Mark Catesby, English, born Essex, - The red Wing'd Starling. The broad leaved candle-berry Myrtle. - 1727-1731 - T-Shirt

This hand-colored copperplate engraving pairs a perched red-winged blackbird with a sprig of candleberry myrtle, set on a single plate from Mark Catesby's natural history studies of 1727-1731.

Visual Elements & Composition

The cream ground fills nearly half the plate, and the engraved lines of the bird and branch sit on it in fine black. A vertical figure of the bird anchors the composition, while the myrtle spreads across the lower field with clusters of blue berries. Touches of sage green in the leaves, coral red on the bird's wing, and teal blue in the fruit give the hand-colored plate its warmth. Lettering runs across the sheet: the plate number "T 49.", the English titles "The red Wing'd Starling" and "The broad leaved candle-berry Myrtle," and a Latin caption naming the bird and the myrtle.

Meaning & Symbolism

Catesby, an English naturalist and artist born in Essex and active in London until his death in 1749, drew North American birds and plants together in their shared habitats, a method that shaped American ornithology and botany. The candleberry myrtle was prized in the eighteenth century for the wax its berries yielded, so the sprig stands for the practical wealth of the New World as much as for its beauty. The bird and plant side by side record a single landscape, reading as both science and a view of a continent newly catalogued for Europe.

On the Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee

A plate like this was built to be read at close range, and a tee carries it across the chest, where it is seen at conversation distance as the wearer moves. The bird and myrtle sit on the front as they sat on the page, with the Latin and English lettering still legible to anyone standing beside you. The printed plate becomes a small museum sheet worn on the body.