Battersea: Early Morning |  Freer Gallery of Art (1903.261) | |
| Number: | 157 | |
| Date: | 1875 | |
| Medium: | etching and drypoint | |
| Size: | 115 x 229 mm | |
| Signed: | no | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 22 | |
| Catalogues: | K.152; M.149; W.129 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (22) | ||
TECHNIQUE
The first state was etched, with extensive additions and clarification of details in drypoint in the next two states.
PRINTING
It is very rare: only three impressions before cancellation are in public collections (, , ). All three are in warm black ink on ivory laid paper removed from a book, with old pen inscriptions on the verso; furthermore, two have an Arms of Amsterdam watermark (, ). This suggests that they were drawn, etched and printed in quick succession over a short period of time.
It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879. The cancelled impressions were printed in an edition of about 20 or 24 in black ink on cream or ivory laid paper, sometimes with a Van Gelder (i.e. ) or Strasbourg Lily watermark (, ). Four different cancelled etchings, including an impression of Battersea: Early Morning, were printed on the same sheet of ivory laid Van Gelder paper (, , , ).