Thrush Nightingale on a Mossy Branch, Antique Morris Bird Print, 1896

This is an original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "THRUSH NIGHTINGALE." A single bird stands on a thick branch washed green and pink, facing left, with its long brown tail raised to the upper right. It is olive brown above, with a darker brown wing, a whitish throat and a pale breast and flanks spotted with soft brown. The bill is yellow at the base and the legs are pinkish. A twig with rounded, toothed leaves in pale blue green and olive springs from the branch above the bird's back and again below its tail.

The caption "THRUSH 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 Thrush Nightingale is Luscinia luscinia.

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.