This account of his life in the 1890s, uncut and unopened in the original vellum backed boards, just topped the high estimate to sell for €850 (£740) at Fonsie Mealy (20/25% buyer’s premium) on May 5.
A few other copies have made more, notably one seen at Sotheby’s London in 2007 that was inscribed for the publisher T Werner Laurie and made £5500.
Also in the Co Kilkenny sale was a card that bore a medallion profile of one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916, Padraig Pearse. Inscribed on the reverse by the Anglo- Irish politician and revolutionary, Countess Markievicz, it sold at €1000 (£870).
Sold at €1600 (£1390) was a two-page programme for the All-Ireland Hurling Final of 1931. Contested by Kilkenny and Cork, it ended in a draw that ‘excited the nation’, but Cork went on to win the replay.
The results list was headed at €28,500 (£24,795) by a collection of medals won by the Australian-born legend of Irish hurling and football, Leonard McGrath (1899-1949).
