The group of more than 300 lots will be sold on November 14 at Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, and has been billed by the auction house as the ‘last significant tranche’ to come directly from the famous Irish family.
The sale swiftly follows the £1.6m auction at Sotheby’s in September, which featured material from the family home outside Dublin.
The collection at Fonsie Mealy draws together another broad array of personal effects, drawings and letters compiled by three generations of the family and stored in the same house.
Several of the highlights relate to the poet WB Yeats (1865-1939) including a sketchbook signed and compiled by him dating from his time at art college in Dublin. The sketchbook is estimated at €3000-5000 and Fonsie Mealy believes this is one of only two surviving WB Yeats sketchbooks.
Other items include a monogrammed suitcase (€600-800), subsequently owned by his son Michael, and a pair of spectacles (€500-600). An Edwardian silver desk inkwell, estimated at €600-800, is also believed to have been used by the famous poet.
Household items and furniture that graced the houses of the Yeats families, such as Georgian furniture, family silver, a bureau bookcase and musical instruments, including the family harp, are also offered.
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