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Bank of Ireland £1 note from 1831 UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A spectacular Irish £1 note issued in 1831 in Newry, Dublin and Armagh comes up at Noonan’s auction of British and Irish banknotes in London on March 25. The specialist auctioneers say that it is a remarkable new discovery and the first note ever seen of this type, though it had been known to exist. They estimate lot 301 at £8,000-£10,000.
A Second War St. Nazaire raid and Colditz “home-run” D.S.C. and Bar group of seven awarded to Commander W. L. “Billie” Stephens of Northern Ireland sold for a hammer price of £48,000 at Noonans latest sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria.
Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans, said: Medals relating to Colditz and the heroic stories of those who tried to escape always attract strong interest. The story of William Lawson “Billie” Stephens, who was born in Holywood, Northern Ireland in August 1911 into a prominent Ulster family is no different. His Second War Distinguished Service Cross was awarded for his gallantry during both the St. Nazaire raid and Colditz. He had been taken prisoner after his own launch was set on fire, however he endeavoured to make a successful bid for freedom with three others from the infamous Colditz Castle in October 1942 during a breakout conducted by Douglas Bader that culminated with the four men squeezing naked through a narrow vent! It was being sold as part of a deceased estate.”
An 1806 Irish halfpenny was the top lot at Noonan’s sale of British trade tokens, tickets and passes. It made a hammer price of £5,500 over a top estimate of £1,000. It went to a collector in Ireland. The final part of the Irish Tokens from the Collection of the late Barry Woodside achieved a hammer total of £17,895 with two notable examples being a farthing from Newcastle, County Limerick, engraved Florence O’Connell, Irish Woollen Warehouse, Bridge St. which made £2,600 at hammer of a top estimate of £200 and a token saying George Lynch, Elephant House, Lr. Sackville Street Portmanteau Manufacturer which made £2,200 against a top estimate of £100. They went to Irish collectors. An 18th century token from Munster with a bust of Bryen Boiromhe, King of Munster made £1,400 against an estimate of £300-400. It was bought by a collector in the USA.
The hugely emotive P.D.S.A. Dickin Medal for Gallantry, otherwise known as the V.C for animals, and the R.S.P.C.A. Red Collar for Valour awarded to War Dog Rob, for his gallantry and outstanding service during the Second World War, during which the black and white collie retriever undertook 20 parachute descents while serving with Infantry in North Africa and the 2nd S.A.S. Regiment in Italy was sold for a world record price of £140,000 (at hammer) at Noonans today. Bought by a new collector of British gallantry awards it had been estimated at £20,000-30,000. The entire proceeds will be given to the Taylor McNally Foundation.
It was sold by Basil Bayne, the son of Rob’s original owner, who now lives in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland and also included an extensive archive including his collar, a portrait painting, photographs, certificate, manuscripts, books and letters.
The Victoria Cross awarded to a Mullingar civil servant for an epic and daring escape and rescue during the Siege of Lucknow comes up at Noonan’s in London on September 14. Months into the siege during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 Thomas Henry Kavanagh crept out in disguise from the surrounded Residency at night. Against all odds the Irishman, a clerk at the Lucknow office, successfully crossed enemy lines, made contact with the Commander in Chief 15 miles away at Cawnpore and guided a relieving force through the city to the beleaguered garrison by the safest route.
Even though Kavanagh was a tall man with fair hair and blue eyes he made the trip dressed as a sepoy accompanied by a Brahmin scout, Kananji Lal. This painting at the National Army Museum in London by Chevalier Louis-William Desanges shows him being disguised. The siege had begun in June and by November the situation was becoming critical. He himself devised the plan for what was to become one of the best known episodes of the defence of Lucknow. Thomas Henry Kavanagh was the first civilian to be awarded the VC, Britain’s highest honour. His wife was wounded during the siege and his youngest child (of 14) died at the Residency as a baby.
He was promoted to the post of Assistant Commissioner at Oudh, given a reward of £2,000 and granted leave to return to England. He was presented with his medal by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and became a Victorian celebrity, touring England and Ireland and publishing an account of the Siege entitled: “How I won the Victoria Cross”. A first edition copy of this book is included with the lot. Photographs of him became popular postcard images. Afterwards he continued his career in India and his spendthrift ways, which had almost cost him his job prior to the siege. Seriously in debt again by 1875 he was asked to resign. Born in Mullingar in 1821 he took ill while returning from India in 1882 and died at Gibraltar, where he is buried. His VC is estimated at £300,000-£400,000 (€353,410-€471,210).
UPDATE: THIS MADE £930,000 – A WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A V.C.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 18, 2022)
The first civilian Victoria Cross of five to be awarded presented to Thomas Henry Kavanagh by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle – one of only two not in a museum – comes up at Noonan’s in Mayfair on September 14 with an estimate of £300,000-400,000. The famous Indian Mutiny ‘Siege of Lucknow’ Victoria Cross was awarded to Thomas Henry Kavanagh, who was born on July 15, 1821 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.
He was employed as a clerk in the Lucknow Office prior to the Siege. In November 1857, he volunteered to leave the safety of the Residency disguised as a Sepoy (an Indian soldier serving under British or other European orders), accompanied by a Brahmin scout. The pair jostled past armed rebels through the narrow Lucknow streets and talked their way past sentries in the moonlight, crossed deep rivers, tramped through swamps and narrowly avoided capture after startling a farmer who raised the alarm. On finally reaching a British cavalry outpost Kavanagh delivered Sir James Outram’s vital despatch to Sir Colin Campbell and ably guided his column to the relief of the Residency garrison.
Oliver Pepys, Auctioneer and Medal Specialist (Associate Director) Noonans explained: “Kavanagh was decorated with the highest honour for undertaking an epic quest to escape the surrounded Residency at night, crossing enemy lines, making contact with the camp of the Commander-in-Chief, and then using his local knowledge to guide the relieving force through the city to the beleaguered garrison by the safest route.”
“The first of just five civilians to have been awarded the V.C., he was further rewarded with promotion to the gazetted post of Assistant Commissioner of Oude and was presented with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria in a special ceremony at Windsor Castle. A tour of England and Ireland further enhanced his celebrity while the publication in 1860 of his account of the Siege, ‘How I won the Victoria Cross’ and Orlando Norrie’s painting of him donning his Indian disguise – one of the truly iconic images of the Defence of Lucknow – ensured that he became a Victorian legend, indeed few histories of the conflict are without an image of ‘Lucknow Kavanagh’.”
A first edition copy of his book is included with the lot.
