Lesser Whitethroat on a Slender Branch, Antique Morris Bird Print, 1896

This is an original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "LESSER WHITETHROAT." A single bird perches on a slender pale branch, facing left, with its long dark tail raised to the upper right. It has a gray crown, an orange yellow eye, a white throat, a buff yellow wash on the side of the breast, a grayish brown back and dark brown wing feathers. Its gray legs grip the branch. Sprays of narrow pale green leaves hang from the branch at the upper left and the lower right.

The caption "LESSER WHITETHROAT." 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 Lesser Whitethroat is Curruca curruca.

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.