YEATS, Jack B. Life in the West of Ireland. Drawn and Painted by Jack B. Yeats. (Limited edition)

Dublin and London: Maunsel and Company Ltd., 1912. First edition. Limited issue, one of 150 copies. Royal 8vo, 111pp. Out of series copy. Illustrated with eight tipped-in colour plates, including the frontispiece The Red Pony, 32 full-page line drawings and 16 tipped-in monochrome reproductions from paintings. Original dark blue cloth, upper board lettered and decorated in gilt, spine lettered in gilt. Binding rubbed and marked, particularly at extremities, with some light spotting internally; otherwise a very good copy.

An important and highly evocative visual record of life in the west of Ireland at the beginning of the twentieth century. Yeats depicts fairs, race days, travelling circuses, country shops, political meetings, ballad singers, fishermen and other characters and scenes encountered during his travels through the western counties. The National Library of Ireland confirms the illustration complement of eight colour plates, 32 line drawings and 16 monochrome reproductions.

The limitation leaf states that 150 copies were issued with an original sketch by Jack B. Yeats. The present copy, like a number known on the market, remains unnumbered and the sketch is no longer present. The special issue is considerably scarcer than the ordinary first edition.

A particularly desirable Jack B. Yeats publication, combining Irish art, social history and an exceptional pictorial record of western Irish life before the First World War.

[L4 JBY]