EIRE

Beltaine. An Occasional Publication. The Organ of the Irish Literary Theatre. Edited by W. B. Yeats.

Author: 
W. B. Yeats, editor; George Moore, Edward Martyn, W. B. Yeats, Alice Milligan, and Augusta Gregory, contributors [Irish literature]
Publication details: 
Number Two. February 1900. London: At the Sign of the Unicorn, VII Cecil Court, Saint Martin's Lane, W.C.
£200.00

4to, 28 + [iv] pp. In original buff printed wraps. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with rust to staples causing detached covers. Nicely printed. Advertisements on the last four pages and three sides of the wraps.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Londonderry') one to Lord Ashbourne and the other to Lady Ashbourne.

Author: 
Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart (1852-1915), 6th Marquess of Londonderry, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1886-1889 [Edward Gibson, 1st Baron Ashbourne; his wife Frances Marie Adelaide Gibson]
Publication details: 
15 May (to Lady Ashbourne)and 11 August (to Lord Ashbourne) [years not stated, but between 1886 and 1889]; on letterheads of the Vice Regal Lodge, Dublin.
£75.00

Both items good, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One (15 May, to Lady Ashbourne): 16mo, 2 pp. Nine lines. Accepting an invitation to a garden-party. 'I have two Cricket Matches [...] I have promised to go for an hour to the Unionists Cricket Match, but could come on to you after that, if that day suited you.' Letter Two (11 August, to Lord Ashbourne): 12mo, 2 pp. Fourteen lines. He thanks him for the 'Letters & enclosed Draft'. 'I had to send my Letter off before it arrived, as the takes place to-day, but fortunately it was drawn on almost identical lines as yours, so it is all right.

Autograph Signature ('Maurice OConnell').

Author: 
Sir Maurice O'Connell [Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell] (1812-1879), Irish soldier, administrator, and politician in Australia [Daniel O'Connell]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£23.00

On a piece of paper, 2 x 8 cm, cut from a letter. Neatly laid down on a piece of paper, 4 x 9 cm. Good, on aged paper. The signature reads 'Maurice OConnell'. In a contemporary hand, on the mount, 'Maurice O'Connell. MP. | (nephew of King Dan)'. According to the Oxford DNB, Daniel O'Connell ('The Liberator') was a cousin of Maurice's father Sir Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell (1768-1848).

Mezzotint engraving [of Orde-Powlett], 'Painted by G. Romney' and 'Engraved by In Jones'.

Author: 
Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton (1746-1807), British politician; George Romney (1734-1802), artist; John Jones (1745?-97), engraver
Publication details: 
[London; 'Pubd as the Act directs July 6 1786'.]
£200.00

National Portrait Gallery no: NPG D913 (only acquired in 1966). Dimensions of paper roughly nineteen and a half inches by fourteen wide. Dimensions of print roughly seventeen and a half inches by thirteen and three-quarters wide. Backed by a piece of cream card. Heavily aged and spotted, and with one small worm hole. Slight loss to lower right-hand corner, not affecting print. Closed tears to mount. Apparently printed before the name, and very likely a proof.

Colour lithograph engraving, with illustration of two lovers, headed 'THE DECORATED ALBUM'

Author: 
Marcus Ward & Co. [Baxter print]
Publication details: 
[circa 1870?] Undated. 'LONDON | MARCUS WARD & CO. | & ROYAL ULSTER WORKS. BELFAST. ['ENTD. STA. HALL.' (i.e. 'Entered at Stationers' Hall']
£56.00

Landscape, on one side of a piece of thick paper 24 x 30.5 cm. The print itself is 22 x 27.5 cm. The print is clear and entire on lightly-aged paper, with wear to extremities and some repair to reverse, to which a tissue guard has been attached. Enclosed within a decorative border of birds and flowers printed in burgundy, brown and gold, is a delicate illustration (9 x 15 cm), somewhat akin to a Baxter print, showing a sylvan scene with two young lovers in seventeenth-century attire.

Cnuasachd bheag amhrán. Le haghaidh aos óg na Gaedhilge d'foghluim ins na sgoileannaibh. An t'Athair Pádraig Breathnach do chruinnigh. [Cuid a tri.]

Author: 
Pádraig Breathnach [Father Patrick Walsh (c.1885-1927), Irish cleric, republican and folklorist]
Publication details: 
Dublin: Muinntir Bhrúin & Nualláin do chlódh-bhuail. [circa 1920?]
£50.00

16mo (15 x 12 cm), 32 pp. Stapled pamphlet, in original green printed wraps. Text complete and clear, on aged and dogeared paper. Wraps worn and stained. Part three only of an annotated collection of ballads. Six-page English glossary at rear. Scarce: the National Library of Ireland only appears to have Part Five, and the only record on COPAC is of Parts One and Three at Trinity College, Dublin.

