Collins, O’Donovan Rossa and Pearse items under hammer

Des O’Sullivan looks forward to an exciting sale of artefacts featuring the most famous names in Irish history.

Padraig Pearse, Michael Collins, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa and WB Yeats are among the long list of Irish personages to feature at the annual James Adam History Sale in Dublin next Tuesday.

The 824 lots will be sold in two sessions, at 11 am and 5 pm and viewing gets underway at 1 pm today.

Three strong collections form the backbone of this auction. Books and documents from the late historian Dr Tony Sweeney — who sought to have the best possible copy of every book or pamphlet shown to have a connection to Ireland pre-1700 — will make up lots 1-279.

There are 94 lots of rare Irish maps from two private collector ions with estimates from €50 to €8,000. The rarest maps are by Antonio Lefreri (1540-1577) and two examples of early maps of Ireland are estimated at €5,000-€7,000 and €6,000-€8,0000 respectively.

The MacManus Carbery collection comprises 22 lots from the Donegal writer Seumas MacManus (1868-1960); his first wife Anna Johnston (1866-1902) whose pen name was Ethna Carbery and his brother Padraic (1864-1929), a successful businessman in Argentina.

He was a supporter of Irish causes and the archive includes important original correspondence from Padraig Pearse, Arthur Griffith, Major John MacBride and others associated with the Irish revival.

The top lot is Kathleen Clark’s 1916 bronze medal (estimate €25,000-€35,000) featured on these pages last week. Viewing is from 1 pm to 5 pm today and tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday.