Catalogue 80: Top Cover

Catalogue 80: Lower Cover

Below are some sample items from Catalogue 80, Spring 2007.

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A DESIRABLE AND UNIQUE ITEM

536. STOKER, Bram. A Silver Medal Awarded to Abraham (Bram) Stoker in 1870 for History from the Historical Society of the University of Dublin. Holed at head for a necklace. 53mm diameter. In very good condition. Unique item. Exceedingly rare. Together with: A Commemorative Medal to Henry Irvine with his portrait and name on one side and the legend "Born / the / 6th February / 1838", within a laurel wreath on the obverse.                        €6,000

In his lifetime, Bram Stoker lived in the shadow of the man he served, the Victorian actor, Sir Henry Irving. In death, he was overshadowed by his most famous creation, the undead Count who continues to permeate our consciousness. A sickly child, he grew up to be a large and energetic adult who excelled in sport while an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was a contemporary of key Irish literary and political figures.

At the same time, he was launching himself on a career as a writer while promoting the new poetry of Walt Whitman and juggling the demands of a Civil Service job with journalism. He married the great love of Oscar Wilde's youth, Florence Balcombe, one of a number of beautiful women with whom he enjoyed close friendships.

If Stoker did not distinguish himself academically at Trinity, he certainly did so in the College Historical Society and the Philosophical Society, the pre-eminent fora for student debating and literary activities. Stoker managed the rare feat of becoming "both Auditor of the Hist and President of the Phil", the highest offices in both societies. Early in 1870 he was elected to the committee that was to prepare for the Historical Society's centenary celebrations the following March. In the 1870-71 session, he won a certificate for oratory, a special medal for English composition and this Silver Medal for History.

537. STOKER, Bram. Dracula. Westminster, Archibald Constable and Company, 2 Whitehall Gardens, 1897. pp. x, 392, 16. Later issue of the first edition with ad for The Shoulder of Shasta on page 392, followed by a 16 page catalogue dated 1898. A very good copy in original yellow cloth with author and title printed in red on both covers and spine.                                                                                                                                                                   €7,500

Loeber  S622.

Bram [Abraham] Stoker (1847-1912), novelist and theatre manager was born in Dublin. Stoker inherited his love of the theatre from his father and while working as a civil servant he was the unpaid drama critic of The Evening Mail. He was responsible for the great success of Henry Irving's visit to Dublin in 1876 and two years later left Dublin and took up the position of secretary, business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, a post which he held for thirty years.

He supplemented his income by writing a large number of sensational novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula which he published in 1897. Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent eight years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers.

Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays, the most notable of recent times being that starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Legal action followed the first film production. Florence, Stoker’s widow, was neither asked for permission nor paid any royalty. Eventually the matter was resolved in her favour in 1925.

Stoker wrote several other novels dealing with horror and supernatural themes, but none of them achieved the lasting fame or success of Dracula. His other novels include The Snake's Pass (1890), The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

Dracula tells the story of a vampire Count, pursued relentlessly by those who would see him destroyed. Written in diary format, the story begins with Jonathan Harker, a solicitor, being summoned to Dracula's palace in Transylvania under the guise of helping the Count secure property in London. While there, he learns Dracula's terrible secret, and Harker decides, with help from few other characters, to kill the Count.

SIGNED BY BRAM STOKER

538. STOKER, Bram. Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving. Illustrated. London, Heinemann, 1907. pp. xx, 480. Signed presentation copy from Bram Stoker to Miss Winifred Garvie 22.1.08. Cloth faded, otherwise very good.                                                                                                                                                                                       €1,250

Sir Henry Irving, actor and theatre manager was born in 1838 and christened with the name John Henry Brodribb in the Somerset village of Keinton Mandevill. Early in his career he chose the name ‘Irving’ from his beloved American writer Washington Irving, and kept his original middle name, Henry. After his early education he became a clerk to a firm of East India merchants in London, but soon gave up this for a career on the stage. In 1851 after years playing roles at many locations he finally ended up on the stage that he would come to call home, the Lyceum. It was at this theatre that he began his partnership with Bram Stoker, and in August 1878, when Irving finally took control of the theatre, he made Stoker the Acting Manager. Stoker took care of every little detail with a slavish devotion to Irving which was so absolute that Stoker spent virtually all of his time in Irving's company. Stoker's wife, Florence, resented it fiercely. It is said that their only child, Irving Noel Stoker, grew so bitter over the lost attention that he dropped his first name.

