Set of 9 Greeting Cards

(C6 with envelopes)

Stained Glass compositions and Preparatory Sketches

by Harry Clarke inspired by Synge's "Queens"

(1917)

Reproduced from Museum-grade original prints

on Acid-free printing stock with Archive-quality inks

This set includes 9 Greeting Cards (C6 cards + envelopes) with quality reproductions of the Preparatory Sketches and final Stained Glass pieces composed by Harry Clarke for a 1917 commission from The Rt Hon Laurence Waldron PC inspired by Synge's poem, "Queens". Designed to be hung from left to right in the library windows of Waldron's Killiney Bay house, the first and last panels were stained and painted on kelp-coated clear glass. The remaining panels were wax and acid-etched out of flashed blue, ruby or gold-pink pot-metal glass in addition to being stained and painted. Clarke signed or initialed each panel. For an exhibition of the panels at Dublin's Municipal Gallery of Modern Art between 1925 and 1928, Clarke customized a wrought iron stand to display the panels to best effect when not at Waldron's Killiney Bay property.

The designs - noted in the associated image - are shown with a tipped-on image showing an individual Stained Glass panel on the front of the card and the matching Preparatory Sketch on the left interior of the card (again, tipped-on). The example shown here is associated with the following passage:

Queens whose finger once did stir men,

Queens were eaten of fleas and vermin,

Queens men drew like Monna Lisa,

Or slew with drugs in Rome and Pisa.

The right interior and rear of the cards (and the envelopes) are blank. 

"Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen" (1916) was Clarke's first major published work, although he had previously been working on illustrations to accompany Coleridge's ''Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' - work which had been destroyed in Dublin's devastating 1916 Easter Uprising. A number of commissions followed ''Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen'' (1916), including "The Year's at the Spring" (1920), ''The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault'' (1922) and his contributions to ''Tales of Mystery and Imagination'' (1923) - a project that established his stellar reputation as an illustrator. His second to last project, "Faust" (1925) is considered his most important as it is a precursor to the evocative psychedelic imagery that has come to be associated with artwork from the 1960s. "Selected Poems of Algernon Swinburne" (1928) was his final book commission and, due to the licentious nature of Clarke's illustrations, that title was banned in Ireland.

Each of these cards is hand-finished and the set will ship free to all destinations. Sold as is with no returns, this set of cards is as described and will be shipped using the fully insured and tracked services of Australia Post (international buyers are responsible for any Customs duties or taxes levied in their own countries).