Black Throated Thrush with Leaves, Antique Hand Colored Print, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "BLACK-THROATED THRUSH". A single thrush perches in right profile on an upright green stump, the body horizontal and the tail raised behind to the upper left. The upperparts are olive brown, the throat and breast a black bib drawn as overlapping scale-like feathers with a blue gray sheen, and the belly creamy white. The bill is gray with a yellow base. At the lower left a curving stalk carries two broad pointed leaves, one yellow green and one blue green.

The caption "BLACK-THROATED THRUSH" is engraved in capitals below the picture, without a full stop. No plate number or engraver's credit appears on the plate. The Black-throated Thrush is Turdus atrogularis.

The 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. This edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo, London, and the 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.