"THE PROUD AND CARELESS NOTES LIVE ON BUT BLESS OUR HANDS THAT EBB AWAY" c.1929-1931
Susan Mary ('Lily') Yeats (1866-1949) and R. Brigid Ganly (neé O'Brien) HRHA (1909-2002)In 1902, Elizabeth Yeats and her elder sister Lily had returned to Ireland from London at the invitation of Evelyn Gleeson, to set up workshops in the Arts and Crafts venture Gleeson was establishing at Dún Emer, a large house in Dundrum, south of Dublin. While Elizabeth Yeats set up a handpress and began printing and binding books advised by her literary brother, William Butler Yeats, Lily Yeats, a skilled needlewoman (who had been trained by William Morris' daughter, May), focussed on embroidery, often designed by their younger artistic brother, Jack Butler Yeats. By 1904, she had seven girls working with her. In 1908, the sisters seceded from Dún Emer and set up their own Cuala Industries nearby, where Lily Yeats continued to run her embroidery workshop, often adapting the designs of other artists, and producing a wide range of embroidered domestic and autonomous panels. After continual ill health, she became so ill that production was considerably diminished in the mid 1920s. The last sale of embroidery under her direction was held in 1931, under great financial duress, and in 1932 the Cuala embroidery department wound down in its Baggot Street home.
This panel (described by Lily Yeats as one of her 'needle pictures') was designed by Brigid O'Brien, daughter of the painter Dermod O'Brien, who was trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, under Oliver Sheppard, Seán Keating, Patrick Tuohy and Oswald Reeves, and at the RHA Schools. In 1928, she was elected an ARHA. Barbara Dawson has noted her willingness to apply her training to various projects and media, including caricature and book illustration. Joseph McBrinn records that she won the Taylor Scholarship in 1929 and in 1930 while she was completing her first mural illustrating St. Patrick, for the Presentation Convent school on George's Hill, Dublin. Her first major commission, completed in 1930, was for a painted frieze over 120 feet long illustrating James Stephens' version of The Boyhood of Fionn (published with Arthur Rackham's illustrations in 1924) for the Carnegie Trust's Child Welfare Centre on Cork Hill, Dublin. Although this major work is now no longer visible, having been vandalised by being over-painted, it is directly analogous with this fine little tableau. A later, primitivistly stylised, predominantly black and white embroidered version (unsigned by O'Brien) illustrating the same lines from Yeats' poem was dated by the artist to 1935 in the Hugh Lane exhibition catalogue (p.8). The Yeats' were neighbours of the O'Briens, who lived in Fitzwilliam Square, and frequented the nearby United Arts Club, where the paths of W.B.Yeats and Brigid O'Brien's father, the painter Dermod, often crossed. In 1929, W.B. Yeats had commissioned the young painter to try and boost his sister Lily's precarious income by designing Stations of the Cross for her to embroider on Irish silk poplin.
What is unusual about this very beautifully worked panel is the delicate fineness of the pale green silk ground and the lively, evocative portrayal of each of the three figures depicted between the two scrolls bearing the text they illustrate. There is much more attention to narrative detail and to the range and application of stitches carefully chosen than in any other Cuala embroidery of this late period. Not since the embroidered sodality banners of 1902-3 for Loughrea Cathedral had Lily Yeats produced such successful and expressive figurative work. Although the scale is small, close attention reveals the variety of couched and stemmed stitches used to outline and fill in the costumes, hands and features (particularly expressive), hair and musical instruments of the imaginatively dressed, lamenting musicians. The direction the stitches follow is an intrinsic part of the success of this panel's design, as they emphasize the volume of the surface they are describing, and draw the viewer's attention to the positions of the hands plucking the chords on each musical instrument. Despite the obvious graphic influences of Beatrice Elvery, Mary Cottenham Yeats and Wilhelmina Geddes (particularly the latter's St. Brendan embroidered panel of 1924) and that of Jack Yeats in his early predilection for figures standing high above a low, recognisably Irish, horizon, this design is strikingly original. The colours are distinctive with their soft pinks, turquoise, jade and gold, even though there may be some fading on the golden-haired girl player's delicately worked spotted dress, flouncy petticoat and slippers.
The welcome appearance of this panel makes it all the more important that others, such as Tobias and the Angel, similarly designed by O'Brien and worked by Lily Yeats, be traced and documented.
Dr Nicola Gordon Bowe
November 2012
Literature:
- Auction Details
- T&Cs
- Bidding
Clause 1
(a) Each lot is put up subject to any reserve price imposed by the vendor
(b) Subject to sub-clause (a) of this clause, the highest bidder for each lot shall be the purchaser thereof
(c) If any dispute arises as to the highest bidder the auctioneer shall have absolute discretion to determine the dispute and may put up again and re-sell the lot in respect of which the dispute arises.
