UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Booth at a Fair was not published.

It was first exhibited, as far as is known, by two print dealers, Obach & Co. in London and H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York in 1903. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) bought an impression from the Wunderlich show (). 11

Following Whistler's death, an impression was shown at the Grolier Club, New York in 1904 and one was lent by John Charles Sigismund Day (1826-1908) to the London Memorial Exhibition in 1905. 12

Whistler sold three impressions to Messrs Dowdeswell, London, at £3.3.0 each between July and September 1887. 13

He then printed four more impressions, and sold one to the print dealer Thomas M. McLean (b. ca 1832) at that same price in October. 14

In May of the following year he raised the price to £4.4.0 and sold one to H. Wunderlich & Co. of New York, to be forwarded to Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912). 15 A couple of years later Whistler noted that he still had two impressions in stock. 16

At auction the price was surprisingly low: an impression from the collection of the late Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) was bought by Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915) of Deprez & Gutekunst at Sotheby’s, 3 March 1892 (lot 306) for only £0.18.0.

This compares to £10.10.0 recorded in an account sent by Wunderlich & Co. to Whistler in 1897; there seems to be no reason for this price increase so the price may be a mistake. 17 Apart from their purchases from Whistler, Wunderlich's bought an impression from the distinguished collection of Bernard Buchanan MacGeorge (1845?-1924), and sold it to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1903 (). Rather surprisingly, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) sold another impression to Freer in 1905 ().