An Buaiceas. 1. ceithre sgéalta rug craobh an Oireachtais leó 'sa bhliadhain 1898. [Sgéalta nua-dhéanta. - IV.]

Author: 
Pádraig Ó Séaghdha (pseudonym ‘Conán Maol’) (1855-1928), Irish writer
Publication details: 
I mBaile Átha Cliath: Ar n-a gcur amach do Chonnradh na Gaedhilge, 1903.
£200.00

12mo: 97 pp. A good, tight copy, on aged paper, in contemporary calf binding gilt. All edges gilt, marble endpapers, dentelles. Binding rubbed and worn. Apparently complete (and certainly complete as bound), containing all four stories listed in the National Library of Ireland entry, but having 97 rather than the 167 pp in that entry. A landmark work in Irish literature, highly regarded as a pioneering attempt to modernize Gaelic narrative.

Everything New? Or Nothing New? A Satirical Comicality, Relating to Men, Manners, Incidents, and Novelties of the Day. [...] To which is added, The Shakespeare Tercentenary Prologue, As Spoken by the author, April 23, 1864.

Author: 
William Scribble, Esq.' (pseudonym of William Smyth (1813-1878), Irish portrait painter, satirist and friend of William Makepeace Thackeray)
Publication details: 
Dublin: William Robertson, 35, Lower Sackville-street, And may be had of Wiseheart, and all Booksellers. 1864. [Goodwin, Son, and Nethercott, Printers, 79, Marlborough-street, Dublin.]
£225.00

12mo: 24 pp. In original pink printed wraps: the front wrap bearing the title; the recto and verso of the rear carrying newspaper reviews of works by 'Scribble'. Stitched. On aged and spotted paper. Wraps heavily worn. A worn presentation inscription can be made out at the head of the title: 'Dr <?> With the Authors Best regards'. Pp.1-2: Introduction and Author's Preface (the latter dated 'Dublin, May, 1864.').

The Ulster Calendar of Persons and Events. By Alex. Riddell. 1911.

Author: 
Alex. Riddell,
Publication details: 
N.p. 1911.
£100.00

8vo, 76 + [i] + [iii]. Rebound in attractive green paper wraps, including surviving front wrap (back wrap missing), damaged but reinforced, staples rusty. Final page a Calendar for 1911, followed by three pages blank but for heading 'MEMORANDA'. Verso of front wrap carries an advertisement, with photograph of shop front, for James' Boys' Clothing, 10 Lombard St., Belfast. Scarce. No copy listed in National Library of Ireland online catalogue, and only one copy on COPAC (at the British Library).

The Irish Library. 1908-9. Vol. 2. The Fenian Movement: The Story of the Manchester Martyrs.

Author: 
F. L. Crilly [Justin McCarthy; Ireland; Irish; Eire; Fenian Movement]
Publication details: 
London: John Ouseley Ltd., 15 & 16 Farringdon St., E.C.
£150.00

8vo, 94 + ii pp. Stapled and in original green and white printed wraps. Advertisements on wraps, prelims and final leaf. Frontispiece portrait of Justin McCarthy (with transcription of a letter by him to Ouseley facing it) and double-sided plate (between pp. 32 and 33) carrying seven illustrations. A scarce item (no copy at British Library): chipped and worn on aged high-acidity paper. Described by the author as a 'narrative of probably the most powerful and far-reaching conspiracy the world has ever known'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Lieutenant J. Longshaw, of His Majesty's Brig Tyrian [Ireland; Irish; textile; textiles; weaving]
Publication details: 
Tyrian July 3d. 1813 Spithead.'
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Sixteen lines of text. The Tyrian arrived in Spithead the previous night 'with a Convoy', and the postal delay prevented him 'from fulfilling Mrs. P's Commission'. They 'remained three days in Ireland' and 'had a good passage there and Back': 'but as we may frequently have the trip, I shall keep it in Memory, I have bought over Two pieces. Enclosed are Patterns of Eight Yards each We call them Poplins, but these are Manufactured only at Dublin and by the Natives called '. States what he paid and sends respects. Docketed on reverse in a contemporary hand.

Autograph Letter Signed to Henry Fawcett.

Author: 
[G.O. TREVELYAN] Sir George Otto Trevelyan (1838-1928), Liberal politician and author [Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), English economist and politician]
Publication details: 
9 October 1882; on letterhead of the Chief Secretary's Office, Dublin Castle.
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. Good, on lightly aged and creased paper. The 'appointment of examiners' is entirely a matter for 'the Commissioners of Intermediate Education'. However Trevelyan will be glad 'to send the papers on to the proper quarter, and will do so accordingly'. He is 'much obliged' to Fawcett for his 'kind expressions about my proceedings here. It is a very queer post, and I always feel as if on the brink of an appalling escape.' He has been 'much struck' with the success of Fawcett's policy at Trinity College, Dublin. The Trevelyans 'spent some days in Salisbury in 1879.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Sligo') to Brabazon.

Author: 
Howe Peter Browne, 2nd Marquis of Sligo (1788-1845) [Sir William Brabazon (d.1840), 2nd Bart]
Publication details: 
July 16 1833; Mansfield Street.
£50.00

12mo, 4 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper. Docketed in a contemporary hand (Brabazon's), beside Sligo's signature, 'second letter'. Sligo writes that the 'affair' to which Brabazon's letter alludes 'was purely of an official & Parliamentary nature', and that he 'must beg leave to decline receiving any communications respecting it', excepting in his 'place in the H of Lords'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('L. C. Purser') to the classical scholar John Percival Postgate (1853-1926).

Author: 
Louis Claude Purser (1854-1932), Classical scholar, President of the Royal Irish Academy, a fellow pupil of Oscar Wilde and close friend of Yeats's sister Lollie [Trinity College, Dublin]
Publication details: 
22 February 1915; 35 Trinity College, Dublin.
£80.00

4to, 1 p, 22 lines. On aged paper, with chipping at extremities neatly repaired with archival tape. Text clear and entire. He thanks him for his 'interesting paper', commenting on the 'Lucretian passage'. Postgate's 're-arrangement [...] is undoubtedly more attractive & logical than the ordinary arrangment, and as such I welcome it: but must we suppose always that artists do as well instinctively as they might if they had taken counsel?' 'Ex silentio I judge that all is well with you, as far as anything can be well for any of us these terrible times.

Last leaf only of Autograph Letter Signed ('H. Law') to 'Mr. F<?>'.

Author: 
Hugh Law (1818-1883), judge, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 1881-1883
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£80.00

12mo, 2 pp, 23 lines. The second leaf of a bifolium. Good, on lightly aged paper, with three small tissue mounts still adhering to a margin. Commenting on a legal matter relating to the recipient: '[...] there is the further difficulty tht except where the family so desire and a special case is made for it, the County Chancery will not generally speaking allow any of its wards to be taken out of its jurisdiction. [...] I wd.

Autograph Signature on fragment of letter.

Author: 
John Bruce Richard O'Neill (1780-1855), 3rd Viscount O'Neill, Irish General and politician, Constable of Dublin Castle
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£32.00

On piece of paper roughly one and a half inches by three wide. Small tear in top left-hand corner not affecting signature. Reads 'Your Obed Hue Servt | [signature] O'Neill | Lieut General'. On reverse '<...> he had his discharge to <...> | <...> allowed something he had <...>'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Rowland P Blennerhassett') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Rowland Ponsonby Blennerhassett (1850-1913), of Kells, Irish Protestant and Member of Parliament for Kerry
Publication details: 
15 November 1884; 52 Hans Place, [London] S.W.
£28.00

12mo: 1 p. Good, though lightly creased and discoloured, and with the blank reverse tipped in on a strip of paper removed from an autograph album. He thanks her for her kindness, and has 'duly received the £3' for two books: a work by 'Mrs. Evans' and a copy of 'Two Sisters' (by Elizabeth Thomasina Meade).

Autograph Letter Signed to [?] Brougham.

Author: 
John Henry Bernard
Publication details: 
21 June 1900; on letterhead of Trinity College, Dublin.
£38.00

Irish churchman and philosopher (1860-1927). Four pages, 12mo. Good, though grubby and a tad spotted, and with remains of previous mount adhering to lower-half of verso of second leaf of bifoliate (not affecting text). Begins 'My dear Brougham | I have read over the article in the Gazette on SPG, and have ascertained that Mr. White had nothing, directly or indirectly, to say to it. I think that the scope of the article precluded any mention of individual workers of recent years, as it was meant to give a general view.