Clause 2
(a) The bidding and advances shall be regulated by and at the absolute discretion of the auctioneer and he shall have the right to refuse any bid or bids. NOTE: Where an agent bids, even on behalf of a disclosed client, the auctioneer nevertheless has the right at his discretion to refuse any such bid.
(b) The purchaser of each lot shall immediately on its sale, if required by the auctioneer, give him the name and address of the purchaser and pay to the auctioneer at his discretion the whole or part of the purchase money. If the purchaser of any lot fails to comply with any such requirement the auctioneer may put up again and re-sell the lot; if upon such re-sale a lower price is obtained than was obtained on the first sale the purchaser in default on the first sale shall make good the difference in price and expenses of re-sale which shall become a debt due from him.
(c) Where an agent purchases on behalf of an undisclosed client such agent shall be personally liable for payment of the purchase money to the auctioneer and for safe delivery of the lot to the said client.
Clause 3
(a) The auctioneer reserves the rights to bid on behalf of clients including vendors, but shall not be liable for errors or omissions in executing instructions to bid.
(b) The auctioneer reserves the rights, before or during a sale, to group together lots belonging to the same vendor, to split up and to withdraw any lot or lots at the auctioneer's absolute discretion and without giving any reason in any case.
(c) The auctioneer acts as agent only, and therefore shall not be liable for any default of the purchaser or vendor.
Clause 4
(a) Each lot shall be at the purchaser's risk from the fall of the hammer and shall be paid for in full before delivery and taken away at his expense within one day of the sale. The buyer will be responsible for all removal, storage and insurance charges in respect of any lot which has not been collected within one day of the date of sale.
(b) If any purchaser fails to pay in full for any lot within 21 days of the date of sale such lot may at any time thereafter at the auctioneer's discretion be put up for sale by auction again or sold privately; if upon such re-sale a lower price is obtained than was obtained on the first sale the purchaser in default on the first sale shall make good the difference in price and the expenses of re-sale which shall become debt due from him.
(c) Interest at 2 per cent per month and legal costs (if any) for recovery of monies due shall be payable by the purchaser on any overdue account.
Clause 5
(a) Each buyer, by making a bid, acknowledges that he has satisfied himself as to the physical condition, age and catalogue description of each lot (including but not restricted to whether the lot is damaged or has been repaired or restored).
(b) All lots are sold with all faults and imperfections and errors of description and the Auctioneer and its employees, servants or agents shall not be responsible for any error of description or for the condition or authenticity of any lot, save for Clause 5 (c) below. Written or verbal condition reports may be supplied by the Auctioneer on request but these are merely statements of opinion, and any error or omission in these reports may not be taken as grounds for a cancellation of sale or refund of any part of the purchase price or the cost of any repairs to the lot or lots reported on
(c) A purchaser shall be at liberty to reject any lot if he - (i) gives the auctioneer written notice of intention to question the genuineness of the lot within seven days from the date of sale; AND (ii) proves that the lot is a deliberate forgery and (iii) returns to the auctioneer within 20 days from the date of sale the lot in the same condition as it was at the time of sale; provided that the auctioneer may, at his discretion, on receiving a request in writing from the purchaser, extend for a reasonable period the time for return of the lot to enable it to be submitted to expertisation. NOTE: The onus of proving a lot to be a deliberate forgery is on the purchaser.
(d) Where a lot has been submitted to expertisation, all costs of such expertisation shall be paid by the person who retains the certificate of expertisation and item or items to which the certificate relates.
(e) Where the purchaser of a lot discharges the onus and acts in accordance with sub-clause (b) of this clause, the auctioneer shall rescind the sale and repay to the purchaser the purchase money paid by him in respect of the lot.
(f) No lot shall be rejected if, subsequent to the sale, it has been marked by an expert committee or treated by any other process unless the auctioneer's permission to subject the lot to such treatment has first been obtained in writing.
(g) Any lot listed as a "collection, range, portfolio etc." or stated to comprise or contain a collection or range of items which are not described shall be put up for sale not subject to rejection and shall be taken by the purchaser with all (if any) faults, lack of genuineness and errors of description and numbers of items in the lot, and the purchaser shall have no right to reject the lot; except that, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this sub-clause, where before a sale a person intending to bid at the sale gives notice in writing to, and satisfies the auctioneer that any such lot contains any item or items undescribed in the sale catalogue and that person specifically describes that item or those items in that notice, then that item or those items shall, as between the auctioneer and that person, to be taken to form part of the description of the lot.
Clause 6
The respective rights and obligations of the parties shall be governed and interpreted by Irish law, and the buyer hereby submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish Courts.
