A new chapter to begin for rare books at auction

A first edition of novel At Swim Two Birds and a copy of the ‘Irish Proclamation’ are among the lots.

WITH fine bindings, ancient maps, Irish literature, flora, genealogy and politics, journals, law books and even a silk handkerchief rescued from the flames of the Abbey Theatre in 1951, an auction by Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers in Kilkenny, next Wednesday (April 2), holds much to delight bibliophiles and collectors.

There is a rare, 1939 first edition of At Swim Two Birds, by Flann O’Brien, and a first American edition, from 1939, of Finnegan’s Wake, by James Joyce.

There are maps of Ireland from 1635, an 1850 ‘Pictorial Directory of Dublin’, and an extremely fine binding of the Memoirs of the Family of Grace (Sheffield) 1823.

A rarity for gardeners is The Flowering Plants and Ferns of the County Cork, by the Rev. Thomas Allin, 1883. A 1939 issue of the ‘Irish Proclamation’, a 1926 first edition by Piaras Beaslai, of Michael Collins and the Making of a New Ireland, a Michael Collins memorial issue of ‘An Saorstat, the Free State’, dated August 29, 1922 and the Journals of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, volumes 1, 2 and 3, are all included.

The silk handkerchief rescued from the flames of the Abbey has picture designs of actors, and bears the legend: “Sold by the Irish Players at $1.00 towards a building to save Sir Hugh Lane’s great gift of Pictures for Ireland, April 1913”.

The sale, of around 600 lots, is at the Club House Hotel, Kilkenny City, at 11am next Wednesday.

Viewing is from 10am to 5pm on Monday and Tuesday, and on the morning of the auction.