Garganey Drake Preening on the Water after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray, uncolored. It shows a Garganey drake sitting on the water, facing left, with the head bent down and the bill tucked into the feathers of the breast as it preens. A bold white stripe runs over the eye above a dark eye line, and the crown and cheeks are finely streaked. The breast is closely scalloped, the paler flanks are crossed by fine dark bars, the long drooping scapulars lie in dark blades striped with white along the back, and the undertail is spotted.

The sheet is lettered "PLATE CLXXVIII" in italic capitals at lower right. Below the image is the note "2/3 scale", meaning the bird is drawn at two thirds of its natural size. The artist's signature "L. M. Medland" is written in the image at lower right.

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.