Yellow Browed Warbler Hanging from a Forked Twig, Antique Print, Morris, 1896

About this sheet

This is an original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER." A single bird hangs head down from a pale lilac-gray branch, gripping it with one foot at the left, its tail raised above and its bill pointing to the lower right. The back is moss green, and the dark wing carries bold white edges and bars with a cool blue-white sheen on the inner feathers. A yellow stripe runs above the eye, and the underparts are whitish. To the right the branch forks downward to a sprig of fresh green leaves, with a tiny beetle engraved on one leaf.

The engraved caption below the picture reads "YELLOW-BROWED WARBLER." with a hyphen and a full stop. There is no plate number above the picture and no engraver's credit on the sheet. The yellow-browed warbler is Phylloscopus inornatus, named for the pale yellow stripe over the eye shown on the plate.

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 fourth edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo, London, and this plate comes from 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.

Condition: Even age toning. Marked handling soiling along the bottom, right and top edges. Scattered light foxing in the margin. Slight wear at the bottom right corner. Several larger brown marks. Minor edge wear, a shallow nick along the right edge.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.