YEATS, Jack B. The Post Car. Original Hand-coloured Cuala Press Broadside. Depicting a horse-drawn post car and driver on a street in a West of Ireland town with mountains in the background.

Beautifully hand-coloured at the Cuala Press. Signed in the plate by Jack B. Yeats on the lower left-hand corner. Dublin: Cuala Press, [1920s]. 19 x 28cms. In very good condition. One of the rarer broadsides that seldom comes on the market-place. In fine condition.

The ‘Cuala Press’ (1908-1987) was formed after the ‘Dun Emer Press’ separated from Evelyn Gleeson’s Dun Emer Industries, moved to Churchtown and was re-named after the barony in which the house was located. Elizabeth Corbett Yeats and her sister Lily, long over-shadowed by their more famous brothers, made a significant contribution to the cultural life of Ireland through their involvement with ‘Cuala’. Elizabeth ran the printing department with her brother William as editor to the Press, while Lily ran the embroidery department. It became the most famous literary press in Ireland, and by the time its book production ended in 1946, it had published seventy-seven volumes, of which more than a third were by W.B. Yeats. It numbered amongst its authors some of the great literary geniuses of Ireland: J.M. Synge; Lord Dunsany; Oliver St. John Gogarty; John B. Yeats and his two sons William and Jack B.; Lennox Robinson; Lady Gregory; F.R. Higgins; Patrick Kavanagh; Elizabeth Bowen, to mention but a few. After the death of Elizabeth in 1940 it was managed by Mrs. W.B. Yeats who produced hand-coloured cards and prints until she died in 1968.