Archibald Thorburn, (British, 1860-1935)

Stoat (winter)

Stoat (winter)
signed and dated 'A. Thorburn/1919' (lower right); inscribed 'Stoat. (winter)' (lower centre)
watercolour heighted with white
37.5 x 47cm (14 3/4 x 18 1/2in).

Provenance
A. Baird Carter.
Private collection, UK.

Literature
Archibald Thorburn, British Mammals, London, 1920, Vol. 1, pl. 22.
Archibald Thorburn, The Complete Illustrated Thorburn's Mammals, Ware, 1989, pp. 73-75 (illustrated in colour p. 76).

Following on from the huge success of British Birds, Thorburn produced a series of 50 watercolours entitled British Mammals, originally published in 2 volumes in 1920. The present lot was reproduced as plate 22.

Thorburn noted of the work that the stoat is 'taken from the specimen obtained in Argyllshire in January 1919, which shows the full winter pelage, excepting a small mask of brown on the face, always the last part to change'.1

1 Archibald Thorburn, The Complete Illustrated Thorburn's Mammals, Ware, 1989, p. 74.