Whistler first sold an impression on 17 February 1889 to
Charles John Knowles (1840-1900) for £8.8.0.
16 He then sold a couple to dealers at the same price, the first on 27 March 1889 to the London art firm, The Fine Art Society, being No. 6 of 24 etchings sold.
17 Then they may have bought another or merely confirmed this sale on 21 May.
18 In any case one impression was bought on 24 May by
Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (

) and the number '6' written on the verso appears to confirm the sale. However '6' is also written on the verso of the impression bought by
Howard Mansfield (1849-1938), and this may also have come from the F.A.S. (

). Whistler sold another among 18 impressions to Knoedler & Co. in July 1889.
19 This may have been one marked '1st State - Early proof' which bears Knoedler's stock number 33003 (

).
Whistler gave one impression to
Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) (

) and sold several more impressions to Kennedy's firm, H. Wunderlich & Co., his main dealers in New York. The first two, on 16 April 1889 ('15' in a list of 18 sold) and 6 April 1891 cost £8.8.0 each; the next, in the summer of 1897 was only £7.7.0; and the last, in 1900, was back to £8.8.0.
20
Bryan Lathrop (1844-1916) almost certainly bought his impression from Wunderlich's, since it bears their stock no. 35398 (

). In 1903
David A. Kennedy (fl.1895-1915) asked Whistler for another impression, but there is no record of one being available.
21