Fieldfare on a Green Stump, Hand Colored Thrush Print, Morris, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "FIELDFARE." A single fieldfare perches in right profile on an upright broken stump washed green, head raised and alert, with the long dark tail extending to the left. The head and nape are blue gray, the back and wings brown, the rump blue gray. The throat and breast are ochre buff marked with black arrowheads, and the flanks are white with dark scalloping. The dark bill is yellow at the base. A thin side twig projects from the stump at the upper left.

The caption "FIELDFARE." is engraved in capitals below the picture, with a full stop. No plate number or engraver's credit appears on the plate. The Fieldfare is Turdus pilaris.

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.