One of the few remaining original copies of the 1916 Proclamation will be sold at Sotheby’s auction house tomorrow and it is expected to go for as much as €166,000.
There were 1,000 copies of the Proclamation printed in Liberty Hall on Easter Sunday 1916. Historians estimate that only 50 of those original copies have survived.
Some of those originals are in museums and exhibitions while others are privately owned.
This copy was acquired by a Dublin resident in 1916 and is now being sold by one of his descendants.
A spokesperson for Sotheby’s described the Proclamation as “the most important document in the history of the Irish Nation”.
Various copies of the Proclamation have gone under the hammer in recent years. The price can fluctuate greatly depending on the condition of the copy, and also which people signed it.
Some of the copies were signed by the rebels, and some by the printers. Some were left unsigned.
The biggest price on record that has been paid for a copy of the Proclamation was €390,000 when one was auctioned in Dublin in 2004.
The last copy auctioned sold for €90,000 last year, seven years after the owner had paid €240,000 for it.
2016 will see a huge number of events and tributes to mark the 100 year anniversary of the Easter Rising.
There is expected to be many more pieces of Rising memorabilia put up for sale in the coming months.
If you would like your own copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic but don’t want to spend tens of thousands of Euros, then visit the Ireland Calling store where there are various stunning pieces of historical prints available.
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