Nightingale Perched among Lobed Leaves, Morris Bird Print, 1896

This is an original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "NIGHTINGALE." A single bird perches on an upright gray branch, facing right, with its body level and its rounded tail stretched out to the left. It is plain olive brown above, with a darker brown folded wing, a pale cream throat and underparts and a yellowish bill. Its yellow legs grip the branch, one foot above the other. Lobed leaves colored pale blue green and yellow green stand behind its back, and two more hang below on either side of the branch.

The caption "NIGHTINGALE." 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 Nightingale is Luscinia megarhynchos.

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.