Skibbereen collector's Signatures for sale: 20th century in autographs

A history of the world in the first half of the 20th century is contained in 17 lots from a Skibbereen autograph collector to be sold at Whyte’s in Dublin on September 20.

Political leaders from Konrad Adenaur and Paul Spaak to Moshe Dayan, archibishop Makarios and Constantine Karamanlis, military personages like field marshall Montgomery and anyone who was anyone on the Allies’ side in the Second World War, literary figures like Boris Pasternak, British prime ministers Anthony Eden and Clement Attlee, admirals of the fleet, including the Earl of Cork and Orrery, William Boyle, and celebrities such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and James Cagney are peppered through this collection.

The collection of Michael O’Sullivan, now retired and still living in Skibbereen, is extraordinary. He wrote to and received replies from people like Egypt’s general Nasser and Franco of Spain, admiral Jerauld Wright, commander-in-chief, the US Atlantic Fleet, and astronomer Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell, builder of the Jodrell Bank telescope, which tracked Sputnik in 1957.