SOLD Hammer price €17000
A Major DiscoveryYeats (William Butler) 1865-1939. A Amall pocket Sketch Book, morocco-backed, 18cms x 10cms (7″ x 4″), about 50 pp good quality paper, clearly inscribed inside front cover in the poet’s hand, ‘W.B. Yeats’. There are a few art college studies, including a nude inside front cover, and about a dozen sketch portraits, mostly head and shoulders, in a broadly Yeatsian style, with the face generally surrounded by fine hatching, but executed more carefully and less fluently than his father’s mature work. Two of the sketches are very like his father’s friend Louis Purser; another is probably the bespectacled Mrs.Yeats.None of the drawings are individually signed, but there seems to be no reason to doubt that they are the work of W.B. Yeats. It should be remembered that he spent a year at art college in Dublin (1884-5) after leaving High School. Some signed pastels have been exhibited, and there is a watercolour in the National Gallery of Ireland. On the evidence of this sketchbook he could have been a competent artist if he had persevered.The sketchbook includes several passages of writing, undoubtedly in WBY’s hand, including what appears to be a draft of a poem at rear headed ‘The Field Mouse’. ‘The field mouse running yonder has reared up / No pyramid of custom or of laws / to break her heart / No, she is angry sometimes and she loves / The shadow of the wheat sheaves, that is all / The history of her life ..’ There are also some aphorisms and phrases, a few postal addresses, a list of names (headed by Alfred Webb, Crooke, Rolleston, Dixon), and a draft of a telegram to Yeats, Berkeley Rd, Regents Park Rd, London. ‘Send by return six penny bill stamp with your indorsement [sic] for Cranfield. Was due yesterday.’* To our knowledge this is one of only two surviving W.B. Yeats sketchbooks. It is a significant and fascinating record of Yeats’ time as a young student of the arts in Dublin, a time when the world was full of opportunity, and the course of his life had not yet been firmly set.Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €21000
The Original “Mosada” Portrait Yeats (John Butler). A fine pen-and-ink Portrait of his son W.B. Yeats, signed ‘J.B. Yeats fecit’, dated 1886, circa 9 ins x 9 « ins, on light card, mounted, slightly shaded where previously framed. * This is the original ‘Mosada’ portrait, reproduced with the narrative poem of that name in W.B. Yeats’ legendary first publication, essentially an offprint from the Dublin University Review. When J.B. Yeats proposed adding the portrait, W.B.Y. initially demurred, saying it might seem pretentious for a young poet to include a portrait with his first publication, but JBY was not to be denied. It is a fine and sensitive portrait, hinting both at WBY’s determination and at his vulnerability. [For those who lack a copy of Mosada for comparison, the portrait is reproduced as frontispiece to Wade’s bibliography]. A truly iconic item. Published in an edition of probably 100 copies, Mosada has for many years been all but unobtainable. Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €10000
See the World through the Poet’s Eyes![Yeats, W.B.] A pair of his ‘Pince-Nez? , optical Glasses, gilt framed, to a late 19th century design (without side-bars), a few minor scratches but basically in original condition. See the photograph in Sotheby’s catalogue of Yeats, The Family Collection, p. 57, where WBY may be seen wearing a similar though not identical pair (the attached gilt chain not now present). (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €2900
An Edwardian silver desk Inkwell, on circular base with hinged lid, with glass liner, strongly and simply made, from a Regent Street (London) silversmith. We understand this was W.B.Y.’s inkwell, from which flowed many wonderful compositions.Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €3400
[Yeats (W.B.)]. A strongly made leather Briefcase, 22″ x 13″ x 4″ approx, reinforced corners, internally lined, spring loaded brass lock (from a London locksmith), with stencilled initials ‘W.B.Y.’ in white, a further initial ‘M’ added before the ‘W’. Containing a news cutting announcing the birth of W.B. and George Yeats’ second child.* We understand this was W.B. Yeats’ briefcase, used by him from the early 1900s. The added ‘M’ suggests that it was also used by his son Michael; an attached address label suggests it was still in use in the 1960s. It remains in good condition; who can say what poems and papers it once carried?Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €500
[Yeats (W.B.)]. A Note on the Design of the Kelmscott Chaucer. Broadside, folio, one of 350 copies printed at the Grabhorn Press, March 1934, in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of William Morris. With a folded sheet, folio, containing on one side of the opening a sheet of Chaucer printed from Troy type owned by Mr. Edwin Grabhorn, on the other a reproduction of a page from the Kelmscott Chaucer owned by Mr. Albert Bender; also with two other folio items relating to the history of printing.* [W.B. Yeats owned an original copy of the Kelmscott Press edition of Chaucer, given to him as a fortieth birthday present in 1905 by a group of friends organised by Lady Gregory. It used to stand on a lectern in his study in Woburn Buildings, where a page was turned day by day. Apparently these sheets were also owned by Yeats.] As a collection, w.a.f. (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €380
Yeats (W.B.). “Aodh to Dectora” A Song written by W.B. Yeats. Set to music by Thomas F. Dunhill. L. 1901, at the Sign of the Unicorn. Brown folio wrappers with title label, enclosing 2 pp music, inscribed ‘C. Yeats’ [‘Cottie’, wife of Jack Yeats]. (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €140
