Wild Duck (Female) with Duckling, Plate CLXX after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray, uncolored. It shows a female Mallard, or Wild Duck, swimming to the right in front of tall reeds with her head bent down toward a single downy duckling at her side. Her plumage is mottled brown throughout, with a dark crown and a dark line through the eye, the bill is pale, and the folded wing shows the speculum framed by two white bars. The duckling is streaked and spotted, and the water is drawn in light horizontal ripples.

The sheet is lettered "PLATE CLXX." in italic capitals at lower right. Below the image is the note "1/2 scale", meaning the bird is drawn at half its natural size. The artist's signature "L. M. Medland" is written in the image at lower left.

The plate comes from The Birds of the British Islands by Charles Stonham, published in London by E. Grant Richards in five volumes between 1906 and 1911. This sheet belongs to the third volume, which takes the water birds in systematic order, from the cormorants and herons through the geese and swans to the ducks. The illustrations are after drawings by Lilian M. Medland and are reproduced in photogravure, a photomechanical intaglio process that carries the soft tones of a wash drawing and leaves a plate mark around the image. As throughout the work, no name is printed beneath the bird; each plate carries only its number, a note of the scale of reproduction and the artist's signature. Medland later married the ornithologist Tom Iredale and moved to Australia.

Printed in soft black and gray with wide margins, the plate suits a plain frame with a generous mat, alone or beside other plates from the same volume.

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