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Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Life in the West of Ireland, Drawn and Painted by Jack Butler Y...

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Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) Life in the West of Ireland, Drawn and Painted by Jack Butler Y...
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957)
Life in the West of Ireland, Drawn and Painted by Jack Butler Yeats
association copy
published by Maunsel & Co., Dublin and London, 1912
Provenance:
Formerly in the collection of John Quinn, with his Cuala bookplate (designed by
Yeats) on the front pastedown
Literature:
Complete Catalogue of the Library of John Quinn, Anderson Galleries, New York,
1924, catalogue no. 11320
First edition, first issue. A most attractive association copy. The New York
lawyer John Quinn (1870-1924) was a close friend of Lady Gregory (and briefly
her lover). He was by far the most important American supporter of the Irish
literary and artistic revival. He successfully defended the Abbey Theatre and
James Joyce in U.S. courts, owned many paintings and manuscripts by the Yeats
brothers, and financed their father John Butler Yeats throughout the fifteen
years of his life in New York. He was also a noted collector of modern art. He
owned two copies of this book, of which this copy was no. 11320 in the sale of
his library in 1924. The book itself is quarto, in blue cloth with gilt titles
and gilt vignette by Yeats on upper board; top edge gilt. With 8 mounted colour
plates, 32 block-printed line drawings and 16 photogravure reproductions from
paintings by Yeats. It represents a remarkably ambitious livre d’artiste, issued
with no text of any kind beyond the titles of the drawings.
€2,000-€3,000 (£1300-£2,000 sterling approx.)