Female Pintail and a Brown Plumaged Duck after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray, uncolored. It shows two ducks in brown plumage, one above the other, each standing on the ground before reeds. The upper bird, Fig I, faces left and is a female Pintail, with a slender neck, a plain finely speckled head, a slim gray bill and a long pointed tail. The lower bird, Fig II, faces right, with a rounder head, a shorter bill and closely scalloped back and flanks; it is shown in brown plumage at the same scale, and its species is not lettered.

The sheet is lettered "PLATE CLXXV." in italic capitals at lower right. Each figure has its own number at right, "Fig I." and "Fig II.", and below each is the note "1/4 scale", meaning both birds are drawn at one quarter of their natural size. A faint monogram of the artist is drawn at lower left of the lower figure.

The plate comes from The Birds of the British Islands by Charles Stonham, published in London by E. Grant Richards in five volumes between 1906 and 1911. This sheet belongs to the third volume, which takes the water birds in systematic order, from the cormorants and herons through the geese and swans to the ducks. The illustrations are after drawings by Lilian M. Medland and are reproduced in photogravure, a photomechanical intaglio process that carries the soft tones of a wash drawing and leaves a plate mark around the image. As throughout the work, no name is printed beneath the bird; each plate carries only its number, a note of the scale of reproduction and the artist's signature. Medland later married the ornithologist Tom Iredale and moved to Australia.

Printed in soft black and gray with wide margins, the plate suits a plain frame with a generous mat, alone or beside other plates from the same volume.

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