In 1905, Sir Henry Irving died, and his death caused Stoker to have a stroke, but Stoker continued to write, publishing, among others, The Jewel of Seven Stars (1903), Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving (1906), and The Lair of the White Worm (1911).

A unique association item.

539. STOKES, Margaret. Alexandra College Literary Society. Art Readings for 1880. No. I. The Transfiguration of Our Lord in Art. Bound with: No. V. A Key to the Sistine Ceiling painted by Michael Angelo. Bound with: Readings on Archaeology and Art. Hades in Art. With folding plate. Three parts in one volume. Dublin, Ponsonby and Falconer, 1880/83. pp. 34, 31, 71. Inscribed from the author on title. Contemporary half vellum on marbled boards. A.e.red. Fine. Scarce.                                                                                                                                                     €275

540. STRAUSS, E. Irish Nationalism and British Democracy. London, Methuen, 1951. pp. x, 307. From the library of T.W. Moody with his bookplate and signature. Very good.                                                                                   €125

The kernel of Strauss' book is that there were really no sustained movements at all, but that the Church conspired with the middle class for the last century to seize every organisation and to frustrate all efforts of the Irish people for freedom. What O'Connell did, what Davis did, what Fintan Lalor did, what Butt did, what Parnell did, all followed this master pattern - they each and all betrayed the Irish people for the selfish advantage of their own class.

WITH MAGNIFICENT COLOURED AQUATINTS

541. SULLIVAN, Dennis. A Picturesque Tour through Ireland, by Dennis Sullivan, Esq. Illustrated with numerous coloured views of the most interesting scenery. London: Published by Thomas M'Lean, 26 Haymarket, 1824. Ob. 4to. pp. 25 (plates), 28. Fine copy in recent half red goatskin on original grey paper boards with an attractive label with title in gilt on red goatskin letterpiece within double gilt fillets and floral border on upper cover. Exceedingly rare.                                                                                                                                                                          €12,500

Elmes and Hewson 2109  Abbey 460 Tooley 469.

The author/artist notes in his introduction that "few parts of the British dominions are so little known to the English as the highly interesting sister-kingdom, of whose beauties we have given a small sketch in the following pages. Whatever may tempt the tourist, or man of fortune, to visit and explore the romantic, and beautiful, and often highly-cultivated scenery of Ireland". Diverting somewhat he castigates the absentee landowners for neglecting the country like faithless shepherds, deserting their posts, and consigning their tenantry  to the gripping hand of a middle man ... Provided he can wring out of them the fortune he generally makes in a few short years. Sullivan then returns to the core reason for this work with a description of Ireland as: "a country possessing an infinity of wealth in its agricultural and commercial resources". He goes on "In Ireland the antiquarian may find full employment for the most active mind ... The artist will find, among the lakes and mountains of Erin, an inexhaustible store of subjects that are not surpassed in any other part of the world, either in romantic grandeur, or beautiful and pastoral simplicity". Perhaps one of the finest collections of coloured Irish aquatint views.  The magnificent views depicted are as follows: The Mountains of Mome (Mourne); Irish Cottages, Wicklow; Stone Cross at Kilcullen; Wicklow Gold Mines; Mountains of Luganaquilla; Lough Erne, and Isle of Devenish; Abbey of Monaincha; Principal Lake at Killarney; Abbey of Aghaboe; Trim Castle; Giant's Causeway; Ballrichan Castle; Roche Castle; Belfast; Lough of Belfast; View of the River Shannon; Downpatrick; Loch Neagh; Carlingford Castle; Waterfall near Bantry; Salmon Leap at Leixlip; Dunamase; Bray Head; View of the River Blackwater; and Limerick.

