Jack Yeats’s treasure trove of love lay hidden for decades
Memorabilia to go under the hammer
A TREASURE trove of love owned by one the country’s most renowned artists lay hidden in a bank vault for decades until being found two years ago.
A battered trunk containing wedding and anniversary memorabilia marking 50 years of love between Jack Butler Yeats, brother of writer WB, and his wife Cottie is being sold by executors of their estate.
The auction by Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers is sure to grab the attention of historians and fans when it is held on Tuesday at the Talbot Hotel in Stillorgan, Dublin.
The auction brochure describes the lot as a “wonderful collection including a pair of white satin lady’s dress shoes with silk bows, pigskin lined and, by family tradition, worn by Cottie White for her wedding to Jack Yeats in 1894”.
Also in the lot is an artificial flower, probably worn by Cottie on her wedding day, in a hallmarked silver mounted jar, a pale leather lady’s handbag with elaborate embossed design, carried by her on their wedding day but now “somewhat soiled”.
A gold locket with lapis lazuli and seed pearl decoration, mounted with a chain, engraved ‘JB Yeats/MC Yeats/ Aug 23, 1894 – Aug 23 1944’ holds a folded paper oval inscribed ‘From Jack to Cottie with 50 years love’.
There is also a pair of gold hallmarked wedding rings, Jack’s and Cottie’s, with one inscribed ‘Christ alone made us two one’, and the other ‘Heart content cannot repent’.
George Mealy of Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers said the guide price was “quite conservative and we already had extensive interest from clients based in the US”.
He added: “The collection gives a different yet tangible element to the Yeats family history. The trunk lay in a Bank of Ireland vault until 2017 and the Yeats executors knew nothing about it until it was mentioned to them.”
The belongings were inherited by WB Yeats’ daughter Anne, who died in 2001.
Other lots in the sale include an “extremely rare” Seamus Heaney title, ‘Toome’, limited to 15 copies, which is guiding at up to €2,000.