The Dun Emer Press ( fl. 1902–1908) was an Irish private press founded in 1902 by Evelyn Gleeson , Elizabeth Yeats and her brother William Butler Yeats , part of the Celtic Revival . It was named after the legendary Emer and evolved into the Cuala Press .
22-449: In 1902, Elizabeth and her sister Lily Yeats joined Evelyn Gleeson in establishing a craft studio at Dundrum , near Dublin , called Dun Emer. This specialized in printing and other crafts, with Elizabeth Yeats in charge of the printing press. While living in London , Elizabeth Yeats had been part of the circle of William Morris , and had been inspired by his printing work. Gleeson offered
44-474: A School of Art building, which was completed on Bath Road in 1881, near the new Tabard Inn , Richard Norman Shaw 's St Michael and All Angels Church , and a shop. The school was formally opened on Saturday, 19 November 1881, and this was followed by an evening party with the Conservative member of parliament Alexander Beresford Hope presiding. The new building was illustrated by Thomas Erat Harrison in
66-672: A book of 1882 called Bedford Park . At the outset, the school taught "Freehand drawing in all its branches, practical Geometry and perspective, pottery and tile painting, design for decorative purposes – as in Wall-papers, Furniture, Metalwork, Stained Glass". By 1887, the name of the school had become the Chiswick School of Art and Science, and in November of that year new classes were announced in Chemistry, Steam, and Electricity. In 1899,
88-487: A good income. She trained and worked as an art teacher and was a member of William Morris 's circle in London before her family returned to Dublin in 1900. Yeats wrote and created the artwork for Elementary Brush-Work Studies (published in 1900), an educational book that teaches young children the technique of painting flowers and plants using her simple method. At the suggestion of Emery Walker , who worked with Morris on
110-588: The Chiswick School of Art with her sister Susan and brother Jack Butler Yeats , learning "Freehand drawing in all its branches, practical Geometry and perspective, pottery and tile painting, design for decorative purposes". In the 1890s she lived at 3 Blenheim Road, Bedford Park, London and trained as a kindergarten teacher at the Froebel College in Bedford, Bedfordshire. She undertook her teaching practice at
132-628: The Chiswick School of Art and Science , was an art school in Bath Road, Bedford Park, London , from 1881 until 1899, which was then merged into the Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic . In 1928, it became the Chiswick Polytechnic and, in 1976, it was merged into the West London Institute of Higher Education . The development of Bedford Park as a garden suburb was made possible by the creation of
154-455: The District Line in 1869. The lead developer was Jonathan Carr , who in 1875 bought 24 acres (9.7 ha) of land just north of the new Turnham Green Station . The City of London was then thirty minutes away by steam train. The school was planned to help to give the new garden suburb a sense of community. The arts and crafts architect Maurice Bingham Adams was commissioned to design
176-681: The Dublin Metropolitan School of Art in 1883 and took classes at the Royal Dublin Society . The family moved to Eardley Crescent, South Kensington, London, in 1886. While there Yeats started to write fiction and published a home-made magazine, The Pleiades, with six friends, contributing ‘Story without a plot’ to the Christmas 1888 issue. In addition, she published ‘Scamp and three friends’ in The Vegetarian. Yeats also attended
198-542: The Dun Emer Press from 1902 with a printing press acquired from a provincial newspaper. The Press was located at Runnymede, the house of Evelyn Gleeson. (This house, located in Dundrum , was later renamed Dun Emer. It has since been demolished.) This was set up with the intention of training young women in bookbinding and printing as well as embroidery and weaving . In 1903 Yeats started printing and Dun Emer's first book
220-719: The Kelmscott Press , Yeats studied printing with the Women's Printing Society in London. In Dublin, she accepted the invitation to join Evelyn Gleeson to form the Dun Emer Guild along with Lily, who was an embroiderer . "The name Dun Emer (Fort of Emer) was named for the Lady Emer, wife of the hero Cúchulainn , renowned in Irish folklore for her beauty and artistic skills." Yeats managed
242-607: The Bedford Park High School. In 1892 when her training was completed she taught as a visiting art mistress at the Froebel Society, Chiswick High School and the Central Foundation School. Lecturing and publication of four popular painting manuals: Brushwork (1896), Brushwork studies of flowers, fruits and animals (1898), Brushwork copy book (1899), and Elementary brushwork studies (1900) earned Yeats
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#1732859159880264-564: The Press had produced eleven literary titles, the different elements of the Dun Emer studio separated completely, with Gleeson retaining the Dun Emer name. The Yeats sisters left Dundrum and took the new name Cuala for their operations, Elizabeth establishing the Cuala Press at Churchtown, Dublin . Elizabeth Yeats Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (11 March 1868 – 16 January 1940), known as Lolly ,
