Rare history lots include 1916 footage

The top lot in Whyte's history auction on Saturday, May 9th, estimated at €150,000-€180,000, is described as "an extremely important archive of restored film" including the aftermath of the 1916 Rising; the 1919-21 War of Independence; civil war footage including the siege of the Four Courts; and the funeral of Michael Collins.

The archive contains "12 cans of safety film, and one of nitrate, with 360 minutes of footage by various freelance cameramen, commissioned at the time by Jacob Baum, a Dublin-based film distributor; some of it sold to newsreel companies, much of it unpublished".

Whyte’s said the sale presented collectors with “a unique opportunity to acquire what must be one of the most interesting and important archives of historic Irish film inside or outside of institutional collections”. The archive is being sold by a private collector who bought it in 2006 (also in Whyte’s) when it made €96,000. Since then the film has been professionally restored and copied to DVD.

A collection of rare memorabilia connected to the 1916 Rising in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, including medals awarded to local volunteer Michael Sutton, is estimated at €7,000-€10,000. An "incredibly rare" (though less valuable) 1916 Rising memento is a military badge given to to a British soldier who was injured at Mount Street Bridge as his regiment, the Sherwood Foresters, was ambushed by volunteers en route to central Dublin from Dún Laoghaire where they had arrived by boat from England to help put down the rebellion.

George Simmonds of Bluebell Hill, Nottingham, was among the wounded and his silver war badge is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. According to auctioneer Ian Whyte, the Rising was "was classed as 'Home Service' and, as such, no campaign medals were awarded" but the badge (also known as a 'wound badge') was of a type given to soldiers who were discharged from the army to wear "to avoid the ignominy of receiving a white feather for not 'doing their bit'" in the first World War which continued until 1918.

Simmonds was discharged from the army in December 1916 and so might have been viewed with suspicion back home in England until the war ended but the badge would have given him proof that he had, indeed, done his duty.

A harp given by poet WB Yeats to his great unrequited love, Maud Gonne – which she apparently played while he recited his verse – is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. The rosewood instrument was later given by Gonne to her friend Síle Mac Curtain, daughter of Republican Tomás MacCurtain, who had started a school for harpists in Cork.

Viewing will be at Whyte’s Galleries, 38 Molesworth Street, from Wednesday and the auction will take place in the Freemasons Hall on Saturday, May 9th, at 1pm. see whytes.ie