ technique; the block surface was seen as solid black before cutting took place, and each cut made was to create white light. This technique was very expressive, and he handled texture and the balance of light and shade particularly well.
Bewick eventually published his own natural history books that incorporated his own wood engravings. The General History of Quadrupeds was published in 1790. He produced the woodcuts for this in his own time after his days at the workshop, and the text was written by Beilby. For the History of British Birds Bewick wrote the text as well as producing the woodcuts, demonstrating his knowledge and skill as a naturalist as well as an engraver. His publications were especially noted for their ‘tail pieces’, vignettes used to fill space after text. They expressed varied aspects of north-country life, with humour and affection, a love of nature, and often had a moral point to them. These were regarded perhaps even more highly than the main illustrations.
The scientist William Yarrell named the Bewick's swan in honour of Bewick in 1830.
Sources:
Bain, Iain. “Bewick, Thomas (1753–1828).” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, May 2005. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2334 (accessed November 26, 2010).
Colin Campbell. "Bewick, Thomas." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T008554 (accessed November 26, 2010).
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) http://www.wwt.org.uk/our-work/wetland-wildlife/bewicks-swans
Further reading:
Uglow, Jenny. Nature’s engraver: a life of Thomas Bewick. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/id/Natures_Engraver/9780571223756
