Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879/1883: possibly among drawings sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-33) or one of 'three sketches' sold at Sotheby's, London, 19 February 1883 (lot 366), and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930).
• 1907: Obach & Co, London dealers, sold six drawings to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, on 22 October 1907; 1
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 590).

Exhibitions

• 1878: A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 1878.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. nos. 156-161) as 'Illustrations to Sir Henry Thompson's catalogue of his Collection of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain, 1878.'

The porcelain, the final drawings, and the newly published catalogue, were exhibited in Murray Marks's shop in London, the private view being held on 30 April 1878.

It is almost certain that the drawings lent by Pickford Waller to the 1905 exhibition were among some of the final drawings for the Thompson catalogue. These included Globular-shaped Bottle with long neck, and a deep dish [M.0628], Plate, Bowl with a cover surmounted by a cup-shaped knob, Globular-shaped Bottle with long neck, and Eight-sided Bowl [M.0633], Large Cylindrical Vase with hollow neck [M.0638], Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge [M.0640], Globular Bottle with long thin neck, Cylindrical-shaped Pot with flat cover surmounted by a knob, and Shallow Bowl [M.0644], Oviform Pot and cover [M.0647], and Beaker with expanding neck [M.0649].

However, another group, owned in 1905 by Waller but acquired shortly after the exhibition by C. L. Freer, could have been the ones selected for exhibition. These were Cylindrical Jar [M.0594], Bottle [M.0599] Oviform Ginger-Jar with Bell-Shaped Cover [M.0601], Cylindrical Vase with thick neck [M.0622], Square Canister with long neck [M.0624], Square Canister with expanding neck [M.0626], Square Canister with square neck, and saucer-shaped Dish [M.0631].

By the terms of Freer's will, this drawing cannot be lent to another venue.