WHYTE'S THE HISTORY SALE TIMED ON-LINE AUCTION 1-11 NOVEMBER 2023

Dr Thomas Ryan PPRHA (16 September 1929 – 15 September 2021) was a renowned Irish artist, designer and medallist. Born in St Joseph's Street, Limerick in 1929, Thomas Ryan grew up in Davis Street in the city. He was educated at the Limerick College of Art and the National College of Art in Dublin where he studied under well-known artists such as Seán Keating and Maurice MacGonigal. Ryan worked in a variety of media, including oil paints, watercolours, charcoal, pencil and red and brown chalks. Some of his many portraiture subjects include Ronnie Delaney, Patrick Hillery, Seán Keating, Éamon de Valera, T.K. Whitaker and John Hume. His works Flight of the Earls and GPO 1916 are regarded as two of the country's most important historical works. During his ten-year presidency of the Royal Hibernian Academy, he undertook the task of successfully overseeing the completion of the unfinished RHA Gallagher Gallery in Dublin. He was made a Freeman of The City of Limerick in 2007 and held an honorary doctorate from the University of Limerick. Dr Ryan lived in Ashbourne, County Meath for about 45 years. He died on 15 September 2021, a day before his 92nd birthday. TOM RYAN & The Numismatic Society of Ireland Tom was a long-time member of the Society, from about 1970, and a Committee Member for the first time from October 1975 until he was elected Honorary Secretary for the 1977-1979 period. His numismatic interest lay almost exclusively with Irish medallic works and he was known to have an unrivalled collection of agricultural awards and scholastic issues. He was also a designer and his paper of 1977 to the Society “The Medal for the National Institute for Higher Education (Limerick)” described what may have been his first medal. Since that time Tom became internationally recognised for his designs for the Central Bank of Ireland currency issues including the 1988 Dublin Millennium 50p and the pound of 1990, along with more recent issues, but perhaps to some minds his beautiful 2008 Antarctic Explorers coin featuring Shackleton and Crean, created in silver and gold, most outstanding. His Ronnie Delaney portrait featured on a 50th anniversary (of the athlete’s Olympic gold medal) stamp in 2006. Tom was elected Honorary Member of the Numismatic Society of Ireland in 2008. Whyte’s is proud to present Tom Ryan’s Collection of Medals – a collection built up over 60 years from many and varied sources. We are grateful to Francis Heaney of The Numismatic Society of Ireland for his contribution to the introductory note above. Note: references to ‘Eimer’ and ‘BHM’ are for British Commemorative Medals And Their Values by Christopher Eimer and A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960 by Laurence Brown. Self Portrait, 1961 Whyte’s Irish & British Art - 1 October 2012, lot 133 THE HISTORY SALE · 1-11 NOVEMBER 2023 The Tom Ryan Collection of Medals 81