Mar 04, 2021 - Sale 2560

Sale 2560 - Lot 22

Price Realized: $ 6,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER
The Lime-Burner.

Etching and drypoint on antique cream laid paper, 1859. 249x172 mm; 9 3/4x6 7/8 inches, small margins. MacDonald's first state (of 2), with the second signature "Whistler" in drypoint lower left corner and with the uncleaned lower edge of the plate. A superb, richly-inked and early impression with all the details distinct.

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 (see lots lots 26and 27). 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. Kennedy 46; Glasgow 55.