Lily Attey Daff

Lily Attey Daff (born England 26 March 1885, died Dunedin 3 May 1945) was a British-born designer and artist who worked in New Zealand and published watercolour paintings and line drawings of many native New Zealand birds and flowers.

Early life and education

Kea, The Avicultural Magazine, March 1934. Artist: Lily A. Daff Lily Daff was born in Upton, London, on 16 March 1885. She took courses in drawing and painting at the London Polytechnic but was also known to have completed at least one course at King Edward Technical College in Dunedin.

Career After her polytechnic training, Daff worked as an illustrator for Christmas card producer Raphael Tuck & Sons. Having left London on the Esperance Bay, Daff arrived in Wellington in 1926 and obtained work with the Government Publicity Department.

In June 1932, Daff, who had served on the staff of the Otago Museum for a year, left Dunedin for Wellington to fulfill a commission for the New Zealand Bird Protection Society to paint a series of pictures of New Zealand native birds.

In 1933 she was offered and accepted a position on the Otago Museum staff, "and began what she later described as the happiest period of her life".

Daff illustrated Walter Oliver's book New Zealand Birds and Pérrine Moncrieff's New Zealand Birds and How to Identify Them. Her middle name, commonly spelled Atty, shows as Attey on her birth certificate.

Selected publications