Rare Book & Collectors' Sale 1st & 2nd October 2025

56 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 489. An Account of Madeira in 1786 Travel: A Manuscript: Commonplace Book, written in French and English, containing personal financial records (1781), poems, a diary of a voyage to and sojourn in the island of Madeira (1786), and weather logs for 1787. Cont. mottled calf, gold tooled spine, 4to. As a m/ss., w.a.f. The unnamed writer and his companions arrive at the naval port of Rochefort on 11 August 1786. He comments on the wretchedness of its bagne (penal colony) and expresses his horror at the poverty of town and countryside resulting from recent plagues (they settle instead in the hamlet of Fouras). He inspects warships and shore installations (Rochefort had suffered from the attentions of the British fleet in 1757) and meets (among others) Mons. Dillon (governor of Tobago) and generals McNamara and Macarty, “deux Irlandais du premier merite”. On the 19th they set off for Madeira, their eventful voyage being described in some detail. The account of Madeira is written in English, and a second diary (in French) recounts a voyage to north America aboard the Marechal de Castries. As a m/ss. Invaluable source of late 18th Century travel. (1) €250 - €350 490. Important Early 19th-Century Commonplace Book Co. Limerick: Commonplace book of D.J. Webb (Daniel James Webb, 1780-1850), Caherconlish, Co. Limerick. Large 8vo in full calf binding, tooled gilt binding. A curious volume containing poems (some in Latin), many apparently original, epitaphs etc., some commemorating political or family events: “Pax redux anno 1802” [on the Treaty of Amiens]; “On the Insurrection in Dublin, 23 July 1803”; “The Messiad, inscribed to the officers of the mess of His Majesty’s R.I.D.G.” [Royal Irish Dragoon Guards], with list of officers copied from the Army List of 1805; an ode on the death of a child, dated at Cahirconlish House, 6 Nov. 1827; “Adeste fideles”, a Christmas hymn (also 1827), and many others, the last (in Latin, on the marriage of a friend) is dated 11 Kal. Sept. [22 Aug.] 1833. As a m/ss., w.a.f. (1) €300 - €400 491. Executors’Minutes of Belfast Firm, 1923-25 Manuscript: A minute-book of Charles Magee and J. Gerald Kennedy, executors of the estate of L. McCann, fruit merchant &c., Belfast, May 1923 – Nov. 1925. In addition to the usual formalities, contains interesting entries re the hiring and management of staff (wages, holidays etc.), the fluctuations in trade, and the unacceptable behavior of Mr McCann’s widow, who is eventually banned from entering the shop or attending executors’ meetings. As a m/ss., w.a.f. (1) €150 - €200 492. Autographs Album: Signatures etc. of famous Operatic Artists who performed in Dublin, 1924-25. Album of autographs, advertisements, news cuttings, photographs etc. of celebrated musicians and singers who performed in Dublin, 1924-25: Rosina Buckman, Maurice D’Oisly, Jelly D’Aranyi, Luella Paikin, Tascha Heifetz and others. As a coll. of m/ss., w.a.f. (1) €150 - €220 493. An Ulsterman’s Hiking Tours inWales and Scotland, 1934-36 Travel: Three Journals of hiking tours in the mountains of north Wales (June 1934) and the Scottish Highlands (May 1935, June 1936). Typescripts, neatly bound, interleaved with photographs (some postcards of hostels, some taken en route), 4to orig. cloth, gilt lettered. As a coll.,w.a.f. (3) The writer, “Jim” (Barr?) travels from Belfast with friends Sam (1934-35) and Walter and Ivan (1936). He records each day’s journey in great detail, noting weather, landmarks, scenery, wildlife (he is astonished to see his first grey squirrel), people they meet, and the quality of the hostels where they stay overnight; his accounts are further enlivened with wry comments on his companions. The youth hosteling movement had been officially established in the UK as recently as 1930-31, which makes these early accounts of particular interest. It had taken off rapidly: by 1939 there were some 360 hostels in England andWales and another 60 in Scotland; YHA’s founder, Connie Alexander, was the warden at Idwall Cottage in the Ogwen Valley, one of the hostels where our travelers stayed (though she is not mentioned by name). €200 - €300 489 490 492 491