Eider Drake Swimming, Plate CLXXXVII after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique photogravure, printed in black and gray without added color, showing a drake Eider swimming to the right on gently rippled water. A black cap runs from the forehead through the eye, the cheek and the long sloping bill are pale, and the white of the breast and back meets the black flank and belly in a clean line. A round white patch shows on the rear flank above the dark tail, and one foot is visible at the surface.

No name of the bird is printed on the plate. The lettering below the image reads "1/2 scale" at the center and "PLATE CLXXXVII." at the right, the fraction giving the size of the drawing against the living bird, and the signature "L. M. Medland" is drawn in the water at lower right. The long wedge-shaped head profile, the black cap and the white back over black underparts identify the drake Eider.

Charles Stonham's The Birds of the British Islands was published in London by E. Grant Richards in five volumes between 1906 and 1911, and this plate belongs to the third volume, which carries the account through the cormorants, herons, geese, swans and ducks. All of the plates are after drawings by Lilian M. Medland, who later married the ornithologist Tom Iredale and moved to Australia. Her drawings were reproduced in photogravure, a photomechanical intaglio process that keeps the soft gradations of tone of the original drawing, and the printed surface sits within a plate mark.

The large, simply drawn figure and the broad areas of black and white give the plate a calm, strong presence on a wall.

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