286-510: The Yeats sisters and Evelyn Gleeson , their business relationship was finally ended. Subsequently, in 1908, Lolly and her brother William started the Cuala Press , publishing over 70 books including 48 by the poet. Yeats managed the press while her sister Lily controlled the embroidery section. Cuala continued to be a family strain. Their father, John Butler Yeats, had to castigate his son William for sending overtly critical letters to his sisters about
308-550: The Yeats sisters her large house in Dundrum, in which a crafts group providing training and work for young women, in the fields of bookbinding, printing, weaving, and embroidery, could live and work. Bookbinding workshops were a later addition to the studio. The sisters' cousin Ruth Pollexfen served as Lily's apprentice in the embroidery section. The Dun Emer studio and press were named after Emer , daughter of Forgall Monach, wife of
330-416: The artist Jack Butler Yeats , did much of the illustration work. In 1904, the Dun Emer crafts studio was organized into two parts, the Dun Emer Guild under Gleeson and Dun Emer Industries under the Yeats sisters. The Dun Emer Press produced limited editions of books, printed by hand in the manner of William Morris's Kelmscott Press . The texts it published were written or selected by W. B. Yeats, who
352-643: The hero Cúchulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology , a figure famous for her artistic skills as well as her beauty. The title-page device of the Dun Emer Press was designed by Elinor Monsell and shows Emer standing underneath a tree. Monsell also created the symbol of the Abbey Theatre , Dublin , which depicts Maeve with a wolfhound . The focus of the Press was on publishing literary work by Irish authors, and Elizabeth and Lily Yeats's younger brother,
374-553: The press. However, Cuala produced magnificent books: W. B. Yeats' The green helmet and other poems (1910) and a series of Broadsides (published 1908–15, with illustrations from Jack Yeats). Yeats was the first commercial printer in Ireland to work exclusively with hand presses. She worked with Cuala Press until short of her death on 16 January 1940 after a diagnosis of high blood pressure and heart trouble. Chiswick School of Art The Chiswick School of Art , sometimes called
396-560: The school was taken over by Middlesex County Council to become part of the new Acton and Chiswick Polytechnic. In 1928, the two branches of this were separated, so that the building in Bedford Park became the home of the Chiswick Polytechnic. The building was destroyed by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944, but a new Chiswick Polytechnic rose from the ashes. In 1976, this was merged into the West London Institute of Higher Education . In
418-722: Was W. B. Yeats's In the seven woods (1903). Despite being a gifted printer, the costings exceeded the quality of work that Yeats produced with the result that the press (like the guild) was often at risk financially. Eleven books, decorated with pastels by George William Russell , appeared under the Dun Emer imprint produced from a first-floor room. Yeats had several disagreements with her brother William over his directions as literary editor. She also disliked Evelyn Gleeson. In October 1906 she travelled to New York to advertise her products but published Dun Emer's last book William's Discoveries (1907) in late November when she returned to Dublin. After many years of strained relations between
440-452: Was an Irish educator and publisher. She worked as an art teacher and published several books on art, and was a founder of Dun Emer Press which published several works by her brother W. B. Yeats . She was the first commercial printer in Ireland to work exclusively with hand presses. Elizabeth Corbet Yeats was born at 23 Fitzroy Road , London . She was the daughter of the Irish artist John Butler Yeats and Susan Yeats (née Pollexfen). She
462-500: Was sister to W. B. , Jack and Susan Mary "Lily" Yeats . From the age of four she lived in Merville, Sligo, at the home of her grandfather William Pollexfen. In November 1874 her family moved to 14 Edith Villas, West Kensington, London. Her governess was Martha Jowitt from 1876 until 1879 before the family moved to Bedford Park, Chiswick, in 1878. Yeats returned to Howth , County Dublin in 1881. She enrolled, with her sister Susan, in
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#1732859159880484-402: Was the press's literary editor and who also subsidized its operations, which lacked profitability. In its prospectus issued early in 1903, the press boasted of "a good eighteenth century fount of type" and "paper made of linen rags and without bleaching chemicals". As well as books, the Press also printed broadsheets designed by Jack Yeats, and hand-coloured greeting cards . In 1908, after
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