(IRISH AMERICANS) Protest Against the British Government

Sale 2380 - Lot 140

Price Realized: $ 520

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(IRISH-AMERICANS.) Protest Against the British Government. Hand-colored engraving, 30 x 24 inches; moderate dampstaining. (MRS) Philadelphia: William Smith, circa 1860s?

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A strongly worded call for Irish independence, produced in America and likely intended for Irish-Americans. The text is unsigned and is apparently unpublished elsewhere. It calls upon the Irish to "Turn your eyes to the Patriots of America--Read the lives of her sons who established freedom," and denounces the British government at great length. It is illustrated with a portrait of the martyred Robert Emmett, and two scrolls listing other Irish nationalist heroes, as well as a decorative woodcut border engraved by Brightly in the form of a harp festooned with shamrocks. The engraving is undated, but publisher William Smith is listed at the stated 702 South 3rd Street address in the Philadelphia directories from 1862 to 1891. As neither the text nor the scrolls seem to reference the 1867 Fenian Rising, a date in the mid-1860s seems likely. 2 copies in OCLC. Provenance: sold by Harold Nestler to Milton R. Slater, September 1986.