UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The copper plate was acquired from Hughes & Kimber Ltd, and bears their oval stamp: 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' They were Whistler's preferred suppliers at this time, and supplied the plates for most of his known Houndsditch subjects. Out of all Whistler's surviving plates, 168 were obtained from that firm, and a high proportion, over sixty, date from 1887.

This plate, with Melon Shop, Houndsditch 355 and After the Sale, Clothes Exchange, Houndsditch 357 is on the smallest-sized Hughes & Kimber plate, 178 x 128 mm, which was one of Whistler's most frequently used formats; next in size is St James's Place, Houndsditch 255 at 82 x 178mm (possibly a plate of 128 x 178mm cut in half); then there are three larger plates, Clothes-Exchange, Houndsditch. No. 2 359 and Clothes-Exchange, Houndsditch. No. 2 359 at 229 x 153mm, and finally the largest one, Clothes-Exchange, Houndsditch. No. 1 358 at 162 x 242mm.

Whistler etched a lot of plates of the same size as Cutler Street, Houndsditch, mostly from the same maker, including other London scenes (i.e. Nut Shop, St James's Place, Houndsditch 356, Melon Shop, Houndsditch 355), Queen Victoria's Jubilee subjects (i.e.The Orator, Wild West Show 294), studies of models (i.e.Cameo, No. 1 (Mother and Child) 459), and a Belgian view (The Barrow - Quartier des Marolles, Brussels 346), most of which date from 1887. Also in the same size are views done on the Whistler's honeymoon in the Loire valley (i.e. Little Market Place, Tours 389) and in subsequent years in Amsterdam and Paris (i.e. Little Drawbridge, Amsterdam 448, Greengrocer's Shop, Paris 471).

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. It was cancelled posthumously with a diagonal line across the lower left corner.