A unique collection of drawings illustrating everyday life in 18th-century Dublin which was recently discovered in Australia is due to be sold in London later this month.
The 67 pictures, mostly in pencil and grey wash, were drawn in 1760 by 21-year-old Hugh Douglas Hamilton soon after he left the Dublin Society Drawing Schools. At some date in the 18th century they were bound together in a book belonging to a French Huguenot family called Gaussen.
It is not known how the drawings ended up in Australia,where they were offered for sale earlier this year. They are now to be included in the Christie's sale of Irish art on May 17th,when the complete set is expected to make €33,000- €49,000.
While examples of Hamilton's work regularly come up for sale, these are usually portraits in oil or pastel. The son of a wig-maker, he enjoyed a highly successful career in both London and Dublin.
The collection of drawings is exceptional because it provides a social document of daily life on the capital's streets. Among the scenes portrayed by Hamilton is the spectacle of three Papist criminals going to execution, one of them holding a crucifix, another a set of rosary beads.
A particularly detailed drawing is inscribed Blind Daniel the Piper and shows a travelling musician of the period performing on a set of uilleann pipes while seated on an elegant chair.
Many of the drawings show the wide variety of goods sold in Dublin at the time, ranging from black and white puddings to Ringsend oysters.
The inclusion of architectural details will be of great interest to historians; the drawing of an 18th-century shoe-cleaning boy, for example, includes the rear elevation of the old Custom House, demolished at the end of the 18th century when the present building of that name was constructed farther down the Liffey.
According to Desmond Fitzgerald, the Knight of Glin, whose book on Irish artists, co-written with Prof Anne Crookshank is due to be published later this year, "they are the only known representation of life on the streets of Dublin in the 18th century. What's especially interesting is the wide variety of trades shown and all of them beautifully drawn."
Mr Fitzgerald said he believed the work was of national importance and ought to be bought by either the National Gallery of Ireland or the National Museum.