Isabelline Wheatear on a Coastal Rock, Antique Bird Print, Morris, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "ISABELLINE WHEATEAR." A single plump bird stands on a flat rock, facing to the left, with the long tail held out level behind it to the right. The upperparts are warm sandy brown, the face and breast pale orange buff, the wings brown with paler feather edges, and the belly whitish. The tail is white at the base and black toward the tip. The top of the rock is washed pale green over a base of buff blocks, and at the left pale blue water stretches away to a faint gray headland.

The caption is engraved in spaced capitals below the picture: "ISABELLINE WHEATEAR." There is no number or other lettering above the picture, and no engraver's credit within it. The Isabelline Wheatear is Oenanthe isabellina.

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