Rare Book & Collectors' Sale June 23rd, 24th & 25th 2026

96 IMPERFECTIONS NOT STATED Fonsie Mealy’s Est. 1934 755. Gregory, [Lady] A[ugusta]. ALS on her Coole Park stationery, 6pp, to ‘My dear W. O’Brien’, undated but with best wishes for 1905, hastily written, apologising for delayed reply, Dun Emer Press has decided to being out a selection from Allingham – American subscribers seem to wish for it - & to leave de Vere for the present, etc., with a long extract from a French publication bearing on the O’Brien family, ‘My Robert has gone back to the Slade, & I am divided as to energy, between starting up a sawmill to cut up the tons of fallen timber still remaining from the storm, & the rehearsing of an experimental historical play ..’ With a good signature, written crossways at edge of page 1, a good letter giving a strong impression of her energy and range of interests. (1) Provenance : De Veres of Curragh Chase and O'Briens of Dromoland Castle. €600 - €800 756. Lawless, Emily [novelist]. A collection of four ALS, all to Mrs. O’Brien, 1904- 1911, three from London addresses, the last from Beach House, Burren [Co. Clare], the last with related stamped envelope with ‘Burrin’ postmark, the first discussing her brother’s illness and sending some plants, the second regretfully declining an invitation because of ill- health, the third enquiring about lodgings in Clare, ‘Some rooms I heard of at Burren .. turned out impossible as no one was to be had to sweep the floor or boil a potatoe! I am a more or less complete invalid now, & have a good competent nurse who looks after me. Of course there is the Lahinch hotel, & various ones at Lisdoonvarna, but neither of these regions appeal to me much ..’, the last from Beach House, Burren, again declining an invitation but thanking her for suggestions, ‘but neither .. can now give one a private room, & I cannot go without one, so the only alternative is to take a cottage of one’s own – this one is very rough & weather-beaten, but clean, & with good beds & a decent cooking range, so that my nurse & a local woman have contrived between them to make me quite comfortable ..’With a good signature. (1) * Good letters from Emily Lawless are rare. Her Hurrish [1886] was one of the earliest Anglo-Irish novels of modern times. Provenance : De Veres of Curragh Chase and O'Briens of Dromoland Castle. €500 - €700 757. Hyde (Douglas), ‘An Craoibhín’. ALS to Mr. V. O’Brien, on his headed paper (65 Adelaide Road, Dublin), Oct 27 ’33, 4 pp (single folded sheet), about the Valley of the Black Pig in Ulster. ‘It was designed to protect Ulster from attack, where there was thick wood, morass, or lakes .. It dates from about the 1st Cent’y. I don’t think it came more south than Mohill. It had regular sentry boxes, apparently, every couple of hundred yards ..’, with a good signature in Irish and English, with related stamped envelope; with a second ALS to Mrs. F.M. O’Brien, ‘A bhean uasal dhílis’, Samhain [November] 26 ’33. 2 pp (single folded sheet) on his embossed stationery, sending her a letter, to be returned to his Frenchpark address, ‘as I have sold this Dublin house.’ (1) Provenance : De Veres of Curragh Chase and O'Briens of Dromoland Castle. €600 - €800 758. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor [poet & critic]. Epitaph on an Infant. A four line verse in his hand, Signed, and with a comment below , ‘That I was but 14 when the above was written, must be the excuse [for a poor rhyme]. Inscribed rear to Lady De Vere in another hand (not the poet). (1) Provenance : De Veres of Curragh Chase and O'Briens of Dromoland Castle. €400 - €600