The Holy Office, a broadside from James Joyce, at Mealy's book auction. (click to enlarge and read) UPDATE: IT MADE 22,000
A rare James Joyce broadside heads Mealy’s December sale of books, literature, manuscripts, and maps on December 14 at the D-4 Hotel in Dublin. Only a handful of copies of a caustic attack entitled “The Holy Office” are known. It was distributed privately to friends. This one belonged to Thomas Keohler, poet and friend of Joyce. It is estimated at 15,000-20,000.
A collection of four letters between Joyce and Keohler is estimated at 6,000-8,000 and a copy of the original recordings by Joyce of part of Finnegan’s Wake is estimated at 2,000-3,000.
The 950 lot sale includes a first limited edition of Ulysses (7,000-9,000) and an original Cuala Press Visitor’s Book with 1,900 signatures. The most remarkable is an entry where W.B. Yeats and Maud Gonne signed together on October 18, 1908. The poet and his muse were lovers for a brief time following the break up of her marriage to John MacBride. It is estimated at 8,000-12,000. There is a collection of previously unrecorded letters by Sean O’Casey and first, signed, and limited editions by Oscar Wilde (The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and The Picture of Dorian Gray), Patrick Kavanagh, (The Green Fool, and Collected Poems), and Flann O’Brien (An Beal Bocht, At Swim Two Birds).
UPDATE: IN a highly successful sale the Joyce broadside sold for 22,000. It was bought by a private collector. A series of letters between Myles na gCopaleen (Brian O’Nolan) and his publishers and agents from the 1960’s also made 22,000. The Cuala Press visitors book sold for 17,000 and the Sean O’Casey letters made 10,000.