UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Lobster Pots - Selsea Bill

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1917.469)
Number: 241
Date: 1880/1881
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 121 x 203 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right
Inscribed: 'Selsea Bill'
Set/Publication: 'Second Venice Set', 1886
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 32
Catalogues: K.235; M.233; W.174
Impressions taken from this plate  (32)

STATE

Four states are known before cancellation.

State 1

Impression: K2350301
Signed with a butterfly at lower right, and inscribed below and to left of this 'Selsea Bill -'
The foreground is complete; with several scratches and some small flecks of foul biting along the bottom of the image; four prominent spots of foul biting at upper left and one prominent spot above the butterfly.
Kennedy reversed the order of states for Lobster Pots - Selsea Bill, making the incorrect assumption that details were subtracted rather than added. 7

7: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 235).

State 2

Impression: K2350303
The five prominent spots of foul biting at upper left and above the butterfly are removed; small flecks of foul biting along the bottom of the image increase and become more distinct.

State 3

Impression: K2350205
Two shadowy sailing vessels are added in drypoint, in the distance at upper left.

State 4

Impression: K2350102
Three additional sails are added to left of the original sailing vessels; indistinct silhouettes of two figures are added at upper centre right.
The sails, sailing vessels and figures in the background became worn during the printing of this state, and clarity of the shapes varies greatly from impression to impression. Foul biting and scratches along the bottom of the image also became less distinct.
Published in this state with A Set of Twenty-six Etchings (the 'Second Venice Set') in 1886.

State 4 (cancelled)

Impression: K2350402
Cancelled with crossed diagonal and zigzag lines.