Etchings Institutions search term: copley society
Fish Shop, Chelsea |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46623) | |
| Number: | 267 | |
| Date: | 1886 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 141 x 218 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at upper left | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 2 | |
| Known impressions: | 22 | |
| Catalogues: | K.264; M.259; W.214 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (22) | ||
The copper plate bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' It was a different size from any other plate of this period.
Fifty impressions were printed for the Society of British Artists in 1886, and the plate was supposedly cancelled after the printing of this edition. One version of the prospectus reads:
'THE FIRST FIFTY SUBSCRIBERS OF £5. 5S, WILL RECEIVE AN ETCHING BY MR. J. McN. WHISTLER (AFTER WHICH THE PLATE WILL BE DESTROYED), IN ADDITION TO FIVE CHANCES IN THE BALLOT. / TICKETS - ONE GUINEA EACH.'
15
15: [July 1886], GUW #09363.
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 across the lower left corner.