Six Studies of Duck and Sawbill Heads and Bills after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique photogravure, printed in black and gray without added color: a comparative plate of six figures showing the heads and bills of ducks and sawbills. Fig. I, at upper left, is a black head in side view whose bill carries a large rounded knob at its base and a pale patch around the nostril, the knobbed bill of a drake scoter. Fig. II, at upper right, is the white head of a drake Smew with its black patch around the eye and a short bill with a toothed edge. Fig. III, Fig. IV and Fig. V, in the middle row, show three bills seen from above, broad, long and narrow, and short. Fig. VI, at the foot, is a dark head in side view with the long, narrow bill of a sawbill, its edges set with backward pointing teeth and the tip hooked.

No name of any bird is printed on the plate. The figures are lettered "Fig I." to "Fig VI.", the plate number "PLATE CXCVII." is at lower right, and the initials "L.M.M." are written below it. No scale note appears on this plate.

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 toothed sawbill bill at the foot of the sheet makes a striking detail, and the plate pairs naturally with the preceding sheet of bills.

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