ADAM'S IMPORTANT IRISH ART 24th September 2025

54 In parallel to Harry Clarke’s career as a stained glass artist, he illustrated several books, most for the publisher, George G. Harrap. Clarke’s books regularly featured a selection of full page illustrations in watercolour (both full colour and monochrome), full page illustrations in crisp black and white, and also smaller ‘incidental’ works in black and white of irregular shapes, known as headpieces or tailpieces, that were inserted within the text to provide additional visual interest or to conclude a chapter. Unlike the full page illustrations, these smaller works could be more personal or whimsical as they were not necessarily seen as critical to reflect or advance the narrative in the same way as full page images. This collection of five headpieces and tailpieces were creat- ed for three different books: one image for The Fairy Tales of Perrault (1922) published by George G. Harrap, London: two images for Goethe’s Faust (1925), also published by George G. Harrap, and three for Selected Poems of Alger- non Charles Swinburne (1928) published by John Lane The Bodley Head, London, and Dodd, Mead and Co., New York. The illustration from The Fairy Tales of Perrault was made as a tailpiece to accompany ‘ The Master Cat or Puss and Boots ’. Light in both mood and technique, it features three delicate butterflies – anticipating the butterflies that feature in Clarke’s windows for Bewley’s café – contained within a broad frame composed of his signature ‘floral ornament’, so often a feature in his stained glass. Faust was the fifth and final book Clarke illustrated for George G. Harrap, and it was also the book with the most images, ninety in total, which he made over the course of twelve months commencing in June 1924. The protag- onist, Johann Georg Faust, made a pact with the devil and Marguerite is the innocent young girl he lusts after. ‘ Promenade ’ was inspired by the quote ‘she snuffled at the chain and gem’ which is inscribed in pencil on the reverse. It features Marguerite’s bald-headed mother who takes the improbable form of an amorphous cloud with only hands and nipples emerging, exclaiming as she views the contents of a jewellery box. The other tailpiece from Faust , which is much smaller, features three slim daggers piercing a heart circled by a crown of thorns, and inscribed on the reverse is ‘a little shrine’. Working for Harraps on Faust had not been a particular- ly happy experience for Harry Clarke and so in 1926 he looked for an alternative publisher. Going through an agent he arranged to illustrate a collection of Swinburne’s poetry for John Lane publishers. Clarke wrote to his good friend Thomas Bodkin ‘I know of only two of his poems that I want to do – “ Faustine ” and “ Queens ”. You are a Swinburnite [sic] and I wonder if you could help me, or lend me some of his books.’ [1] One of the illustrations in this lot was drawn to accompany ‘ Queens ’ and in dramatic black and white it depicts two females; a close-up of a face in profile crowned with stylish tight curls, and in the distance a semi-nude woman wandering through a landscape. The other illus- tration is inscribed ‘ Epitaph ’ and is altogether grimmer. It depicts a communal gallows with three emaciated corpses blowing in the wind; one appears to be naked and missing his lower leg as if gnawed off, and another has a vulture perched on his shoulder. The semi-decomposed skull of some indeterminate creature at the base of the gallows completes the macabre image. Dr David Caron, August 2025