Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) was an Irish painter and illustrator. He was the younger brother of the poet William Butler Yeats. John Quinn (1870-1924) was a corporation lawyer in New York City, and a noted private collector and patron of the...
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Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) was an Irish painter and illustrator. He was the younger brother of the poet William Butler Yeats. John Quinn (1870-1924) was a corporation lawyer in New York City, and a noted private collector and patron of the arts. The collection comprises a letter (1 page) from [Jack B. Yeats] to "My Well Beloved John Quinn," written in the person of King Edward VII at Windsor, 1903 August 24, with an enclosed mock patent of nobility (1 page, folio). Both items are executed entirely in black ink, with the signatures "Edward" written upside down. Drawn at the top of the letter is a mock coat of arms, showing a unicorn and a lion with a straight razor shaving a pint, and the motto "Shave qui peut." The writer advises Quinn where "the artist fellah with whom you passed through my Western Empires" (Yeats himself) can obtain a patent similar to the one enclosed. The mock patent, made from a legal indenture form printed in Dublin by Hely's, Limited, is partially covered with pasted paper bearing Yeats's humorous bestowal of a knighthood on John Quinn of Broadway. A red wax seal attached to a green ribbon is affixed to the document
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