A selection of postcards published by Valentine’s & Sons, Dundee and London in their Winifred Austen Bird Series.
Winifred Maria Louise Austen (1876-1964)
Winifred Austen was an English illustrator, painter, etcher and aquatint engraver. Born in Ramsgate, Kent, on 12 July 1876, Austen’s parents were Josiah Austin, a Cornish naval surgeon, and Fanny (née Mann) Austin. Winifred amended the spelling of her surname from Austin to Austen from the time that she began to exhibit her work.
Austen's etchings of animals and birds were popular in the 1940s and 1950s. She was described as having great talent with the rare gift of sympathy with the animal world. For many seasons, she exhibited regularly at the annual exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter Etchers, and in 1922, she was elected a member of that society.
Austen married her agent Oliver O'Donnell Frick in 1917 and was widowed in 1923. They had no children. In 1926 she moved to a cottage in Suffolk where she remained for the rest of her life. She died at Bickley, Kent on 1 November 1964.
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