After Lilian Medland, Glossy Ibis, 1909, Print

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This antique bird print shows a glossy ibis standing in shallow water beside reeds, the long decurved bill held down, … Read more This antique bird print shows a glossy ibis standing in shallow water beside reeds, the long decurved bill held down, the dark plumage worked so that the metallic sheen on the wing coverts still reads in a plate printed without colour. It is plate clvii of charles stonham's the birds of the british islands, drawn by lilian m. Medland and printed in monochrome, and it carries the plate number and the artist's signature in the lower margin together with the fraction giving the scale at which the bird is reproduced. The plate comes from the birds of the british islands by charles stonham, issued in five volumes in london by e. Grant richards between 1906 and 1911 with three hundred and eighteen plates. Every figure was drawn by lilian marguerite medland, one of the small number of women who made a living as a bird artist in britain at the turn of the century, and her monogram appears on the sheet. Medland worked from skins and from living birds, and the plates are notable for the quiet accuracy of their posture and for the soft modelling of plumage that a monochrome process could carry. She later emigrated to australia, where she illustrated the standard works on that country's birds, and her british plates have been sought after ever since. Stonham's plates are printed in monochrome rather than colour, and that is the point of them. Freed from the flat washes of a hand coloured bird book, medland could model a bird in tone alone, and the result reads more like a drawing than a coloured plate. A single sheet hangs extremely well in a plain frame with a generous mount, and a run of three or four from the same volume makes one of the most satisfying groups in natural history printing, quiet enough for a hallway, a study or a dining room and entirely at home beside photographs. All four corners are present and read as complete. The four edges follow a straight line with no nick or chip of any consequence. The paper is lightly and unevenly toned, a little browner towards the edges. A few small brown spots are present in the blank margin, consistent with light foxing. There are also several larger brown marks in the margin. This report was measured from the full resolution scan of the front of the sheet, reading each corner and each edge at its own pixels rather than from a reduced copy. The back of the sheet has not been examined, nor has the sheet been seen out of the scanner under raking light. Please review the images for further condition details. 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. See less