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Frank Leah (fl.1900-1950s) MICHAEL COLL

Currency:EUR Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 EUR
Frank Leah (fl.1900-1950s) MICHAEL COLL
Frank Leah (fl.1900-1950s) MICHAEL COLLINS IN THE JERMYN COURT HOTEL, LONDON and THE LATE PRESIDENT GRIFFITH SKETCHED IN GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS A MONTH BEFORE HE DIED, 1921 (A PAIR) each signed and inscribed lower left; with the original framing labels of E. W. Howe, 30 Nassau Street, Dublin, on reverse the former black crayon on paper; the latter pencil on paper 41 by 30cm., 16 by 12in. The latter work measures 13.5 by 10 inches. A pair of rare contemporary portraits of Collins and Griffith drawn at the time of the Irish Treaty negotiations. The artist Frank Leah was an illustrator for various newspapers and journals including The Irish Limelight, a short-lived periodical devoted to cinema and theatre. He was also the animator for Ireland's first animated film, Ten Days Leave, released in 1917. His portraits of Irish theatrical personalities were collected by Joseph Holloway and later donated to the National Library of Ireland. €2000-€3000 (£1,400-£2,100 approx.) The following five lots (57-61) come from a descendent of Stanley Elston Austin (1875-1934). Art critic and journalist Stanley Austin was described by Tatler magazine as “a prominent figure in the art circles of London and Paris, and a recognised authority on all matters artistic” (March 1905). He wrote art criticism for Vanity Fair, and was a Director of the Saturday Review and a Deputy Editor of the English Daily Mirror. He also founded The Collectors Magazine and The Printseller and wrote a book on the history of engraving. A resident of Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, he joined the Arts Club in Dover Street in 1920 and there became a friend and confidante of Orpen’s. 57 Sir William Orpen RA RHA (1878-1931) BILLY ORPEN DRAWS AT AN EARLY AGE IN DUBLIN signed, inscribed and dated [December 1924] lower left pen and ink with wash on paper 25 by 18cm., 10 by 7in. Original drawing on one of the preliminary pages of Orpen's autobiography, Stories of Old Ireland & Myself. This is copy no. 2, signed and numbered by Orpen, from the deluxe “large paper edition”, limited to 100 copies and published by Williams and Norgate, London, 1924. Octavo; bound in original white cloth, titled in gilt at spine and on upper board. Top edge gilt. With the armorial bookplate of Stanley Austin on front pastedown. The full inscription reads “Silence /Age 12 /Billy Orpen draws at an early age in Dublin / To Stanley Austin with love / William Orpen / London December 1924”, and shows a diligent young Orpen in short pants, pen raised in one hand, seated at his easel in the Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin.