Copy of 1916 Proclamation withdrawn after private sale for €100,000

An original copy of the Irish Proclamation was withdrawn ahead of auction on Saturday after being sold for €100,000 by private treaty.

It was to be the star lot of the Eclectic Collector sale at Whyte’s Auction House in Dublin, featuring various historical documents and artefacts, before a private sale was agreed.

The buyer has remained anonymous but is understood to be from Ireland.

The catalogue had described the copy as “an historic relic of immense importance” and Whyte’s estimated it would sell at between €90,000 and €120,000.

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The 1916 document had been restored and conserved to museum standard in 2005 and was subsequently exhibited on loan at The Print Museum in Dublin.

Two years ago, during the centenary year of 2016, another original copy – thought to be among around 50 surviving – sold for €185,000 at auction.

Separately, a simple stained oak and beech chair used by Patrick Pearse has sold for around four times its estimated price at auction.

The arts and crafts-style chair used by Mr Pearse during his time as headmaster at St Enda's School in Rathfarnham was guiding at between €1,500 and €2,000.

Bidding started at €1,125, and after a flurry of offers the hammer came down on the final bid of €7,800.

Ahead of the auction, Stuart Purcell, head of collectibles of Whyte's, said the type of chair would have been commonplace in every office in Ireland but "on that chair, revolution was dreamed of".

The seat, with out-turned arms and a simple frieze carved on the back, was removed from the Hermitage – now the Pearse Museum – by Senator Margaret Pearse when St Enda's closed in 1935.

It was given to Thomas Ernest Pearse, son of Patrick's half-brother James. It has been handed down through the family ever since.

The winning bidder will also take home facsimile birth and marriage certificates relating to Thomas Ernest Pearse, as well as a letter of provenance from the current owner.

Also sold at the auction was an Irish Famine ship’s log belonging to HMS Terrible, which included an account of famine relief being provided in Ireland. Although guided at €1,000, it sold for €3,000.

A 1922 provisional government of Ireland seal of office for the minister for local government, guiding between €200 and €300, ended up raising €1,600.

Binoculars, by CP Goerz, expected to raise up to €800, sold for €3,200.