THIS WEEK Mealy’s held the last of the big April “history” auctions – and also sold the contents of an 18th-century library assembled by Richard (Ricardi) Moore of Co Tipperary – during a well-attended, two-day event at the Berkeley Court Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin.
Michael Collins continued to shine. Among many mementos, a criminal card issued by British Intelligence to police hunting him during the War of Independence made €4,000.
Among various of his letters that also sold was a one-page, handwritten note from Collins, dated September 16th, 1921, to Miss Dulcibella Barton in Co Wicklow, thanking her for a gift of honey. It sold for €2,100.
Collins apologised for the rushed letter – which he himself described as “a scrappy note” – and said: “Ever so many thanks for the honey – I shall have the greatest pleasure making a beast of myself on it tomorrow,” when he was due to be visited by two of his “little burned-out nieces” from west Cork.
Among the other highlights . . .
* New Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America (1754), by Benjamin Franklin, was bought by a US buyer for €28,000 – more than five times the highest estimate.
* A letter written by a nun, Sister Imelda, during the War of Independence, requesting the British in Fethard, Co Tipperary, to send a sniper to shoot crows and jackdaws in the convent garden was bought, in a telephone bid, by the Presentation Order of nuns for €200.
* A Dublin rare-book dealer paid €9,500 for a newly discovered, unpublished set of nine hand-coloured block-prints by Jack B Yeats designed in 1918 for a poem with a nationalist theme. But Kittie’s Toys, by Dora Sigerson Shorter was not published following objections by the censor.
* A book, The Hundred Best Sayings of Eamon de Valera, sold for just €60.
* A Department of Finance expenses claim in Dublin in 1925 by British hangman Thomas Pierrepoint made €500.
* A gun used at the Coolbawn Ambush in Co Kilkenny during the War of Independence by 16-year- old Pádraig Quinn – who later went to Spain to fight for Franco – made €1,200.
* A ledger recording relief provided to the destitute of rural Waterford during the Famine made €4,000 – way over its estimated €1,000-€1,500.
* A blue flag made for the 1932 Eucharistic Congress sold for €100.
