Throughout this year, hundreds of items associated with the 1916 Rising have been sold at auction in Ireland and overseas, but the top lots are only now going under the hammer just as the centenary commemorations draw to a close. On Wednesday evening (December 7th) in Dublin, Adam's will briefly pause its "Important Irish Art" auction to sell a small selection Irish historical documents, including a handwritten letter of surrender written by Patrick Pearse, estimated at €1 million to €1.5 million.
Adam's said they "have been trying to sell this to the Irish Government for a while" – for an undisclosed sum. But the Government declined on the grounds that it believes there are better ways to spend taxpayers' money and, more pertinently, because there are already two surrender letters by Pearse in the State collections. There is, according to Adam's, some interest from private collectors, including some in the United States.
The letter is being sold by an unnamed private collector who bought it from Adam’s at auction 11 years ago for €700,000.
The current top estimate of €1.5 million is the highest ever assigned to any work of art or historical item offered at auction in Ireland.
Historian Diarmaid Ferriter, who described the letter as a "document of immense historical significance" in his catalogue note for Adam's, nevertheless told RTÉ Radio's Morning Ireland last week that it was "overvalued".
The letter reads: “In order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population and in the hope of saving the lives of our followers, the members of the Provisional Government present at headquarters have decided on an unconditional surrender, and commandants or officers commanding districts will order their commands to lay down arms. P.H. Pearse, Dublin, 30th April, 1916.”
Holding out
Pearse wrote the letter in his cell at Arbour Hill jail, where he was detained after surrendering to the British outside the GPO the previous day, April 29th.
He was asked to write the letter to persuade a group of rebels holding out in the Four Courts to surrender. The letter was hand-delivered to the rebels by Fr Columbus, a Capuchin friar.
The commander of the Four Courts ceased hostilities and surrendered after reading it.
Fr Columbus held on to the letter and it only came to light nearly 90 years later, when it was consigned to auction by the previous unnamed owner in 2005.
The National Museum of Ireland already has two other surrender letters written by Pearse to other garrisons in Dublin.
The official surrender document of the Rising – typed by the British and then signed by Pearse on April 29th, 1916 – is in the Imperial War Museum in London.
Adam’s is also selling two original copies of the 1916 Proclamation, each estimated at €250,000-€350,000. These are two of the 50 copies that have survived – of which approximately 25 are still in private ownership. Last year, a copy sold at Adam’s for just 90,000 – so why the huge disparity in value?
According to Stuart Cole at Adam's, the price can vary hugely depending on condition, provenance and whether or not the copy has been signed by a significant person. He said both copies at Adam's are signed by the printer Christopher Brady. But as with the Pearse letter, the State is not planning to bid for either copy because there is already a copy of the Proclamation signed by Brady (of three copies known) in the National Museum of Ireland.
The last copies of the Proclamation to appear at auction went under the hammer in July in London 2016, where a copy at Sotheby’s, on July 12th, estimated at GBP£100,000-£150,00, failed to sell; and the following day, July 13th, at Christie’s, where a copy estimated at £150,000-£200,000 also failed to sell.