[Yeats, W.B.] Salkeld (Cecil). A lithographic Reproduction, circa 30cms x 25cms (12″ x 10″), of a drawing showing a woman with a curved sword threatening a recumbent man, possibly a theatrical scene, signed and numbered a / 27, inscribed ‘W.B. Yeats with compliments / 1924’. Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €1300
Gonne (Maud). A fine photographic Portrait as a young Woman, profile looking right, wearing a Tara brooch, circa 1890, oval, mounted, approx 35cms x 28cms (14″ x 11″). From the personal collection of W.B. Yeats. ‘Yet always when I look death in the face, When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, Suddenly I meet your face.’Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €800
[Yeats (W.B.)] Photograph: Mac Donald (Pirie) photographer, a good quality vintage silver print of the Author & Poet W.B. Yeats, with copyright stamp lower right “Pirie Mac Donald, Photographer of Men, New York,” approx. 32cms x 24cms (12 1/2″ x 9 1/2″), framed. (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €1000
After John Singer SargentPrint: “W.B. Yeats,” large black and white print of Yeats in jacket and bow tie,” approx. 54cms x 34cms (21″ x 13″), the reverse with m/ss “Reproduction of Sargent’s Portrait,” the original is in the possession of his friend Mr. John Quinn, New York, Please return to Miss Yeats, Gurteen Dhas, Dundrum,” framed. (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €2600
Yeats (William Butler). A small stitched leather Box inscribed inside flap in WBY’s hand ‘W.B. Yeats / 3 Blenheim Road / Bedford Park / Chiswick / London W.’, containing a)Royal Dublin Society, enamelled bicentenary badge (1731-1931) engraved rear ‘W.B. YEATES’ [sic], on a green silk pinned ribbon, also a similar pinned member’s badge engraved rear ‘G. YEATS’, also a similar member’s cufflink engraved rear ‘J.B. YEATS’ (presumably Jack), also a similar member’s badge engraved rear ‘Mrs. P.S. O’HEGARTY’ (wife of the historian, mother of Michael Yeats’ wife Gr inne);b)A finely engraved gilt Victorian set of glasses;c)Two coloured Tarot cards (not from Pamela Colman Smith’s set). As a collection, w.a.f. (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €4800
[Yeats Family]. A small box containing a very good set of 76 Tarot Cards (plus one blank), the attractive coloured designs signed with Pamela Colman Smith’s serpent monogram, a scarce and sought-after set, with a booklet, ‘The Key to the Tarot’ (1920), with a few pages marked.This set probably belonged to W.B. Yeats’ wife George, who lent several cards to Liam Miller when he was preparing the Dolmen Press edition of Arland Ussher’s booklet on the Tarot (see Ann Saddlemyer’s biography).Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.N.B. This Lot should read: 79 Tarot Cards not 76 as stated (including one blank).
SOLD Hammer price €6000
Yeats (John Butler). A fine Drawing of Pamela [Colman] Smith, the face sensitively modelled, inscribed and dated February 1901, 35cms x 25cms (14″ x 10″), unframed (but very frameable).* A good example of the work at which JBY excelled, a quick sketch completed before any second thoughts could creep in. Pamela Colman Smith, known as ‘Pixie’, came to London from Jamaica, and became a friend and collaborator of Jack Yeats. She worked with him on ‘A Broadsheet’ initially, though she withdrew after a time because she found the work of hand-colouring multiple copies too much.Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €1500
Order of the Golden Dawn A Ceremonial Robe with tall hood, dark green silk edged in white, lined in white silk, in excellent condition.A very unusual item, which we believe may relate to the internal rituals of the Order of the Golden Dawn, of which both W.B. Yeats and his (future) wife George Hyde-Lees were members in the 1890s and later. It is difficult to confirm this view, as members of the Order were forbidden to communicate its secrets to outsiders.Possibly a unique example.Sold w.a.f., S.N.S.R.Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €560
[Yeats, W.B.] A coloured reproduction of a Blake drawing of an Angel in a Sunset, 18.5cms x 12.7cms (7 ¬” x 5″), with an Oxford framer’s label.Almost certainly part of the furnishings of W.B. and George Yeats’ home in Oxford, where they lived for several years in the early 1920s. Blake was a favourite with both W.B. and George, and W.B.Y. edited an edition of his work in the 1890s. Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €160
[Yeats family] A framed Photograph (unglazed), 7 « ins x 9 « ins approx, showing part of the attendance at the reinterment of W.B. Yeats’ remains at Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo, including Jack Yeats (at left under an umbrella), Michael Yeats, Thomas McGreevy, Anne Yeats (partly obscured), Mrs.George Yeats (wearing a hat).Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €190
[Yeats Family] “Drumcliffe Churchyard, Co. Sligo,” a 19th century Photograph with a horse and trap to one side, circa 4 « x 6 ins, framed, inscribed rear in Elizabeth Yeats’ hand, ‘Drumcliffe Church Co. Sligo. Rev. John Butler Yeats (our great grandfather) was Rector. ECY’.; together with another more recent Photograph of the church, circa 12 x 9 « ins, framed.(2)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €120
McDonagh (Bernard ANCA). “The Church at Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo,” watercolour on paper, signed, framed, 13 x 9 ins. ‘An ancestor was rector there ..’ (1)Provenance: The Yeats Family Collection.
SOLD Hammer price €1300
John CollAn attractive bronze, “Bust of William Butler Yeats, ” on marble stand, overall height 11 3/4″ high. (1)