542. SULLIVAN, T.D. A.M. Sullivan. A Memoir. Portrait frontis. Dublin, Sullivan, 1885. pp. iv, 161. Fine. Scarce.                                                                                                                                                                                        €125

DE-LUXE LIMITED EDITION

543. SWEENEY, Tony & Annie, & HYLAND, Francis. The Sweeney Guide to the Irish Turf from 1501 to 2001. Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, Sires, Records, Great Races, Flat & Jumping, Places of Sport, Past & Present, The Dish Spiced with Anecdotes, Facts, Fancies. Profusely illustrated with 112 superb coloured plates. Dublin, De Búrca, 2002. Folio. pp. 648. Edition limited to 25 numbered copies only, signed by the partners, publisher and binder. Bound in full green niger oasis by Des Breen. Upper cover tooled in gilt with a horseshoe enclosing a trefoil with the heads of Sadler's Wells, Arkle  and Nijinsky, above lake waters (SWAN-LAKE). Splash-marbled endpapers; green and cream head and tail bands. All edges gilt. With inset CD carrying the full text of the work making it possible for subscribers to enter results subsequent to 2001. In this fashion it becomes a living document. This is the only copy remaining of the Limited Edition.                                                                                                   €875

Apart from racing enthusiasts, this will be a most valuable work for students of local history as it includes extensive county by county records of race courses and stud farms, with hitherto unfindable details.

Dr. Tony Sweeney, Anglo-Irish racing journalist and commentator, was Irish correspondent of the Daily Mirror for 42 years. He shared RTE television commentary with Michael and Tony O'Hehir over a period of thirty-five years. Dr. Sweeney is currently a form analyst with the Irish Times, and author of two previous books Irish Stuart Silver, a Catalogue Raisonné (1995) and Ireland and the Printed Word (1997), for which he was last year awarded a Doctorate of Literature by the National University of Ireland.

His wife Annie, a former French stage and screen ballet dancer whose film credits included L'Homme au Parapluie Vert starring Fernanded and Chanteur de Mexico with Luis Mariano. For over a quarter of a century she has, in her role as turf statistician, supplied the Irish Times with course facts and figures.

Francis Hyland a former stockbroker turned bookmaker is currently chairman of the Irish National Bookmakers Association. A passionate racing researcher, he co-authored with Guy St. John Williams, histories of the Irish Derby and the Jameson Irish Grand National.

544. SWIFT, Jonathan. The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., and Dean of Saint Patrick's, Dublin. Containing interesting and valuable papers, not hitherto published. In two volumes. With memoir of the author, by Thomas Roscoe; Portrait and autograph. London, Bohn, 1843. pp. (1) lxxxiv, 844, (2) ivi, 854 (all double column). Bound in cont. half calf on marbled boards. A.e.g. An attractive set. Scarce.                                                                       €450

BOUND BY SIR EDWARD SULLIVAN of DUBLIN

545. SWINBURNE, Algernon Charles. Atalanta in Calydon: a tragedy. Hammersmith, Kelmscott Press, 1894. Quarto. pp. [viii], 82. First Kelmscott edition, one of 250 copies on paper (there were 8 on vellum). The woodcut opening, initials and borders are by William Morris, the Argument and list of characters are in Chaucer type, the text is in Troy type, but the Greek letters used for the title, motto and dedication were designed by Selwyn Image and based on a tenth century manuscript and an early printed book in the British Museum: this is the only Kelmscott Press book in which Morris used a type not designed by himself.                                                                   €8,750

Tompkinson p.113  (Kelmscott no. 25).

A lavish binding, richly tooled and with coloured paints by Sir Edward Sullivan in light tanned calf, with his signature `E.S. Aurifex' on lower cover. The covers are decorated to an outer panel design defined by lobed ovals with repeated floral motifs, stars, leaves and dots, enclosing (on the upper cover) the title in gilt and an inner central oval panel decorated with a profusion of small tools, enamelled flowers, stars, dots, and hearts. Spine divided into six compartments by five raised bands, title in gilt direct in the second, the remainder tooled with dots, tan onlaid flowers and painted circles; inner dentelles with gilt flowers, hearts, and circlets; cream endpapers; red and cream endbands. All edges gilt. Spine professionally rebacked preserving original backstrip, and with minor professional repairs to lower corners. Small scuff mark on rear cover. One of the largest and finest examples by Sullivan that has come to hand.

