Robin Redbreast in Winter Snow by a Thatched Cottage, Morris, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "REDBREAST." A single robin stands upright on snow covered ground, facing to the right on long pale legs, its tail held out level behind. The orange red face and breast are bordered at the side by a band of blue gray, the crown, back and wings are olive brown, and the belly is whitish. Behind the bird at the right stands a snow covered thatched cottage with a chimney and a smaller thatched building beside it, with low bushes in blue gray to the left. Tufts of grass break through the snow in the foreground.

The caption is engraved in spaced capitals below the picture: "REDBREAST." There is no number or other lettering above the picture. A tiny credit is engraved in capitals in the snow at the lower left of the picture: "B. FAWCETT. DEL ET SC", the Latin abbreviations standing for delineavit et sculpsit, drew and engraved. Morris's Redbreast is the Robin, Erithacus rubecula.

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.