Rare Book Monthly

Articles - August - 2014 Issue

Out with a Whimper – the All Hallows Sale

All Hallows' Book of Hours failed to sell.

All Hallows' Book of Hours failed to sell.

The All Hallows library sale appears to have ended in a whimper. It's most notable item was earlier withdrawn, and what remained had little magic when it went up for auction. The amount received will make little difference to an institution that already has announced that it will be closing its doors.

 

Earlier this year, All Hallows College, of Dublin, Ireland, announced that it had discovered an amazing collection of letters written by Jacqueline Kennedy it planned to put up for sale. The value likely would have been millions of dollars. All Hallows is an obscure college in Dublin operated by the Vincentian Brothers. The obvious question is how did they come to have an amazing collection of letters written by America's most glamorous First Lady? The answer is that Mrs. Kennedy, then still Jacqueline Bouvier, who had just graduated from college, was introduced to Father Joseph Leonard of All Hallows on a visit to Ireland in 1950. The 21-year-old young lady and the 73-year old priest hit it off famously. Though they would only meet once more, they exchanged letters for the rest of his life. He was sort of her “Father confessor,” a rock in times of need. Leonard died in 1964, so the letters include those written at the time of her deepest despair, when her husband, President John Kennedy, was assassinated.

 

The letters had been lying around All Hallows for half a century when the announcement was made they would be offered for sale. The response was not good at all. Many saw selling such personal letters at an auction tacky at best, a violation of Mrs. Kennedy's privacy, maybe even a violation of a priest-penitent relationship. All Hallows explained that such a relationship cannot exist through written correspondence, but the principle, if not the letter of the law, was still in question. The Kennedy family also reportedly expressed strong objections. Finally, Father Leonard's will was found, and it revealed he had left his property to the Vincentians, not the college they operated. The letters were withdrawn.

 

This story has a few subplots. One is that All Hallows was in desperate financial straits. The reason for the planned sale, not clear at the time, was not the tackiness of its administrators. It was a last ditch effort to raise enough money to keep the doors open a little longer, in hopes the solution to its financial problems that had long evaded the college could still be found. When the sale was cancelled, so was All Hallows. A few days later, Father Joseph McDevitt, President of the college, announced it would be permanently closing its doors.

 

The other subplot came when Owen Felix O'Neill, a bookseller who had been brought in early to evaluate All Hallow's books, but with whom there was a later split with the auction house called on to sell them, offered the opinion that there were millions of dollars worth of material missing from All Hallows. According to the Irish Times, the thefts had gone on for a long time, with the value “quite a few million.” Father McDevitt, in the same article, is quoted as estimating the value as “in the thousands.” He said some things thought missing were misplaced with the value of anything taken nowhere near the level estimated by Mr. O'Neill.

 

We do not know whether what is missing is of great value, but we do know that when the art and books offered by All Hallows were finally put up for sale by Sheppard's Irish Auction House last month, the results were underwhelming. A couple of paintings did sell in the $20,000 range, but the books brought in very little. The major item was a 15th century Book of Hours, estimated at £40,000-£60,000. It did not sell. A 16th century German Bible took in £2,800 (around $4,500), hardly a dent for an institution that, after almost two centuries, was closing forever.

 

 

Addendum:  It has been reported that the Book of Hours was sold privately after the sale for £19,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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