Autograph Letter Signed to the Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Edward Arthur Donald St George Hamilton Chichester, 6th Marquis of Donegall
Publication details: 
16 March 1938; '8. Westminster Gdns. | S.W.1.', on deleted letterhead 'ST. ERMIN'S, | WESTMINSTER.'
£26.00

Irish peer (1903-75) and war correspondent. Two pages, octavo. On blue paper. Very good. Docketed and stamped and with staple holes to one corner. 'In reply to your letter of March 4th. I write to say that Art being one of my chief interests in life. I would appreciate very much being elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society.' Signed 'J. Donegall'. Postscript, on verso of second leaf of bifoliate, explains that the delay in replying is 'owing to absence in America' and ends 'Do you wish me to find any sponsors?'

Autograph Note Signed ('F. Cavendish') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish (1836-82), murdered by the Irish National Invincibles in Phoenix Park, Dublin
Publication details: 
16 August 187<?>; on embossed letterhead 'Holker Hall, Carke-in-Cartmel, Carnforth.'
£50.00

One page, 12mo. Good, with blank second leaf of bifolium mounted on larger piece of card, which is docketed with biographical information. Right-hand side of leaf very slightly cropped, resulting in loss of last digit of year. Bold, clear signature. Reads 'Madam. | According to your request I beg to sign myself | Your obedt Servt | F. Cavendish'.

Wood engraving entitled 'GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION, DUBLIN, 1853. | [...] DRAWN BY GILBERT, FROM DESIGNS BY J. MAHONY, ESQ.] [ENGRAVED BY H. LINTON AND G. PEARSON.'

Author: 
The Great Industrial Exhibition, Dublin, 1853 [William Dargan (1799-1867); Sir John Benson (1812-74), architect; Sir John Gilbert (1817-97), J. Mahony; Henry Linton, and George Pearson, engravers]
Publication details: 
Without place or date [circa 1853].
£250.00

Attractive image roughly eleven inches by ten wide, captioned 'VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION, DUBLIN - OPENED MAY 12, 1853.' On piece of paper roughly fourteen and a half inches by eleven. Good on light-foxed aged paper with two neat vertical folds (perhaps indicating removal from a book). At foot of page list of twelve measurements of the 'PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS OF THE BUILDING', from 'Main Frontage' to 'Width of Outer Gallery'.

BRICRIU'S FEAST | A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS | WITH AN EPILOGUE, with typewritten letter to the author's daughter Ita O'Duffy.

Author: 
Eimar O'Duffy
Publication details: 
Martin Lester, Ltd, 44 Dawson Street, Dublin; [1919?].
£30.00

52 pages, 8vo. In original blue printed wraps, which are folded around endpapers, the rear of which bears publisher's advertisements. In poor condition: paper browning and spotting with age, binding loose and wraps frayed and worn, especially at spine. The front wrap has a long closed tear at head, and the indentation of a paper-clip, which attaches the typewritten letter (1 page, 8vo, discoloured and worn at extremities), headed 'Room 102, | Surrey Street. | 7.4.52', from 'Christine' to 'Ita'.

Autograph Signature ('London=Derry:') on fragment of document.

Author: 
Robert Ridgeway, 4th Earl of Londonderry (d.1714), Irish aristocrat
Publication details: 
Docketed '1711' on reverse.
£56.00

On piece of paper roughly 1.5 x 7.5 cm. Closely cropped underlined signature 'London=Derry:'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Plunket') to Dr Heffernan.

Author: 
William Conyngham Plunket, 1st Baron Plunket (1764-1854), Lord Chancellor of Ireland
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£45.00

16mo, 1 p, 5 lines. Gilt-edged bifolium, laid down by small strip of inner margin of verso of second leaf to square of paper cut from autograph album. The mount docketed in a contemporary hand. Good, with remains of red wax seal broken in two and adhering to verso of second leaf, which carries the address to 'Doctor Heffernan | &c &c' (franked 'P'). Reads 'Dear Sir | will you be so good as to call in here at any time this morning most convenient to you | Yours &c | [signed] Plunket'. Small ink smudge by Plunket in right margin.

A Plain Tale.

Author: 
[Eimar Ultan O'Duffy (1893-1935), Irish satirical writer]
Publication details: 
Undated; place and printer not stated.
£85.00

One page, in two 62-line columns. Octavo leaf with blank reverse. Good, on lightly aged paper with slight nicking and creasing to edges. Satirical account of 'simple soul' Michael James's dealings with his hypocritical neighbour Susan Elizabeth, who hands him a white feather when he refuses to enlist in the British Army during the Great War. On 'the Day' of the Easter Rising James fights and is wounded and 'thrown into the interment camp at Frongoch'. Susan Elizabeth then becomes 'a great Sinn Feiner.

