MITCHELL, Flora H. Vanishing Dublin [SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR]

With fifty coloured plates and one page of text to each. With an introduction by the Earl of Wicklow. Dublin: Figgis, 1966. First edition. Quarto. pp. x, 101. Green cloth. Signed by the author on titlepage. A fine copy in dust jacket, in a clear, removable archival plastic jacket protector. Rare with the author’s signature.

Flora Mitchell, 1890-1973, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and moved with her family to Ireland as a result of the Sioux Indian Rising in the 1890’s. She studied drawing and painting at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art developing a reputation for her life sketches and her watercolours. After a period of voluntary work in Dublin during the First World War, she went to teach art in Canada but by the end of the 1920’s, she was back in Dublin. In 1935 she began exhibiting with the Water Colour Society of Ireland, which was her only showcase until the mid-1950’s, when she exhibited with the Dublin Painters’ Gallery and the Royal Hibernian Academy. Much of Flora Mitchell’s work encompassed drawings of Dublin landmarks, as well as cityscapes in oils and watercolour paintings, exemplified in her excellent illustrated book, ‘Vanishing Dublin’. She also produced some fine pencil sketches of London buildings. Examples of her works are in the National Gallery of Ireland, the Civic Museum, Dublin and the James Joyce Museum.

Vanishing Dublin is a landmark work in Irish architectural and urban history, widely regarded as one of the most important visual records of twentieth-century Dublin. First published in 1966, this beautifully illustrated volume preserves in delicate pen-and-ink drawings the Georgian houses, Victorian shopfronts, narrow lanes and historic streetscapes that were rapidly disappearing during a period of redevelopment in the capital.

Combining artistic precision with careful historical research, Mitchell documents old Dublin with the eye of both illustrator and archivist. Each drawing is accompanied by informative commentary, providing valuable context on the buildings, neighbourhoods and social fabric of the city. For collectors of Irish topography, Dublin history, architectural heritage and illustrated books, Vanishing Dublin remains an essential reference.

The book holds enduring appeal for those interested in Georgian Dublin, Irish urban redevelopment, heritage conservation and the cultural history of Ireland. At a time when much of the city’s eighteenth-century architecture was under threat, Mitchell’s work helped foster greater public awareness of Dublin’s architectural legacy.

Today, Vanishing Dublin is highly sought after by collectors of Irish books, Dublin ephemera and architectural illustration. It stands as both a work of art and an important documentary record — preserving, in line and detail, a Dublin streetscape that has largely passed into history.

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