Gray Heron Standing by Reeds, Plate CL after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray tones without added color. It shows an adult Gray Heron, the Common Heron of British writers, standing on one leg on a bank at the water's edge, facing the viewer's left. The neck is drawn down into the shoulders and the long straight bill is held level. The white head with its black stripe and trailing crest, the streaked foreneck, the long loose breast plumes and the dark patch at the bend of the wing are carefully rendered. Tall reeds and bulrushes rise behind the bird, with open water to the left.

The plate is lettered "PLATE CL" at lower right and "2/7 scale" at lower center, the scale at which the bird is drawn. The artist's signature, "L. M. Medland", is drawn into the image. No species name is printed on the plate; the identification given here is made from the drawing itself.

This plate is from the third volume of The Birds of the British Islands by Charles Stonham, published by E. Grant Richards in London in five volumes between 1906 and 1911. The drawings are by Lilian M. Medland, and the plates were printed by photogravure, an intaglio process made from a photograph of the drawing, which gives the soft, continuous tone and the faint plate mark visible on the sheet. Each bird is shown at a stated fraction of life size, printed beneath the image.

A plain wood or black frame with a wide off white mat suits the quiet tones of this plate.

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