Heads of the Whooper Swan and Bewick's Swan after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray, uncolored. It shows two swan heads in profile facing left, one above the other, drawn large to compare the bills. The upper head, Fig I, is a Whooper Swan: the pale base of the bill runs forward in a long pointed wedge toward the nostril, leaving the front of the bill dark. The lower head, Fig II, is the smaller Bewick's Swan, in which the pale patch at the base is short and rounded and the dark covers the front half of the bill and more. The white feathering of head and neck is worked in fine strokes.

The sheet is lettered "PLATE CLXVI." in italic capitals at lower right. Below the image is the note "2/3 scale", meaning the heads are drawn at two thirds of natural size. Medland's monogram, the initials "LMM", is drawn in the image at lower left. The two heads are numbered "Fig I." and "Fig II." at left.

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.