An archive of material relating to a Yorkshire family sold for more three times its estimate last Saturday at Whyte's in Dublin. The thousands of papers concerning the Jowett-Atkinson family estates near Bradford had been expected to make about £3,000-£4,000 but eventually went for £10,500 to a telephone bidder from England.
Another telephone bidder, this time from New York, paid £1,300 for an 1848 atlas by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (pre-sale estimate £700-£800). Over 300 bidders at this auction ensured the day's sales yielded £42,000. A three-volume report by the Congested Districts Board for Ireland from 1893 to 1905 sold to a Belfast dealer for £420m, and a Dublin publisher paid £400 and £340 for coloured posters dating from circa 1910 for Coulin Old Irish Whiskey.
Other prices included: £360 for a 1921 letter to Hannah Sheehy Skeffington from Countess Markievicz; £320 for a postcardsized black-and-white wash of Ballina by Thomas Mullvany, circa 1820; £380 for correspondence concerning land in Co Sligo; £440 for a Great Southern Railways poster, circa 1930; £200 for an Aer Lingus 1954 limited edition poster by Guus Melai; and £320 for an album of photographs from 1892-1924, with Trinity College, Dublin, Boer War and early Irish scouting scenes. The next sale to be conducted by Whyte's will take place on Friday, February 20th, and it includes the most important collection of Irish coins offered at auction in the Republic.