White Winged Crossbill with Larch Cones, Hand Colored Bird Print, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL." A single coral red crossbill clings to a thick, sloping branch washed pale olive, its body hunched to the left and its head bowed to the right, looking down along the bill. The wings are black with two broad white bars, the tail black and slightly forked. Below the bird a slender larch twig with tufts of green needles crosses to the left, and two gray brown cones hang side by side at the right of the branch.

The caption "WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL." is engraved in capitals below the picture, with a full stop. No plate number or engraver's credit appears on the plate. The White-winged Crossbill is Loxia leucoptera; the white wing bars, left as bare paper within the black wing, are its most visible mark.

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.