The Orthodox Presbyterian.

Author: 
Samuel MIller of Princeton; Norman M'Leod, Minister of Campsie; George Bellis, Secretary to the Presbyterian Missionary Society of Ireland [T. Mairs, printer Belfast, Ulster]
Publication details: 
Vol.V. No.L. Nov. 1833. Belfast: Published by William M'Comb, 1, High-street and Corn-market; [...] sold by W. Curry, Jun. & Co. and James Burnside, Dublin; M. Hempton, Derry; George Dugan, Ballymena. [T. Mairs, Printer, Joy's Entry, Belfast.]
£38.00

12mo, 40 pp, paginated 37-76. Stitched and unbound, in original light-brown printed wraps (printed on both sides). Text clear and entire, but rather grubby and aged, and with a little light staining at head of first and last leaf. Wraps creased, particularly at rear. Includes an essay (37-49 pp.) on 'The Religious Education of Children' by Samuel Miller, 'Princeton, April, 1833.' and 'Synod of Ulster - Home Mission, to the Rev. George Bellis, Secretary to the Presbyterian Missionary Society for Ireland, Campsie Manse, 23 Oct. 1833' by Norman M'Leod, Minister of Campsie.

[Railway Reading.] Workmen's Earnings, Strikes, and Savings. By Samuel Smiles, author of 'Life of George Stephenson,' 'Self Help,' etc. Reprinted from the 'Quarterly Review.'

Author: 
Samuel Smiles [Victorian trades unions; strikes; industrial action]
Publication details: 
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street. 1861. Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street, and Charing Cross.
£120.00

12mo, 168 pp. In original red printed wraps, yellow endpapers. Attractive bookseller's ticket of 'Hunt Books 1919 Southborough Kent England' on front pastedown. Internally sound, with a little light staining and some unobtrusive marking in margins. Wraps chipped and worn at corners and spine, with small ink stain on back. Front wrap headed 'RAILWAY READING.' Small neat ownership stamp of J. D. Bowen at head of title.

Autograph Note in the third person to 'the Lord Mayor elect and the Sheriffs' of the City of London.

Author: 
George Tierney (1761-1830), Anglo-Irish Whig politician [Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) of Kyllachy]
Publication details: 
Monday 9th. Inst. [no date]'.
£56.00

On piece of paper roughly 5.5 x 12 cm. Neatly laid down on a quarto leaf removed from an autograph album. Autograph and mount both damp-stained. Reads 'Mr Tierney presents his Compts to the Lord Mayor elect and the Sheriffs. will have the honor of waiting upon them Monday 9th Inst.' The leaf on which the autograph is mounted carries thirteen lines of biographical information in a nineteenth-century hand. Laid down on the reverse of the mount is an oval engraved portrait (not stated, but by William Ridley, published by Vernor & Hood, after John Opie), c.

Autograph Letter Signed ('S. C. Hall') to autograph hunter J. H. Hall.

Author: 
Samuel Carter Hall (1800-1889), Anglo-Irish author and journalist, editor of The Amulet and Art Union Monthly (afterwards Art Journal), said to be the model for Dickens's Pecksniff
Publication details: 
18 November 1883; on letterhead of Sussex Villas, 3, Sussex Place, Victoria Road, W., Kensington [London].
£56.00

8vo: 1 p. Very good. He has 'pleasure in complying' with his correspondent's request. 'You may have seen a book I have recently published - "Retrospect of a Long Life" - and have learned that I am in the 84th year of my age - born on the 9th May 1800. | I am thankful to God for good health and for many other blessings.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('S C Hall') ['To Mrs G. Barrow'].

Author: 
Samuel Carter Hall (1800-1889), English journalist of Irish extraction, editor of the Art Journal [Art Union]
Publication details: 
19 May 1883; Sussex Villas, 3, Sussex Place, Victoria Road, W. Kensington [London].
£45.00

8vo: 1 p. Good, with slight wear to outer edge, and strip from previous mount neatly adhering to reverse. With name of recipient at head, and docketed on reverse. He has 'seen some charming & useful Leaflets advocating Humanity to Animals' and has been 'led to understand they may be obtained through' his correspondent. He would like a hundred of the leaflets to be sent to him, 'for which I will gladly send stamps'. Hall was a sanctimonious figure, supposedly the model for Dickens's Pecksniff.

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