Carton House for sale

In the aftermath of Irish Independence many of Ireland’s great houses went into decline, dereliction and ruin. There are numerous reasons for this and although many survived the revolutionary period, their days were numbered. In the late 1940s the sale of Carton House in Maynooth signalled the end of the FitzGeralds in Kildare, a connection which had stretched all the way back to the 1180s. Today, Carton House is a four star resort owned by the Fairmont Group but a look at the sale and dispersal of the contents of Carton in 1949 tells us much about Carton and the FitzGeralds. For example, in June the Irish Press reported on the sale of the Carton library:

The sale of books at Carton, Maynooth, ancestral home of the Dukes of Leinster, commenced yesterday and will continue to-day.

The catalogue comprises close on 17 lots with an average of six volumes in each, most of them being bound in v/hole or half Russian leather, with tooled and gilt edges. There was keen bidding, particularly for works with coloured and engraved plates printed by famous publishing houses In Paris, Rome, Cologne and Amsterdam,  and a few in London and Dublin, Some of the rarer items were knocked down at prices less than they usually command. De Burgo's "Hibernia Dominican!" (1762), which went for £8 10/-, usually brings between £25 and £30, according to condition. A splendid set of Sepia prints of South of Ireland scenes, copy of Hardiman's "History of Galway," fetched £6 10s.; for Smith's Histories of Counties Kerry, Cork, and Waterford (4 vols.), all very scarce, a Dublin dealer gave £8, and £3 10s. for Story's "Wars of Ireland" (1693), with maps complete. . . Works of Irish historic or topographical interest were not numerous, but for the most part they commanded good prices. Top prices of the day, paid by a Dublin dealer, was £36 for a splendid folio, Wone's "Sketches in North America and Oregon," with beautiful coloured plates. 

What other treasures were sold in 1949?

For more information search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )