Two Barred Crossbill on a Leafy Branch, Morris Bird Plate, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL." A single rose pink crossbill sits upright on a pale branch, its body and head turned to the left in profile. The dark bill crosses at the tip. The crown is flecked with darker red, the wings are black and gray with two broad white bars and white edged feathers, and the dark tail points down to the lower right, with a touch of yellow beneath it. At the lower left three lobed, toothed leaves hang from the branch, two in yellow green and one in a cooler blue green, and a bare twig rises at the right end of the branch.

The caption "TWO-BARRED CROSSBILL." is engraved in capitals below the picture, with a full stop. No plate number or engraver's credit appears on the plate. As the name says, the bird is drawn with two white bars across each wing, set against the black of the flight feathers.

The 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. This edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo, London, and the 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.