Special Conditions
a) The buyer shall pay the Auctioneer a commission at the rate of 20% (Art sales) or 24% (Collectibles sales). The Buyer's Premium is added to the hammer price of all lots and is subject to VAT at the prevailing rate.
(b) The Auctioneer or its employees, servants or agents may, on request organise packing and shipping of lots purchased or may order on the buyer's behalf third parties to pack or ship purchases. Under no circumstances does the Auctioneer accept any liability whatsoever for any loss or damage howsoever occasioned in the course of such service.
(c) The buyer authorises the Auctioneer to use any photographs or illustrations of any lot purchased for any or all purposes as the Auctioneer may require. The placing of a bid will be taken as full agreement to all the above conditions.
WHYTE AND SONS AUCTIONEERS LIMITED, 2022
We hold two types of auction - TIMED and LIVE SALEROOM
1. TIMED AUCTIONS
WHAT IS A TIMED AUCTION?Timed auctions do not have an auctioneer calling the bids – there’s just a bidding time frame and whoever bids highest during the time frame wins. Each lot can be bid on for a defined time period. At the end of this period, the bidder who has submitted the highest bid wins the lot, provided the bid exceeds the reserve price. You tell us the most you’re willing to pay – and we’ll bid intelligently for you, only bidding enough for you to meet the reserve or stay in the lead. Don’t worry, your maximum bid is not disclosed, and is held in confidence on our bidding system.
WHEN ONLINE BIDDING STARTS - YOU CAN LEAVE BIDS online and your bid will start at one step above the previous bid or at the start price if no other bid. You will be notified by email if you get outbid before the auction starts.
ONCE THE AUCTION BEGINS TO FINISH, ON THE DATE AND TIME SPECIFIED, THE EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS CEASE and you should follow the auction on-line to see how your bids are doing. Make sure you have logged in if you wish to bid.
WHEN THE AUCTION BEGINS TO FINISH ON THE DATE AND TIME SPECIFIED,THE BIDDING FOR EACH LOT REMAINS OPEN FOR 45 SECONDS at a start price determined by the reserve or bids already received. Each lot will be open and remain open for bidding until its end time is reached; the end time will be extended by 45 seconds if another bid is received. At the end time, if there are no further bids and the highest bid received equals or exceeds the reserve price the lot is sold to highest bidder.
The Buyers Premium for Art sales is 20% plus VAT ( 24.6% gross). The Buyers Premium for Collectibles sales is 24% plus VAT (29.52% gross). The Buyers Premium will be added to your winning bid amount. Your invoice will detail all the payment, collection and shipping particulars.
2. LIVE SALEROOM AUCTION:
If you can't attend the auction in the saleroom you can email or post or telephone bids to us, or you can book a telephone line to bid during the sale. Contact us on +353 16762888 or bids@whytes.ie
To bid on-line at a Live Saleroom Auction:
• Log in or register bid.whytes.ie
• Visit the online auction catalogue
• Find the lot number you are interested in.
· The current highest bid will be displayed
• The minimum bid required to beat the highest bid will also be shown.
· You can place your bid. The screen will show the new highest bid and will indicate if that bid is yours. Note: if a previous bidder has left a bid that equals yours the previous bidder will win the lot unless you outbid them. If the screen doesn’t confirm that your bid is winning you will need to bid again if you wish to buy the lot. Don’t worry -the system will not allow you to bid against yourself.
• The live auction will begin at the announced date and time and will be sold in lot number order by the auctioneer.
• Invoices will be issued to successful bidders on the next working day after the sale has ended.
BIDDING STEPS:
Up to €300 x€10
Up to €700 x €20
Up to €1,300 x €50
Up to €3,000 x €100
Up to €7,000 x €200
Up to €13,000 x €500
Up to €30,000 x €1,000
Up to €40,000 x €2,000
Up to €70,000 x €2,000
Up to €130,000 x €5,000
Up to €500,000 x €10,000
A FEW TIPS FOR ABSENTEE BIDDERS:
Bid the maximum price you would pay for the lot; we will try and secure the lot for you at the lowest possible price. For instance if you bid €2,000 on a lot and the highest other bid we receive is €1,200 you get it for €1,250. Most people tend to bid in round numbers, e.g. €500. It’s often a good idea to bid an odd number, e.g. €520, or €540 which will outbid an even number. Check the results the day after the sale: these are published on our website www.whytes.ie at about 10am on the day after the sale. Successful bidders are also notified of results by mail.
TIE BIDS: if two or more equal bids are received the lot will be sold to the first received.
The Buyers Premium for Art sales is 20% plus VAT ( 24.6% gross). The Buyers Premium for Collectibles sales is 24% plus VAT (29.52% gross). The Buyers Premium will be added to your winning bid amount. Your invoice will detail all the payment, collection and shipping particulars.