Easter Rising Medals to be Auctioned
Historical medals from the 1916 rebels will be auctioned by Whyte’s Gallery this Sunday 13th March. Manuscripts and ephemera from this period will also be for sale during the auction. Around 2,500, 1916 medals were awarded to the rebels or their next of kin, if that veteran had died. The Irish government began awarding the medals in 1941. Thomas Clarke’s medal will be priced at about €80,000 – €120,000 by Whyte’s auctioneers. This is a bronze medal which is place on a green and orange ribbon with “Seachtmhain na Casga 1916” written on it.
President Douglas Hyde presented the medal to Kathleen Clarke, the widow of Thomas Clarke, in 1941. A relation of Mrs. Clarke’s later came into possession of it and sold the medal during an auction in 2006, for €105,000. Joseph Plunkett’s medal will be auctioned for the first time, with an estimated value of €70,000 – €100,000.
An original copy of the Proclamation with a value of €150,000 – €250,000 and a copy of “A Half Proclamation” with an estimated value of €5000 – €7000 will also be available for purchasing. When the British Soldiers went to Liberty Hall at the end of the 1916 Rising, they saw that the lower-half frame of type that had been used to print the Proclamation was still in the printer. The soldiers printed some copies as souvenirs. Less than 15 of these copies are still around today.
It will be the first auction this year for the 1916 historical artifacts. More auctions are expected to be held in April. Whyte’s gallery, 38 Molesworth Street, Dublin 2, will have the items on display until Saturday evening. The auction takes place in the adjacent Freemasons’ Hall, 17 Molesworth Street, on Sunday, starting at 1pm.
Check out our own exhibition as part of the Commemoration
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