Purcell Auctioneers: Book Auction of c. 580 Lots to include Antiquarian Books incl. Books from Three Private Libraries, Rare - Signed - Limited Editions, Local Histories, Republican Interest Books, GAA etc, 51326, Birr
Auction Details
- Auction Date
- May 13, 2026 - May 13, 2026
| Lot Number | Author Name | Book Title | Place Printed | Year Published | Estimate | Actual Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 377 | Ernest Hemingway | THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA |
London, United Kingdom | 1952 | GBP 280.00 - 320.00 | GBP 300.00 |
| 378 | Standish O'Grady; Jack B. Yeats | Finn and his Companions |
c. 1895 | GBP 75.00 - 90.00 | GBP 93.75 | |
| 379 | Maeve Brennan; John Boyne; Elizabeth Bowen | N Books, including: The Springs of Affection- Stories of Dublin |
1997; 2000; 1982 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | Not Sold | |
| 380 | Seamas O’Cathain; Briody | Formation of a Folklorist. James Hamilton Delargy; The Irish Folklore Commission 1935-1970 |
N/A | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | Not Sold | |
| 381 | Martin Amis | Success; London Fields |
London | 1978; 1989 | GBP 60.00 - 80.00 | GBP 50.00 |
| 382 | Patrick McCabe; Neil Jordan; Claire Keegan; Colm Toibin | 9 Books, including: The Dead School |
1995; 2010; 2009; 2024; 2025; 1990; 1996; 2022; 2024 | GBP 50.00 - 70.00 | Not Sold | |
| 383 | John Le Carre | Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy |
1974 | GBP 100.00 - 140.00 | GBP 112.50 | |
| 384 | Jonathan Swift; William Molyneux; Philips | A Dialogue in Hybernian Style & Irish Eloquence; The Case of Ireland Stated; St. Stephen’s Green or Generous Lovers |
N/A | GBP 60.00 - 90.00 | GBP 37.50 | |
| 385 | Field Day Anthology Of Irish Writing |
1991-2003 | GBP 120.00 - 200.00 | GBP 187.50 | ||
| 386 | John Banville | 5 Books, including: Ghosts |
1993; 2001; 1989; 1997; 2022 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | GBP 37.50 | |
| 387 | John Banville | The Party |
1966 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | GBP 37.50 | |
| 388 | John Banville; John McGahern | 5 Books, including: Kepler |
1981; 2000; 1986; 1992; 2002 | GBP 50.00 - 100.00 | GBP 56.25 | |
| 389 | John Banville; Paul Joyce | Time Pieces |
2016 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | GBP 50.00 | |
| 390 | Lord Byron | The Complete Works of Lord Byron |
Paris | 1837 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | GBP 37.50 |
| 391 | Thomas Ryan; Linehan; Edmund O’Donovan; Lord O’Brien; W. R. Le Fanu | 5 Books, including: Jesuits under Fire in Siege of Hong Kong 1941 |
Dublin | 944; 1952; 1893; 1916; 1910 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | GBP 93.75 |
| 392 | J.P. Donleavy | The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival And Manners |
London | 1975 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | GBP 162.50 |
| 393 | Maurice Harmon | The Dolmen Press: The Liliput Press |
2001 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | GBP 93.75 | |
| 394 | William Trevor; Colm Toibin; Kirstin Morrison; Dolores Mackenna | 11 Books, including: The Collected Stories |
1992; 1994; 2004; 1991; 1993; 1999; 2012; 1997; 1994; 2011; 1987 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | Not Sold | |
| 395 | Richard Ellmann; Marice Collis | 9 Books, including: Oscar Wilde |
1987; 1968 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | Not Sold | |
| 396 | Patrick McGill | The Red Horizon; Lanty Hanlon - A Comedy of Irish Life |
c. 1915 | GBP 50.00 - 70.00 | GBP 37.50 | |
| 397 | Shane Leslie | The Cantab; The Anglo-Catholic -A Sequel to "The Cantab" |
1926; 1929 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | Not Sold | |
| 398 | Claire Keegan | Small Things Like These |
London | 2021 | GBP 160.00 - 200.00 | Not Sold |
| 399 | John B Keane; Gus Smith; Des Hickey | The Contractors; The Real Keane a Biography |
1993; 1992 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | GBP 137.50 | |
| 400 | John B. Keane | The Bodhran Makers |
Dingle, Co Kerry | 1988 | GBP 40.00 - 60.00 | GBP 68.75 |
| 401 | Mong Gibbon; Tom Murphy; Hugo Hamilton | 9 Books, including: The Pupil : A Memory Of Love |
1981; 1994; 2003 | GBP 50.00 - 80.00 | Not Sold |
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Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000Forum Auctions
The 10th Anniversary Sale
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
July 16, 2026Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000 -
Sotheby’s
Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone
25 June – July 7Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000. -
Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000Forum Auctions
The Private Library:
Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers
July 9, 2026Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000