Sir Edward Sullivan, 2nd. Bart. (1852-1928) succeeded his father as second baronet in 1885. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was called to the Irish Bar in 1879 and to the English Bar in 1888. He is best known for his monograph on the Book of Kells which long remained the standard authority. He was a trustee of the National Library of Ireland and president of the Sette of Odd Volumes in London. His most important legacy, however, is his volume of rubbings and photographs of the magnificent 18th century bookbindings of the Manuscript Journals of both Houses of the Irish Parliament which were destroyed with the shelling of the Four Courts in 1922. These form the sole record of the lavishly bound Parliamentary bindings.

Sullivan was not a binder, he was 'a finisher' and signed himself Aurifex, meaning worker in gold.

Provenance: From the library of Templeton Crocker with his rectangular printed label on front pastedown.

LIMITED EDITION

546. SYNGE, J.M. The Playboy of the Western World. A comedy in three acts. With ten illustrations in colour by John (Seán) Keating, R.H.A. London, Unwin, 1927. 4to. pp. [x], 112, 1 (author's works). Limited edition 420/1000. Slight wear to covers, otherwise very good.                                                                                                             €750

John Millington Synge (1871-1909), playwright, was born in Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin and educated at Trinity College where he won prizes in Irish and Hebrew. He studied at the R.I.A.M. and became proficient on the piano, violin and flute. Turning to literature he settled in Paris where he met W.B. Yeats, who advised him to return to the Aran Islands and write about the way of life there. By 1905, his plays In the Shadow of the Glen, Riders to the Sea and The Well of Saints had been performed in the Abbey, and Synge was accepted by Yeats and Lady Gregory as the leading playwright of the literary revival.

When the Abbey Theatre opened in December 1904, Synge became literary advisor and later a director with W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory. His great comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, now a classic of the Irish theatre, caused a riot on its first Abbey production in 1907. Undeterred, Yeats put on The Tinker's Wedding shortly afterwards. In the same year The Aran Islands (illustrated by Jack B. Yeats) was published.

His last and unfinished play, Deirdre of the Sorrows, was said to have been inspired by his love for the actress Molly Allgood (Maire O'Neill), who played Pegeen Mike in The Playboy.

Suffering from Hodgkin's disease, he died unmarried, on 24 March, 1909. Ironically Synge never saw his collected works in print. They were first published by Maunsel in 1910.

547. SYNGE, J.M. Plays by John M. Synge. The Shadow of the Glen, Riders to the Sea, The Well of the Saints, The Tinker's Wedding, The Playboy of the Western World, and Deirdre of the Sorrows. London, Allen & Unwin, 1929. pp. [iii], 377. Very good in qtr. linen on paper boards.                                                                                          €65

548. SYNGE, John M. The Works of John M. Synge. First collected edition. Four volumes. With portrait frontis. to each volume. Dublin, Maunsel, 1910. First. T.e.g. Fine in very good d.j's. Scarce.                                          €1,250

The Shadow of the Glen; Riders to the Sea; The Well of the Saints; The Tinkers Wedding; The Playboy of the Western World; Deirdre of the Sorrows; Poems; The Aran Islands; In Wicklow; In West Kerry; In the Congested Districts and Under Ether. The essay Under Ether is not printed elsewhere in book form.

