CHATSWORTH FINE ART SALE April 29th, 30th & May 1st 2026

73 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 “Landscape with Trees and Flowers,” silk embroidery on blue poplin. Signed l.r. ‘Lily Yeats’, approx. 21cms x 34cms (8¼” x 13¼”). (1) Provenance: Private Collection, United States * Depicting a green lawn, with a floral border and trees in the background, this embroidered tapestry is the work of Mary Susan ‘Lily’Yeats, sister of Elizabeth ‘Lolly’ and of William Butler, and Jack Yeats. With its almost psychedelic pattern of flowers, in bright orange, pink and red, contrasting with the calm spreading branches of the fir tree in the background, the tapestry relates to other works by the Yeats sisters, including altar embroideries depicting biblical scenes in St. Nahi’s Church in Dundrum, Co. Dublin. While this work may have been designed by Lolly, Lily also produced embroidered tapestries designed by a range of artists.
Born in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, in 1866, Mary Susan ‘Lily’Yeats was one of four children of John Butler and Susan (née Pollexfen) Yeats. Much of her early life was spent in Sligo, until in 1874 she joined her siblings in London. Four years later, the family moved to Bedford Park, to the new Arts and Crafts garden suburb at Chiswick, while Lily attended Notting Hill School. In 1881 she moved to Dublin, where she enrolled, with Elizabeth, at the Metropolitan School of Art. Returning to England, she then stayed with her aunt and invalid mother in Huddersfield, before rejoining her family in Bedford Park in 1888. She studied embroidery with May Morris, daughter of William Morris, before becoming herself an embroidery teacher at William Morris & Co. Always prone to ill-health, in 1896 Lily contracted typhoid fever in France. She recovered and years later settled in Dublin, co-founding the Dun Emer Guild, which was run and staffed by women. Lily ran the embroidery section, which included supervising and making banners and vestments for Loughrea cathedral. In 1904, the enterprise divided into the Dun Emer Guild and Dun Emer Industries, with Evelyn Gleeson running the former, and the Yeats sisters taking on the latter. Four years later the sisters founded Cuala Industries, and Cuala Press. In 1931 Lily again fell ill, due to overwork. The embroidery section of Cuala Industries was wound up and Lily continued to work on her own, before her death in 1949. Neither of the sisters married, and for many years their contribution to the Irish Arts and Crafts movement was greatly under-appreciated. Peter Murray 2026 €3,000 - €4,000 775. Mary Susan ‘Lily’Yeats (1866-1949)