Babe Ruth, Christy Ring, Tolkien and the commonplace book of Fr Thomas O”Keeffe, pp at the South Parish in Cork from 1829 to 1847 all feature at Fonsie Mealy’s Rare Book and Collectors sale at the Ormonde Hotel, Kilkenny at 10.30 on May 2. Among more than 800 lots there is sporting memorabilia including a baseball bat given by Babe Ruth to Frank McGrath, manager of the Tipperary team on their visit to the US in 1926 and a souvenir programme for the opening of the new Glen Rovers club in 1953 signed by Christy Ring.
A rare 1937 first edition of The Hobbit in good condition is estimated at 20,000-30,000. There is a first edition of The Dark signed by John McGahern and the first American edition of My Left Foot by Christy Brown. The commonplace book by Fr. O’Keeffe, friend of the sculptor John Hogan – a remarkable example of whose work exists in the South Parish Church – offers jottings, sermons, an alphabetical list of Cork streets according to parish and a draft to the introduction of the poems of Jeremiah Joseph Callanan (1795-1892).
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 26 and April 16, 2018)
A first edition of The Hobbit UPDATE: THIS MADE 29,000 AT HAMMER
A programme for the opening of the new Glen Rovers club in 1953 signed by Christy Ring UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER