James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903)


The Two Ships (Kennedy 148; Glasgow 143.V) The rare etching and drypoint, 1875, on cream laid paper with a Britannia watermak, Glasgow's final fifth state, from the edition of thirty published by Messrs Dowdeswell in 1880, annotated No.1 in pencil lower left, with wide margins, faint mount staining and a pale brown stain lower right, otherwise in good condition Plate 207 x 133mm., Sheet 328 x 198mm.
|The ships are in St Katharine Docks in Wapping, which is where Whistler first stayed when he arrived in London in 1859.Twenty-two impressions are known to exist, ten of which are in the fifth state. The later impressions published by Dowdeswell seem to have been numbered, but it is not certain that all were recorded and it is possible that the numbers were partially rubbed out or replaced at a later stage.Only three impressions have appeared at auction in the past ten years.