CHRISTMAS RARE BOOK & COLLECTORS’ SALE December 11th & 12th, 2024

62 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 Davis (Thomas) A unique and highly important Archive of original m/ss Letters and other Documents, from family sources including: * A collection of circa 7, A L s (pagination not entirely clear) from Annie Hutton to Thomas Davis, undated but circa 1845, about 30pp in a clear and legible hand, mentions his illness, Dr. Stokes’ advice, her own desire (before she met him) to do something for her country, etc. Annie Hutton was to have married Davis, before his unexpected death from fever in September 1845; * Three manuscript Letters from Charles Gavan Duffy to Davis’ sister and niece, one probably in a secretarial hand, one undated from Nice, two from Kensington 1893; a manuscript Poem to The Memory of Thomas Davis, composed by William Smith O’Brien and copied by him 1862 for W.J. Crofts Atkins Davis, signed; * A printed invitation dated 17 September 1845 to Davis’ funeral, issued by George Smith on behalf of a group of ‘private friends and admirers’, addressed to Eugene Curry Esq.; a manuscript Address to Davis’mother from the Repeal Wardens of London, 18 September 1845, with covering letter from Patrick O’Malley and manuscript draft reply from Mary Davis;also a printed sheet showing the inscription agreed by the Davis Testimonial Committee. Together also with a copy of “The Love Story of Thomas Davis told in the Letters of Annie Hutton,” ed. by Joseph Hone. Printed at Cuala Press Dublin 1945. No. 20 of a Limited Edition of 280 Copies. As an Archive, w.a.f. A Collection of The First Importance, concerning the man of whom it was written, “A soul came into Ireland’: the chief inspirer and motivator of the Young Ireland generation, a distinguished writer who was later a source of inspiration for Yeats, Arthur Griffith and many others, cut off in his prime by fever at the height of the Great Famine. Provenance : By descent through the Davis family. €5,000 - €7,000 466. The Love Letters Of an Irish Poet & Patriot