Etching printed in black on fibrous, tissue-thin, cream laid Japan paper, 1859. 249x172 mm; 9 3/4x6 7/8 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). A brilliant, richly-inked and luminous impression.
This subject, one of the most celebrated and complex etchings from "The Thames Set," repeats the frame motif first seen in "French Set" plates such as The Rag Gatherers and La Vieille aux Loques and later used in many of the Venetian views. When the etching was first exhibited in London in 1860, the standing figure was identified as 'W. Jones, Lime-burner, Thames Street.' Beyond the lime-burner in the distance is a seated man in profile on a barrel and a slight view of the Thames.
Impressions like this, on Japan paper, are generally warmer and a little less defined than those printed on antique laid papers, like the following lot. Some of the details, such as the intricate, closely-spaced lines that make up the wooden frame at the top and sides, blend into patches of dark shading on the Japan paper. Kennedy 46.
