Gray Lag Goose Swimming with a Gosling, Plate CLIX 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 Lag Goose swimming to the viewer's left with a single downy gosling at its breast. The adult's head is bowed, showing the heavy, plain pale bill with its white nail and no white at the base, the shaded head and neck and the barred feathers of the back and flanks. The small gosling, in soft pale down, swims close beside the parent, and the water is drawn with gentle ripples.

The plate is lettered "PLATE CLIX." at lower right and "3/8 scale" at lower center, the scale at which the bird is drawn. The artist's signature, "L. 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.