UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The copper plate bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' The plate is similar in size to Savoy Scaffolding [317], Dipping the Flag [308] and The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283], all dating from 1887.

It is recorded in a list of copper plates in Whistler's studio as 'Market Place Tobacco Shop' / 7 x 3 3/8"' which is 178 x 85mm; in the same list 'St James Square Houndsditch' is recorded as 7 x 3 1/4", which is 178 x 83mm. 12 This suggests a vertical plate but the measurements are often given in reverse, and this would therefore become a plate of 83 x 178mm. St James's Place, Houndsditch is 82 x178mm, and is an horizontal plate. These measurements and the subject are thus similar and it is very likely that the plate was recorded under two different names by mistake.

The plate was in Whistler's studio at his death, and was bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line over the right half of the plate.