UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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The Turret Ship

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46930)
Number: 305
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 128 x 178 mm
Signed: butterfly at right
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 14
Catalogues: K.321; M.316
Impressions taken from this plate  (14)
Etching: PK321_01
As with several of the 'Naval Review' copper plates, this bears the oval stamp of 'HUGHES & KIMBER (LIMITED) / MANUFACTURERS / LONDON E.C.' (Dry Docks, Southampton 302, Bunting 304, Troopships 307, Her Majesty's Fleet: Evening 310 and Tilbury 312).
Whistler etched a lot of plates of the same size, mostly from the same maker, including London scenes (Old Battersea Bridge, No. 2 275), other Jubilee subjects (i.e. The Orator, Wild West Show 294), studies of models (i.e. Cameo, No. 1 (Mother and Child) 459), and a view of Brussels (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 and in subsequent years in Amsterdam and Paris.
The copper plates for the 'Jubilee Set' were in Whistler's studio in Paris in the 1890s, and returned to London when it was sold at the turn of the century. 11

11: Whistler to R. B. Philip, [8 March 1901], GUW #04797.

The copper plate for The Turret Ship was in Whistler's estate and bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), who gave it to the University of Glasgow in 1935. It was cancelled with a diagonal line at left.