RARE BOOK AND COLLECTOR'S SALE July 30th & 31st, 2024

95 Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 681. [Yeats, Jack B.] A small collection of Publications and Ephemera, including: Commentary, December 1941, including a short story by Jack Yeats; Páistidheacht, by Dr. Séamus Ó Beirn, cover by Jack Yeats; The Mask, v.5 no. 1, July 1912, with article by Jack Yeats on how he produced his plays for the miniature stage; The Quartier Latin, January 1899, with illus. at p. 296 by Jack Yeats; Modern Aspects of Irish Art, by Jack Yeats, 1922, Cumann Leigheacht an Phobail; Recent Paintings by Jack B. Yeats, Wildenstein, New Bond St. (London), March 1953. As a collection, w.a.f. (6) €100 - €200 682. Dun Emer and Cuala Press. A collection of four specially designed bookplates, for Coimhghin Ó Dubhthaigh, Madeline Jones, Constantinus Curran, and Eleanor and Fred Reid respectively, the last three by Jack Yeats; with an attractive Hely’s card showing a Jack Yeats drawing of an injured child, with a couplet fromW.B. Yeats, ‘specially designed in aid of nursing home for little children’ (i.e. St. Ultan’s, founded by Dr. Kathleen Lynn). (5) €200 - €300 684. Gay, Jovial Letters Yeats (Jack B.) ALS on his headed Notepaper, 61 Marlborough Road, June 5th 1929, 1 pp, to an unnamed recipient (probably an English bookdealer). ‘Dear Sir, I have to sell 12 holograph letters from John Masefield to myself, gay, jovial letters, all with humorous verses for £80 .. Of course they would have to be offered for sale privately only, not printed in a catalogue or anywhere else. I wonder would you like to buy them.’With a fine bold signature. Lightly scored through vertically once, perhaps by the recipient. Evidently Yeats was finding it difficult to make ends meet in 1929, or he would hardly have considered selling his letters. €500 - €600 682 684 Yeats, (Jack B.) Epitaphs, To Thomas Bodkin; Jack B. Yeats; Dermod O’Brien; George Russell; James P. O’Reilly; [Dr. Thomas] Mc Loughlin; [George Hill] Tulloch, and Liam Dawson. Typescript four pages qtr. signed, captioned, and dated February 16th 1933 by Jack B Yeats. Jack B. Yeats, one of Ireland’s greatest painters was thus described by Thomas MacGreevy in his response to Bodkin: I think, to leave ourselves open to the charge of under-rating the genius of a living Irish painter who, at his finest, leaves Hone where the man of genius leaves the man of talent... In drawing, in colour, in design, there has not, I believe, been any Irish painter whose work is as unerringly right, as rich and as delicate as Mr. Jack B. Yeat’s. No Hone that I have ever seen could, I think equal, much less surpass, the aesthetic quality, the impressive design, the massive movement, the fine colour, in the last Jack Yeats exhibition here. Jack B. Yeats jointed the United Arts Club in 1912, at that time a cultural force and a strong and growing association between the arts and politics. Many prominent members were key political figures in the planning of the 1916 Rising (Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, Constance Markievicz, Erskine Childers, Robert Barton). Many of Yeats’ attitudes on art and culture were channelled through the United Arts Club, which became his favourite watering hole, almost his second home when he moved from Greystones to Donnybrook. ‘ It is remembered that this tall thin figure could fold itself into a chair beside some shy or lonely soul for a moment’s chat which left a warm feeling of comfort.’ The epitaphs were his forte as contribution to club entertainments in which he managed to encapsulate the characteristic of each. He wrote them for several members including one for himself, in which he mimics his brother. Dermod O’Brien was also a recipient. Jack stated that he thought they sounded better than they looked. A possibly unique item, Bruce Arnold in Jack Yeats, 1998, includes two of these only (Bodkin & Jack B.), which came for the Yeats family. There is no copy in the National Library of Ireland, and to our knowledge this is the only complete collection extant. “ Under no stones No slates Lies Jack B. Yeats No heaped up rocks, Just a collection box. Would like to be jolly And bury in state This singular Yeat. But they were not so inclined Therefore if you’ve a mind To slide a copper in the slot ‘Twill help to sod the plot. Possibly a unique surviving copy, showing yet another side to Jack’s many talents. (1) €2000 - €3000 683. “And Bury In State This Singular Yeat”