Long-tailed Duck Drake in Winter Plumage after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique photogravure, printed in black and gray without added color, showing a drake Long-tailed Duck in winter plumage swimming on calm water, the head bent down toward the right and the long central tail feathers raised steeply behind to the upper left. The head and neck are white with a large dark patch on the side of the face, the breast band and back are dark, and long pale scapular feathers trail over the dark folded wing and the white flank.

No name of the bird is printed on the plate. The lettering below the image reads "1/2 scale" at the center and "PLATE CLXXXVI." at the right, the fraction giving the size of the drawing against the living bird, and the signature "L. M. Medland" is drawn in the water at lower left. The long pointed tail, the white head with its dark cheek patch and the long pale scapulars identify the winter drake.

Charles Stonham's The Birds of the British Islands was published in London by E. Grant Richards in five volumes between 1906 and 1911, and this plate belongs to the third volume, which carries the account through the cormorants, herons, geese, swans and ducks. All of the plates are after drawings by Lilian M. Medland, who later married the ornithologist Tom Iredale and moved to Australia. Her drawings were reproduced in photogravure, a photomechanical intaglio process that keeps the soft gradations of tone of the original drawing, and the printed surface sits within a plate mark.

The sweeping line of the tail gives the plate a strong diagonal that suits a wide frame with generous margins.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.