UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The copper plate does not have a maker's stamp but is the same size as Exeter Street [274] and Bébés, Jardin du Luxembourg [463], both dating from 1887. It is very close in size to a lot of plates from the same year including London subjects for instance T. A. Nash's Greengrocer's Shop [298] and Cutler Street, Houndsditch [361] and Naval Review etchings - The Visitors' Boat [303], and Bunting [304] - as well as others done in France in 1888, such as Little Market Place, Tours [389].

The plate was listed in Whistler's studio as 'The Baby & the Ball (Grays Inn) 7 x 5' and/or 'Grays Inn The Hoop 7 x 5'. The size, 7 x 5", is 127 x 178mm: it is possible that Whistler got confused and listed the etching twice under different names. 11

The copper plate was in Whistler's estate 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.