The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Bottle of compressed globular form dates from 1876/1878; the second butterfly was added in 1893.

It is an illustration in a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894), published in 1878. ¹

Bottle of compressed globular form, Glasgow Museums

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no60).

Images

Subject

Description

Bottle of compressed globular form, Glasgow Museums

The Thompson catalogue described the subject, one of a pair of bottles, as follows:

'No. 204. Two Bottles, of compressed globular form. Long thick necks of very white porcelain with an ornamental band. The rest of the bottle with conventional design of large aster flowers and leaves united by elegantly curved branches. Mark, double ring, and Ta Ming Seuen-tih nien chi. a. d. 1426-1436. Height, 14 ¼ inches.' ²

Technique

Composition

Bottle of compressed globular form, Glasgow Museums

Hsiian-Aè, Bottle, Chinese: Fitzwilliam c.28-1920

The original bottle was given by Henry Thompson (1820-1894) to the Fitzwilliam Musem in 1920. It bears the mark of Hsiian-Aè.

This drawing was reproduced as Plate XIX in Thompson 1878 [more].

Bottle of compressed globular form, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

There is one preliminary study, Bottle of compressed globular form m0635.

History

Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879: possibly sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-533), and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930) (see Cylindrical Jar m0594).
• 1893: probably acquired by Deprez and Gutekunst, London dealers;
• 1893: signed by Whistler at the request of the New York dealer Max Williams (d. 1928), and offered to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) of Detroit; ³
• 1893: Freer bought one, Vase with slightly bulging body m0617, and the remainder were sold by Deprez and Gutekunst to Williams;
• 1904: in September Max Williams sold eleven drawings to Col. Robert James Bennet (1843-1916), Glasgow; ⁴
• 1905: on 24 February John Craibe Angus (1861-1910), Glasgow art dealer, submitted eleven drawings to Joseph Pennell (1860-1926);
• 1905: returned by Pennell to Craibe Angus, and sold at some time to a Scottish collector.
• 1925: given by Robert Douglas MacGregor (1850-1934) of Wiston Lodge, Lamington, Lanarkshire, to Glasgow City Art Gallery (now Glasgow Museums).

Exhibitions

• 1878: A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 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.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 636) as 'Bottle of compressed globular form'.

Authored by Whistler

• Thompson, Sir Henry, A Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain Forming the Collection of Sir Henry Thompson. Illustrated ... from Drawings by James Whistler ... and Sir Henry Thompson, London, 1878 (cat. no. 204) repr. pl. XIX.

Catalogues 1855-1905

SALE:

• Possibly Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-533).