These beautiful cards from the late 1920s come from the collection of the New York Public Libraries, and are part of a much broader collection of fifty cards dealing with historic Irish place names. They were produced by Player’s Cigarettes in two sets of twenty-five, and while I’ve just chosen a selection of Dublin related cards here, the whole collection is worth seeing. They include some beautiful traditional iconography and are today very collectable. Credit is due to the NYPL for scanning them and making them available online to the public.
According to Adam’s auctioneers and to the National Library of Ireland, they are the work of the celebrated artist Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957), who is today best remembered for works like The Liffey Swim. Indeed, that particular painting was so celebrated it won him an Olympic medal in 1924. His medal can be seen on this page of the National Gallery website, where it is noted that “art competitions formed part of the modern Olympic Games during its early years, from 1912 to 1948.” Given that his brother William won the Novel Prize for Literature the year previously, they were good times for the Yeats siblings.
‘Dublin’ by Jack B. Yeats (New York Public Libraries Collection)
‘Chapelizod’ by Jack B. Yeats (New York Public Libraries Collection)
‘Killiney’ by Jack B. Yeats (New York Public Libraries Collection)
‘Clontarf’ by Jack B. Yeats (New York Public Libraries Collection)
‘ Booterstown’ by Jack B. Yeats (New York Public Libraries Collection)
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
“Dubh’s Pool”? C’mon, man.
Ha! I thought the same, terrible stuff.
More proof of his brilliance. Thank you !!
These are gorgeous, but I can’t help but notice the weird Irish transliteration – same as Ben points out.
Killiney: Cill Iníon Léinín – Church of the Daughters of Léinín
Chapelizod: Séipéal Iosóidé – the Church of Isolde.
… and so on. Still, when you consider it, it was prior to the state-sponsored resurgence of Gaeilge, so he wasn’t doing all that bad!
Is that a 6th Century Church I see on the Vico Road?
Jack B Yeats, when he lived in Dublin, had an account with Greene’s Bookshop on Clare Street. He’d send them his orders for books, and they’d send him the books, and then send him an invoice, a few times a year, for which he’d in turn send them a cheque. The thing is, he’d often doodle on the envelopes, so they arrive to Greene’s covered in original Jack Yeats drawings. Did they keep these? No. They put them in the bin, along with all the other envelopes their mail arrived in. Imagine what they’d be worth now…
Reblogged this on A Drink With Clarence Mangan and commented:
’T was Paradise on Earth a while, and then no more.
Ah! what avail my vigils pale, my magic lore?
She shone before mine eyes awhile, and then no more.
The shallop of my peace is wrecked on Beauty’s shore.
Near Hope’s fair isle it rode awhile, and then no more!
– Mangan