Peanuts For The Birds

Last Friday, Sotheby’s New York auction Magnificent Ornithology from The Collection of Brooks McCormick sold for the benefit of The International Crane Foundation raised £1,337,070 ($2,722,676) for the birds. Mark Catesby's The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which includes this hand-coloured etching of a larger white-bill woodpecker, sold for £322,644 ($657,000) and set an auction record for an 18th century work of Natural History. It's peanuts when you consider the age and quality of such illustrations compared with 20th Century junk by Picasso which sells for millions.