Welsh ceramicist watercolours expected to fetch up to £25,000 at auction

A series of watercolours by a Welsh ceramicist are to go under the hammer at auction.

An album of original bird watercolours by William Weston Young are expected to fetch up to £25,000.

Young, who died in 1847, was one of the defining figures in Welsh ceramics and was best known for his work at the Cambrian Pottery and Nantgarw China Works.

He was an accomplished artist, inventor and entrepreneur and the accidental inventor of the modern blast-furnace brick.

Young lived in the Neath Valley and painted Welsh nature, depicting scientifically accurate birds and botanical specimens onto clay.

Rogers Jones Auctioneers are selling Young's original working drawings for his celebrated porcelain.

They are preserved within one bound volume of 41 sketches.

Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said Young's name carries "real weight" among collectors of Welsh ceramics, but his original watercolours "rarely appear on the market".

He said: "As the draughtsman at the Cambrian Pottery, and the man who later rescued the Nantgarw Pottery, his hand lies behind objects now held in major museum collections.

"That combination of true rarity, his standing in Welsh ceramic history, and an appealing natural-history subject makes the album especially desirable for collectors.

"It's certainly one to watch in the sale."

The collection will be sold on 27 July in Cardiff.