Copy of Proclamation auctioned for £52,000

A copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, which it was once an offence to own, was sold at the weekend for a record £52,000.

Thought to be one of about 20 copies of the Proclamation still existing, the auction guide described it as "the document that launched an uprising that changed Ireland forever". Mr Ian Whyte, of Whyte's auctioneers, said there were 17 recorded surviving copies of the document and this was a new one.

"It was hung up somewhere - there is a bit of mud on it and a couple of pinholes.

"It would have been an offence for anyone to be in possession of one and you would have to have been fairly brave to keep it."

Among those who did own one was King George V. It is now in the British Royal Collections. Also sold was a perhaps rarer example of a partial copy of the Proclamation, for £4,000. According to Mr Whyte, the printers did not have enough letters, or type, and so printed the Proclamation in two halves.

"When the British troops arrived to take over the city they found the printing press in Liberty Hall with the lower half of the type frame still in it. They ran off some copies by hand and were selling them as souvenirs."

He estimated there were probably fewer than 10 of the partial Proclamations still surviving. Also sold at the Eclectic Collector sale was a postcard sent by James Joyce to his publisher, Mr Elkin Matthews on January 24th, 1908.

He wrote: "Dubliners. I should be glad to hear from you, by return if possible, with regard to MS [manuscript] sent to you in October last, as I am anxious to get it off my hands."

Mr Matthews had published Chamber Music in 1907 but turned down Dubliners in 1908 and again in 1913. It was published by Mr Grant Richards. The guide price was £1,500 to £2,000 and it was sold to a Dublin book dealer for £9,000

The biggest surprise of the day, however, was a first edition of Flann O'Brien's At Swim- Two-Birds. The guide quoted £30 to £40. Mr O'Brien would no doubt have been delighted with the £1,300 paid for it.