19 May 2015 - Rare Book Sale

#0234

Lot 663/0234

SOLD Hammer price €120

A Victorian Boy’s Diary

Manuscript: A volume measuring 19cms x 13cms, bound in hf. calf with brass clasps (hasp missing) containing diary entries of William Winter of Birmingham.
They begin on 15 November 1868, shortly before his 13th birthday, and continue in some detail over the next 40 or so pages down to the beginning of 1871. They record his family life (his father was a clergyman), school days, meetings with friends, outings, parties, and crushes on girls. On holiday to Fontainebleau in 1870 they are caught up in the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War and he and his father are arrested as Prussian spies.
Thereafter the entries consist of sparse notes recording his entry into Oxford, his studies there, his ordination as a clergyman and services as a curate. In 1885 he reluctantly accepts a parish in Devon but resigns within months as the parish is not financially viable. In 1886 he and his new wife emigrate to New Zealand.
The only subsequent entry, dated 12 Jan. 1916 and barely legible, states that he has been diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and expresses his love for his wife. As a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 664/0234

SOLD Hammer price €180

Bishops of Meath

Co. Meath: Two original A.L.s. as follows:

* Letter of Thomas Lewis O’Beirne (Bishop of Meath 1798 – 1823), from Ardbraccan House, 26 March 1813. Regrets that he is unable to pay his correspondent’s bill as “my son’s debts have caused me much embarrassment”, but hopes to be able to pay the greater part when Mr. Coutts receives the next dividend on his English stocks (1)

* Letter of Singer Joseph Henderson (Bishop of Meath 1852 – 1866). Brief note from Ardbraccan House, 19 May 1853, to Fitzgerald West re the episcopal seal.

As manuscript, w.a.f. (2)

Lot 666/0234

SOLD Hammer price €280

Annamult, Co. Kilkenny Sale,
With Inventory of Contents, 1835

Co. Kilkenny: An important and extensive parchment Indenture comprising 7 vellum membranes, dated 6 December 1835, whereby the executors of Thomas Neville of Annamult, Co. Kilkenny, sell the house and lands of Annamult to William Bayly Junior of Johnswell for £2,000.
Recites in detail Neville’s title to the estate. Concludes with a room-by-room inventory listing “articles of household furniture, plate, books, wine, carriages, horses, farming stock and implements, hay, corn and other articles which were at Annamult.” As a m/ss, w.a.f.

* A significant insight into the contents of an Irish Country House in the 1830’s. (1)

Lot 667/0234

SOLD Hammer price €460

Poll Return for Clonmines, Co. Wexford, 1761

Co. Wexford: An interesting original Manuscript Certificate, reporting that at a meeting of Burgesses held on 9 May 1761, Henry Alcock of Wilton and Henry Tottenham of Tottenham Green were returned as MPs of Clonmines. Signed by James Boyd the portreeve, and six others.
The election can hardly have generated much excitement: Clonmines in South Wexford had been a prosperous little town in the Middle Ages, but by 1761 it was a cluster of uninhabited ruins. Nonetheless, it returned two members to the Irish House of Commons down to 1800. The “voters” were the burgesses (townsmen), numbering thirteen, none of whom lived there (there was no town). They were hand picked by the patron, Lord Loftus, and allegedly included several of his own servants! Along with other so-called rotten boroughs, the constituency was abolished at the Act of Union in 1800. Single sheet, as a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

* Rare historical document. “Tottenham in his Boots.”

Lot 668/0234

SOLD Hammer price €160

Military & Republican interest: Two copies of Irish Life Magazine, both for 1915, one Recruiting Number for Oct. 8th, with numerous photographs of recruiting committees etc.; also, booklet, With The President (Cosgrave) in America, 4to D. 1928, illus. etc. As a lot. (1)

Lot 669/0234

SOLD Hammer price €90

Military interest: A rare and unusual metal Clothes-iron Stand, inscribed “Britain’s Might as Iron Stands,” with Registration mark, and designed with sabres, rifle with bayonet, and a pair of revolvers. Rare. (1)

Lot 675/0234

SOLD Hammer price €190

Yeats (W.B.) The Tables of the Law and The Adoration of the Magi, sm. 4to L. (Elkin Mathews) 1905, 4pps. of adverts at end, ptd. wrappers; Cathleen Ni Houlihan, 8vo Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare Head) 1911, First Theatre Edn., ptd. wrappers. (3)

Lot 676/0234

SOLD Hammer price €120

Broadsides: St. Sepulchers Press, The Clergyman, c. 1965, & 2 others. (3)

Lot 677/0234

SOLD Hammer price €1750

Important Early Manuscript Poem by James Stephens
With Critical Manuscript Comments by George Bernard Shaw

Manuscript: A folio page containing a poem entitled “The Earth Song” signed by James Stephens. There are six verses, each of eight or nine lines.
Written across both sides of the sheet are comments, by George Bernard Shaw, to whom Stephens had evidently sent the poem for his appraisal. Shaw’s critique is fairly devastating: “Unless you have an intensity of feeling that transfigures everything for you and can express that feeling in lines that have beauty, dignity, fascination, you cannot write poetry”.
However, Shaw reassures Stephens that the prompt return of a short story he had sent to an editor does not mean it is no good, and he criticises the facetious tone of Stephens’s letter to the editor: “Englishmen don’t understand jokes in the wrong place – sometimes not even jokes in the right place.” He urges Stephens to persist with his writing but warns him not to be financially dependent on its success.
Shaw’s remarks are signed from Maybury Knoll, Woking, and dated 29 December 1902.
Much about Stephens’s early life is obscure, and at this period he was employed in a series of poorly paid clerical jobs of short duration. His first known literary contributions were made to the United Irishman in 1905, so this early composition – with Shaw’s reaction to it – is specially significant and unique. As a m/ss, w.a.f. (1)

