A 15th century illuminated manuscript at Fonsie Mealy’s sale. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 6,200 AT HAMMER
A 15th century book of hours is a highlight at the Fonsie Mealy rare book and collectors sale in Dublin on July 1. The c1440 illuminated manuscript from Flanders or the Southern Netherlands contains 153 leaves. It is estimated at 4,000-6,000. It bears the signature of one former owner, William Lattan of Wadham College, Oxford who was born c1653.
There is a first edition of Dubliners by James Joyce (2,500-3,500) and a first American edition of Finnegan’s Wake (500-850). A first edition of Wilde’s The Ballad of Reading Gaol is estimated at 250-350. First editions include a signed copy of Down All the Days by Christy Brown, the first Irish language edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula dating from 1933 and Virginia Woolf’s last book The Years published in 1937. There are works by Yeats, Lady Gregory, Seamus Heaney and even a first edition of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22.
The catalogue is online.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 21, 2014).