UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Recto, above; verso, below.

The copper plate bears the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' Plates of similar size, mostly from the same maker and dating from 1887, include St James's Place, Houndsditch [255], Dipping the Flag [308], Savoy Scaffolding [317], The Long Seats, Gray's Inn [283] and Tilbury [312].

The plate was cancelled with crossed diagonal lines, probably in 1891. Whistler discussed with Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) the possibility of printing one or two impressions from cancelled plates so that prospective buyers could see that no further prints were possible. Whistler's 'secretary' William Bell wrote when Kennedy visited London in June 1891: 'in accordance with his intentions expressed to you the other day, Mr Whistler has already destroyed a great number of the plates in question, and herewith sends you the proofs as an interesting fact of reference - ' 10

Others cancelled at this time, and in the same way, include Little Steps, Chelsea [269], Gates, City, London [280], The Dray Horse [292], Petticoat Lane [299], The Ramparts, Sandwich [324], The Tow-Path [325] and Little Nude Figure [330], Church, Amsterdam [445] and possibly Nora Quinn [364] and Jews' Quarter, Amsterdam [449].

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.