Lot 679/0234

SOLD Hammer price €50

Johnstons (W. & A.K.) School Charts of Anatomy & Physiology, a set of five charts after Prof. Turner, Edin. c. 1900, all linen backed & rolled. Good. As a lot. (1)

Lot 683/0234

SOLD Hammer price €80

Early Cricket Almanack

Boating, Cricket & Athletics: 1865 – The Cambridge University General Almanack & Register for 1865, 8vo Cambridge 1865, fold. map of river, adverts. etc., front & end, orig. ptd. wrappers, v. good. Rare.
* Contains List of Officers and Crews of each of the College Boat Clubs, and a Map of the River, Officers of the University Cricket and other Clubs, and a register of the Boat Races, Cricket Matches, and Athletic Games of the Past Year. (1)

Lot 684/0234

SOLD Hammer price €450

Early Co. Kilkenny Cricket Records 1901 – 1914

Cricket: Co. Kilkenny, a G.G.B. Cricket Scoring book for “Kilkenny Castle,” with manuscript results from 1901 – 1914, detailing scores for matches between 39th Battery R.F.A. & A.H.A., Mr. Foleys, Desart Court, Lord Southamptons, Talbots Inch, Desart Castle, Kilkenny Colts etc., played at St. James Park, Woolen Mills & Kilkenny Castle, in leather back cloth, with gilt lettering; together with another folio volume of manuscript minutes and notes for “Kilkenny County Cricket Club”, for the years 1906 – 1914, listing attendees, (ie. Bishop of Ossory R. Duggan, J. Smithwick) detailing costing’s, proposals, expenditure etc., in half leather cloth, with gilt lettering, as m/ss, w.a.f. (2)

Lot 685/0234

SOLD Hammer price €26

Squash: 1929, Rackets, Fives (Eton & Rugby) and Squash Rackets, 1929, A 28pp. ptd. booklet Cricket Press Series, ed. by Capt. G.J.V. Weigall, with adverts. front & back, orig. ptd. wrappers. Good & Scarce. (1)

Lot 690/0234

SOLD Hammer price €90

Rare Time Sheet for Blackwater Steamer

Co. Waterford: 1902 – Sailing’s of Blackwater Steamer Youghal & Cappoquin. Tourist Season 1902, Small time-card printed by Field of Youghal, giving sailing times of “Ness Queen,” between Youghal & Cappoquin for June to September 1902. A very rare item, in fine condition. (1)

Lot 692/0234

SOLD Hammer price €40

Yachting: Broadside – The Sailing Regulations of The Royal Yacht Squadron, July 14th, 1843…, Newport (Yelf, Printer to the Royal yacht Squadron, Holyrood Street) 1843, approx. 39cms x 25cms, m/ss notes and alteration, fold. marks. Unusual and Scarce. (1)

Lot 693/0234

SOLD Hammer price €60

Early Printed Rules

Football: n.d. c. 1870? [Establishment] Cambridge University Football, A 4pp. printed leaflet, outlining 14 rules, & listing committee members. V. Rare.

* “It having been though desirable to establish a general Game for the University of Cambridge, the accompanying Rules have been drawn up for that purpose. The first Game will be played on Friday, November 20th, at 2.15p.m. on Parker’s Piece.” (1)

Lot 695/0234

SOLD Hammer price €25

Co. Laoise: Abbeyleix House. Post, A rare printed card for in-house posting at Abbeyleix. It gives times of arrival & dispatch of the mails, & listing stops at different stations for trains passing through Abbeyleix. Unusual item, & Scarce. (1)

Lot 702/0234

SOLD Hammer price €90

Ireland V. Scotland, 1954

Rugby: I.R.F.U., Official Programme, Ireland V. Scotland at Ravenhill, Saturday 27.2.1954, 8vo, 14pps, illus., & adverts, ptd. wrappers. (1)

* Prior to this Game, the new Irish Captain Jim Mc Carthy approached the President of the I.R.F.U. Mr. Sarsfield Hogan stating on behalf of the eleven Republic based players that they would not stand for “God Save the Queen,” hence an abbrievated anthem was played known as “The Salute”. After the event it was agreed that no future International Matches would be played at Ravenhill. Ireland beat Scotland 6-0.

Lot 703/0234

SOLD Hammer price €1100

Early Irish Rugby Medal, 1885

Medal: Rugby: I.R.F.U. 1885. An attractive and scarce 9ct gold Medal, the obverse in cross form with shamrocks and overlay inscribed “Leinster Challenge Cup 1885,” the reverse inscribed “Won by W.F.C. (Wanderers Football Club) F.W. Moore, Forward,” Scarce.

* This medal appears to be the earliest extant Medal awarded in Irish Rugby. F.R.W. Moore was the son of one of the founding fathers of Ireland’s Botanical Gardens. He himself subsequently was curator, following on from his rugby career. (1)

Lot 704/0234

SOLD Hammer price €70

Medal: Rugby: I.R.F.U., Conaught Branch, 1938 – 39, a circular silver Medal, with enamel shield shaped central panel, with Connaught coat of arms, the reverse inscribed “Connacht Branch I.R.F.U., Junior Challenge Cup 1938-39,” hallmarked. Scarce. (1)

* The 1938 – 39 Challenge Cup was won by Garbally College, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway.