US collector buys copies of 1916 Proclamation for £56,000

One-and-a-half copies of the 1916 Proclamation have been sold a New York collector for IR£56,000.

One-and-a-half copies of the 1916 Proclamation have been sold a New York collector for IR£56,000.

One of a handful of complete surviving copies, briefly displayed in Dublin before the Easter Rising was crushed by British troops, fetched a record IR£52,000 at the sale in Dublin yesterday.

A partially-complete version of the declaration, printed as a souvenir sold for IR£4,000.

Mr Ian Whyte, of Whyte's auctioneers, described the full original copy as "probably one of the most important pieces of paper documentation in the 20th century in Ireland".

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He added: "We reckon about 20 or so survive - there are 17 recorded and this is a new one.

"It was hung up somewhere - this is a bit of mud on it and a couple of pin holes.

"It would have been an offence for anyone to be in possession of one and you would have to have been fairly brave to keep it. That explains the scarcity of them."

The partial version is perhaps rarer still.

Mr Whyte said: "They did not have enough type for the whole proclamation and so they printed it in two halves.

"When the British arrived to take over the city they found the printing press in Liberty Hall with the lower half of the type frame still in it.

"They ran off some copies by hand and were selling them as souvenirs.

"They are probably rarer than the original proclamation - I would say there are fewer than 10. If I was collecting I would want both."

  • Also auctioned was a postcard dated 1908 from James Joyce, then living in Trieste, Italy, to London publisher Mr Elkin Matthews.

Joyce wrote: "I should be glad to hear from you with regard to the manuscript of Dubliners as I am anxious to get it off my hands this season." The novel, now acknowledged as a classic, was rejected by Mr Matthews and not published for another six years.

A Dublin book dealer paid IR£9,000 for the postcard.

PA