Alpine Warbler or Alpine Accentor on a Rock, Hand Colored Print, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "ALPINE WARBLER." A single bird crouches on a low pale rock, facing to the right, its body held level and the tail stretched out behind to the left. The upperparts are warm brown, boldly scalloped with darker feather centers, and the wing shows a blue gray patch edged in white. The white throat is finely spotted with black, the underparts are rufous brown, and the legs and feet are orange brown. The rock is washed in pale gray and olive, with pale gray rocky shapes rising behind it at the right.

The caption is engraved in spaced capitals below the picture: "ALPINE WARBLER." There is no number or other lettering above the picture, and no engraver's credit within it. Morris's Alpine Warbler is the bird now called the Alpine Accentor, Prunella collaris.

This plate comes from the fourth edition of A History of British Birds by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), rector of Nunburnholme in Yorkshire, who wrote the text. The edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo of London, and this plate belongs to the third volume, whose title page is dated 1896 and states that the plates are colored by hand. The wood blocks for the plates of the work were engraved by Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield in Yorkshire. Each plate combines an engraved black key block with a printed gray tint, finished by hand in watercolor.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.