The Desk |  British Museum (1907-04-08-2) | |
| Number: | 129 | |
| Date: | 1874/1876 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 216 x 139 mm | |
| Signed: | no | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 5 | |
| Known impressions: | 6 | |
| Catalogues: | K.133; M.131; W.104 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (6) | ||
The copper plate has the maker's oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' (x 4). It is similar in size to several other Hughes & Kimber plates (Florence Leyland 136,
Nude Reclining 126,
Wych Street, London 176), and another unstamped plate (Under Old Battersea Bridge 168), all dating from between 1874 and 1878.
The copper plate was cancelled with diagonal lines. The plate was probably sold at Whistler's bankruptcy sale and bought by the Fine Art Society, London. It may have been printed with the intention of publishing it with the 'Cancelled Set' by the Fine Art Society, in 1879 (), but was not published with the set as usually sold.
The plate was probably among those acquired by Robert Dunthorne (b. ca 1851), and then by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935.