Lady Amherst’s pheasant

Watercolour and gouache on artist’s paper, 200 x 330 mm (sheet), artist’s monogram in the image at lower centre, date ‘1961’ lower right; verso inscribed by the artist ‘Lady Amherst Pheasant’ [sic], with the date ’26.VIII.’61’; a few marks at corners and top edge, not affecting image; unmounted and unframed.

Edwin W. Slater was born in England in 1875 and some time prior to World War One emigrated to Australia. He settled in Melbourne, where he had a career as advertising manager for Foy & Gibson. Slater was an accomplished amateur artist in watercolour, pen and ink, and pencil, who had a penchant for ornithological subjects.

From a large archive of Slater’s original drawings and watercolours.

‘Lady Amherst’s pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) is a bird of the order Galliformes and the family Phasianidae. The genus name is from Ancient Greek khrusolophos, “with golden crest”. The English name and amherstiae commemorates Sarah Amherst, who was responsible for sending the first specimen of the bird to London in 1828 … The species is native to southwestern China and far northern Myanmar, but has been introduced elsewhere. Previously, a self-supporting feral population was established in England, the stronghold of which was in West Bedfordshire. Lady Amherst first introduced the ornamental pheasant on her estates, near the Duke of Bedford’s Woburn Abbey, where the birds were also shot for game and interbred.[3] Although the introduced British populations are believed to have been extinct since 2015, occasional sightings of the species have occurred in subsequent years; a Lady Amherst’s pheasant was photographed in Staplegrove, Taunton in May 2020, and subsequently, in early March 2021, a Lady Amherst’s pheasant was spotted in a garden in Scotland.’ (Wiki.)