UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

On the verso of the copper plate is the oval maker's mark, 'C. SERVANT / PLANEUR / 45, B DES GDS AUGUSTINS' (Boulevard des Grands Augustins). This was not Whistler's usual supplier. Servant provided ten of Whistler's late copper plates, including Boulevard Poissonière, Paris 483, Polichinelle, Jardin du Luxembourg 467, Antony's Print Shop, Rue de Seine 477, Café Corazza, Paris 484 and Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris 481, all of which were printed in very small editions, and Confections pour Dames, Under the Statue, Luxembourg Gardens 464, The Band, Luxembourg Gardens 466, Sleeping Child, Ajaccio 488 and Flaming Forge 490, which may not have been printed at all in Whistler's life-time - certainly no impressions are known.

Three of these copper plates are of unique size, and probably all are Paris subjects: Café Corazza, Palais Royal (133 x 221mm), French houses (225 x 130mm), and finally Boulevard Poissonière (159 x 232mm). Confections pour Dames is close in size to Café Corazza, Palais Royal, and may have been within the range of variations in a particular size sold by Servant.

The Paris copper plates may have remained in Whistler's Paris studio after he left. Eventually, they were sorted, cleaned and stored by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), under strict instructions from the artist, 'In Paris you have some, have you not, in your closets? - and at the atelier I have scarcely ventured to look on the shelves for a long time back! - Make some kind of a note of them - and lock them up - ' he ordered in 1901. 3

The copper plate of Confections pour Dames remained in Whistler's possession until his death, and was bequeathed to Miss Birnie Philip, who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line from bottom left to upper right. It is contained in an envelope inscribed 'Unpublished plate / slightly bitten in parts / French'.