William Hayes, 
British 1729-1799- 
Golden pheasant; 
hand-coloured engraving, signed in pencil...

William Hayes, 
British 1729-1799- 

Golden pheasant; 

hand-coloured engraving, signed in pencil 'W Hayes' (lower left) 32.6 x 51.8 cm, cm.; together with three ornithological watercolours by J.P.T. Mehay, from 'Essai de Tableaux d'Histoire Naturelle' 1791, 45.3 x 31.4 cm, four (4) (two in shared frame). 

Provenance: 
(The three by J.P.T. Mehay) with Lucy B. Campbell, London. 
Private Collection, UK. 

Note: 
As an ornithological artist, Hayes was celebrated for his vibrant and characterful illustrations of birds. He enjoyed the support of influential contemporaries, including both George Henry Glasse (1761-1809), chaplain to George III's son Prince Adolphus, and John Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792). It was under the latter's patronage that Hayes produced 'British and Exotic Birds' in 1778. He also created the important publications 'A Natural History of British Birds' (1775) and 'Rare and Curious Birds Accurately Drawn and Coloured from their Specimens in the Menagerie at Osterley Park' (1794-99). 

The golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus), also known as the Chinese or rainbow pheasant, is a colorful gamebird native to the mountainous forests of western China. Wild populations now exist in the UK, Canada, and the US. It belongs to the pheasant family and was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. The genus name Chrysolophus means 'with golden crest' in Greek, and pictus is Latin for 'painted'. It shares its genus with Lady Amherst’s pheasant, established by zoologist John Edward Gray in 1834.