The Open Book |  Hunterian Art Gallery (49940) | |
| Number: | 89 | |
| Date: | 1861 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 152 x 115 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | '1861' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 17 | |
| Catalogues: | K.84; M.79 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (17) | ||
The copper plate is close in size to another 1861 plate, Battersea Dawn (Cadogan Pier) [95]. Neither of these plates have the maker's stamp on the verso. It was cancelled with zigzag diagonal lines at upper left.
The plate was probably among those bought at Whistler's bankruptcy sale by the Fine Art Society, London. It was published in the set of Cancelled Plates by the Fine Art Society in 1879.
The copper plate was probably among those acquired from Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) in exchange for lithographs. 3 The plate was later given by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow in 1935.
3: Note by R. Birnie Philip, inserted in the album, Hunterian Art Gallery.