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Tour Saint Antoine, Loches

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1889.9)
Number: 414
Date: 1888
Medium: etching
Size: 149 x 81 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 5
Catalogues: K.392; M.389
Impressions taken from this plate  (5)

TECHNIQUE

It is pure etching.

PRINTING

Few impressions of Tour Saint Antoine, Loches were printed. One was printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper with a partial 'Pro Patria' watermark (); another has a 'FELLOWS / 1801' watermark (); and two are on cream laid paper without a watermark (, ). Most are trimmed to the platemark and signed on the tab with Whistler's butterfly and 'imp.' to show that he had printed them. In one case the tab may have been accidentally trimmed off and this inscription is on the verso ().
In 1931 Nathaniel Sparks (1880-1956) recorded printing '3 Proofs ... Plate in perfect condition' on paper from Whistler's collection, at the request of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). 8 These have not been located and may have been destroyed by Miss Philip; it seems unlikely that she would have allowed Sparks to keep more than one.

8: Note dated 18 June 1931, repr. in Martin Hopkinson, 'Nathaniel Sparks's Printing of Whistler's Etchings', Print Quarterly, 1999, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 340-341, 349.