WHYTE'S THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR TIMED ON-LINE AUCTION 17 MAY TO 7 JUNE 2024

95 History THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR · FRIDAY 7 JUNE 2024 243 1929 (12 January) handwritten letter signed by Austin Stack. On Sinn Féin Sraid Sufolc a 23 (23 Suffolk Street) Dublin headed paper, to ‘Art’ concerning a request by a Father Maguire seeking a mailing list of supporters in America. With a copy typescript reply and a list of 20 names and addresses mainly of people in New York. 8 by 5in. (20.3 by 12.7cm) Provenance: George Mealy & Sons auction, July 2013; Where acquired by the present owner. Condition: Fine. Estimate €150-€200 (approx £130-£170) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 243 244 1929 (27 April) In Memoriam cards for Austin Stack. (2) in Irish and English, printed by Gill. 3.24 by 1.75in. (8.2 by 4.4cm) Condition: Fine. Estimate €100-€150 (approx £90-£130) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 244 245 1928 Tailteann Fair silver medal First Prize to Stella Steyn for Art. Silver, 50mm, hallmarked Dublin, “I.J.C.Y”, 1928 for Jewellery & Metal Manufacturing, Dublin. Provenance: Whyte’s, 13 November 2010, lot 260; Estate of the purchaser. Condition: Fine, toning to rim. Medal by Irish Jewellery Company. Of Russian and German extraction, Stella Steyn was born in Dublin and educated at Alexandra College and the Metropolitan School of Art. She was an outstanding art student and her tutors recognised in her “a pupil of genius” (Belfast Observer, 15 June 1930). In 1926, in the company of her mother and fellow artist Hilda Roberts, she went to Paris where she met James Joyce, who later asked her to provide illustrations for Finnegan’s Wake. She was the only Irish artist to have studied at the Bauhaus in Germany (1931) and its teachings convinced her to adhere to her avant-garde principals for the rest of her days. Whilst she exhibited rarely in Ireland after 1930, retrospective exhibitions at the Gorry Gallery in 1995 and the Molesworth Gallery in 2001, and auctions of works from her estate in more recent years did much to renew interest in her work. Estimate €300-€500 (approx £260-£430) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 245