OF CORREN AND BALLYMOTE

549. [TAAFE, Viscount] In the House of Lords. Case of the Right Honourable Charles Rudolph Joseph Francis Clement, 10th Viscount Taafe of Corren and Barony of Ballymote, on his Claim to the Titles and Dignities of Viscount Taafe of Corren and Baron of Ballymote in the Peerage of Ireland. 1856-57. With folding pedigree of Viscount Taafe and Baron of Ballymote 1628-1857. London, Edward Walmisley, 1857. 4to. pp. [ii], 57. Very good in stitched printed wraps.                                                                                                                                            €235

550. TAAFFE, Dennis. An Impartial History of Ireland, from the period of the English Invasion to the Present Time. From authentic documents. Engraved title pages, map of Dublin (not called for) facing title-page in volume one. Four volumes. Dublin: Printed by J. Christie, 16 Ross-lane, 1810/11. Cont. full tree calf with green and burgundy letterpieces to each volume (pencil inscription states 'probably bound by William Cumming of Dublin'). A very good set in a fine contemporary binding. Very rare.                                                                                   €2,250

Dennis Taaffe (1743-1813), historian and political writer was born at Castlecoo, Clogherhead, Co. Louth of a good Catholic family. His parents were desirous of his entering the priesthood, although he had no vocation, and sent him to be educated at Louvain and Prague where he was ordained a priest of the Franciscan Order. However his nationalistic tendencies, violent behaviour and several reprimands eventually led to his excommunication. He joined the Protestant ministry about 1790, but many years before his death he had become reconciled to the religion he had abandoned. Taaffe joined the United Irishmen and fought during the rebellion in Wexford, was wounded at Ballyellis, but escaped to Dublin concealed in a load of hay.

Known as a vigorous writer (who boasted he could fight as well as he wrote) and prolific pamphleteer, he wrote under the pseudonyms Julius Vindex and Celticus. In 1808 he commenced a Continuation of Keating's History of Ireland, from 1172 to the Union, which he published between 1810 and 1811. Although written hastily, and from meagre sources, this important work contains material not found elsewhere. Taaffe's works show him to have been a powerful writer of genuine eloquence and satirical force. He was a fine linguist and wrote An Introduction to the Irish Language, the manuscript of which was sold for one pound at the dispersal of Edward O'Reilly's library in 1830.

Taaffe is stated by John O'Donovan to have been the preceptor of William Halliday and George Petrie, and also a founder member of the Gaelic Society, Dublin, in 1808. Due to his excesses he was reduced to abject poverty by intemperance and spent his remaining years in a garret in James' Street, Dublin.

THE ORIGIN OF SINN FEIN?

551. TELEPHONE, Tom [Thomas Stanislaus Cleary] Shin Fain; or, Ourselves Alone: A Drama of the Exhibition. Dublin, Duffy, 1882.  pp. 32. Orig. printed wraps, stitched.  A little foxing, small abrasion to upper cover with no loss of text.                                                                                                                                                                  €675

A most extraordinary item, ‘Respectfully dedicated to the Directors of the National Exhibition, Whose untiring energy and independent efforts have made their auspicious event so complete a success, and thereby done so much to recall that commercial prosperity, the glory of whose too-fleeting morn illumined our country – One Hundred Years Ago!’.

Written more than 20 years before the name Sinn Féin came into general use, this little play may be the original source of the title, believed to have been suggested to Arthur Griffith about 1905 by the writer Mary Butler. The text of the play foreshadows Griffith’s economic programme, with its emphasis on providing employment through home production.  It opens with ‘The genius of Erin holding high court during the Centennial Year of the Nation’s Independence, surrounded by the Spirits of Patriotism, Self-Reliance, Industry, Faith, Temperance, etc.’; includes a song entitled Shin Fain beginning

 ‘Ourselves alone!  Ourselves alone!

    O! this henceforth shall be our cry ..’

and closes with an Old Irish Harper whose song includes these lines, 

 ‘The shoddy shops of Ireland, how heedlessly they stand

    In the streets and by the rivers, through the alleys of the land;

 Throughout the isle each lifts its pile, nor heeds if every thread

    In the gaudy foreign fabric has deprived our homes of bread.’

Thomas Cleary (1851-1898) was born in Dublin, wrote poetry for various Irish and American newspapers, and published several pamphlets including Songs of the Irish Land War, 1888. O’Donoghue says he edited the Clare Independent for a time. The present work is exceedingly rare.