[Rarebooks] fa: JACK B. YEATS - HAND-COLORED WOODCUT & STENCIL (for Elkin Mathews) 1902-04

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 19th-century American literature and  
history, auctions ending Sunday, July 3. More details and images can  
be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name  
arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

A pair of unusual items related to Yeats's work with the publisher  
Elkin Mathews in the early 20th century:

Advertisement. One of Jack. B. Yeats's Plays for the Miniature Stage.  
The Treasure of the Garden. Coloured by the Author... Promotional  
broadside, ca. 1902, measuring 13 x 24.5 cm (5 x 9.5 in), with a  
woodcut engraving of a pirate, hand-colored (presumably by Yeats).  
Mounted on heavy cardboard backing. Light soiling, wear to the edges  
where they protrude over the backing.

The Bosun and the Bob-Tailed Comet by Jack. B. Yeats. One Shilling,  
Hand Coloured Five Shillings. Published by Elkin Mathews. Mock-up or  
rough draft[?] of a promotional broadside, ca. 1904, measuring 14.5 x  
23 cm (5.75 x 9 in). Hand-lettered in ink, with a hand-colored stencil  
of the eponymous bosun and comet. Modest bumping to the corners, light  
soiling and smudging.

Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957), younger brother of the poet W. B.  
Yeats, was an accomplished and versatile illustrator long before he  
matured into arguably Ireland's finest 20th-century painter. His early  
work included a number of illustrated miniature stage plays such as  
the above Treasure of the Garden, as well as children's books such as  
The Bosun and the Bob-Tailed Comet. The hand-lettered Bosun "mock-up"  
is of particular interest. No stenciled illustration like this one  
appeared in the published book and we can find no example of a  
finished, printed version of this advertisement. But we do know it was  
during this period (ca. 1893-1909) that Yeats experimented with  
stencils to depict all sorts of things: geometric shapes, animals,  
melodramatic villains, pirates, and portraits of friends like J.M.  
Synge (see Hilary Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Biography, p. 59).