Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 159 6 Mar 2021
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Coinage of the Irish Free State
Yeats, W.B., Chairman, et al. COINAGE OF SAORSTÁT ÉIREANN, 1928. Dublin: Published by the Stationery Office, 1928. Crown 4to, original coarsely woven brown cloth, gilt. (8), 65, (1) pages; 11 very fine plates, mostly depicting coinage designs. Portions of the text in Gaelic; mainly written in English. Cover cloth discolored and wrinkled, as often seen; minor spotting. Very good. Infrequently offered. The noted Irish poet was Chairman of "The Committee Appointed to Advise the Government on Coinage Designs" authorized by the 1926 Mint Act for Saorstát Éireann, i.e., the Irish Free State. Designs were submitted by Jerome Connor, Paul Manship, Percy Metcalfe, Carl Milles, Publio Morbiducci, Albert Power, Oliver Sheppard and Ivan Mestrovic. A foreword in Gaelic is followed by Yeats's "What We Did or Tried to Do," a history of Irish coinage, a summary of the proceedings of the committee, and biographies of the artists. The appendix includes bilingual texts of The Coinage Act of 1926 and the excellent photographically printed plates depict the various coin designs submitted, including Percy Metcalfe's "Designs as originally submitted" and "Designs as accepted for Coinage." Yeats's connection with numismatics appears to be little known in the literary world. In an explanation of the coinage committee's aims, he wrote: "As the most famous and beautiful coins are the coins of the Greek Colonies, especially of those in Sicily, we decided to send photographs of some of these, and one coin of Carthage, to our selected artists, and to ask them, as far as possible, to take them as a model. But the Greek coins had two advantages that ours could not have, one side need not balance the other, and either could be stamped in high relief, whereas ours must pitch and spin to please the gambler, and pack into rolls to please the banker." Apparently one of only 375 copies printed, copies of which are usually found with the cloth binding smudged and discolored, and the pages foxed and spotted; while this copy's binding is typical, its contents are somewhat cleaner than most.
Yeats, W.B., Chairman, et al. COINAGE OF SAORSTÁT ÉIREANN, 1928. Dublin: Published by the Stationery Office, 1928. Crown 4to, original coarsely woven brown cloth, gilt. (8), 65, (1) pages; 11 very fine plates, mostly depicting coinage designs. Portions of the text in Gaelic; mainly written in English. Cover cloth discolored and wrinkled, as often seen; minor spotting. Very good. Infrequently offered. The noted Irish poet was Chairman of "The Committee Appointed to Advise the Government on Coinage Designs" authorized by the 1926 Mint Act for Saorstát Éireann, i.e., the Irish Free State. Designs were submitted by Jerome Connor, Paul Manship, Percy Metcalfe, Carl Milles, Publio Morbiducci, Albert Power, Oliver Sheppard and Ivan Mestrovic. A foreword in Gaelic is followed by Yeats's "What We Did or Tried to Do," a history of Irish coinage, a summary of the proceedings of the committee, and biographies of the artists. The appendix includes bilingual texts of The Coinage Act of 1926 and the excellent photographically printed plates depict the various coin designs submitted, including Percy Metcalfe's "Designs as originally submitted" and "Designs as accepted for Coinage." Yeats's connection with numismatics appears to be little known in the literary world. In an explanation of the coinage committee's aims, he wrote: "As the most famous and beautiful coins are the coins of the Greek Colonies, especially of those in Sicily, we decided to send photographs of some of these, and one coin of Carthage, to our selected artists, and to ask them, as far as possible, to take them as a model. But the Greek coins had two advantages that ours could not have, one side need not balance the other, and either could be stamped in high relief, whereas ours must pitch and spin to please the gambler, and pack into rolls to please the banker." Apparently one of only 375 copies printed, copies of which are usually found with the cloth binding smudged and discolored, and the pages foxed and spotted; while this copy's binding is typical, its contents are somewhat cleaner than most.