Collection of Yeats family treasures to go on display for first time

Letters from poet WB Yeats to his first love, and artwork by his brother, sisters and father will be auctioned at Sotheby’s

A treasure trove of Yeats family material, including hundreds of passionate, rueful and philosophical letters from the poet William Butler to the first of his many loves, and the desk at which he wrote them, will go on public display for the first time in Dublin and London in September, before being sold in a Sotheby’s auction in London.

The sale will include books, paintings, furniture and personal possessions relating to all the members of the extraordinarily artistic family, whose lives and work were also woven into the history of 20th century Ireland. The material includes not just the letters from the Nobel laureate poet WB Yeats but also his hair brushes, many works by his painter brother Jack B Yeats, an important group by their artist father, John B Yeats, including family portraits and his last self-portrait, and original artworks and embroidery designs for the Cuala Press founded by the poet’s sisters, Lolly and Lily, using skills they had learned at the Kelmscott Press founded by William Morris and from his textile artist daughter, May.

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