Great Sedge Warbler or Great Reed Warbler Clinging to a Reed, Morris, 1896

This is an original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "GREAT SEDGE WARBLER." A single bird clings to a green reed stem, facing right, with its head and long pointed bill tilted steeply upward and its broad tail fanned out to the left. It is plain olive brown above, with a darker brown wing, a pale stripe over the eye, a warm ochre buff wash on the breast and a paler belly. One foot grips the stem below the body. Long green reed blades rise behind the bird and cross above its back.

The caption "GREAT SEDGE WARBLER." is engraved in capitals in the lower margin. There is no number or other lettering above the picture, and no engraver's credit can be read within it. The bird named here as the Great Sedge Warbler is the species now usually called the Great Reed Warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus.

A History of British Birds was written by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), rector of Nunburnholme in Yorkshire. The wood blocks for the plates of the work were engraved by Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield in Yorkshire. This plate comes from the fourth edition, issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo of London, and belongs to the third volume, whose title page is dated 1896 and states that the plates are colored by hand. 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.