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Irish 'Lady Lavery' Ten Shilling Note 1966
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Irish Ten shilling note Lady Lavery 25th May 1966
Genuine 42 Year Old Irish Bank Note with
Watermark
These notes were introduced in
1928. A beautiful woman was symbolic of the New Ireland (Hazel,
Lady Lavery being the model). As in early Irish literature Ireland was
represented allegorically as a woman, for example Roisin Dubh - Dark Rosaleen.
These were faded out after decimalisation in 1970 when the note was replaced
with 50p coin.
Lady Hazel Lavery
Hazel Lavery, through her father, Edward Jenner Martyn, could
trace her roots back to Galway in the Middle Ages, the family had been among the
earliest settlers in America. Once voted "the most beautiful girl in the
Midwest", Hazel had been married, widowed, and jilted on the eve of a second
wedding - all in the US - before becoming the wife of Belfast born painter Sir
John Lavery and visiting Ireland for the first time in 1913. She
immediately fell in love with the country, moved her birthday from March
14th to 17th, and declared herself - after her
extraordinary apprenticeship - to be a "simple Irish girl".
Between then and her death from TB in 1935, she was a
central figure in Irish life. The Lavery home in London played host to
many of the greatest artists, writers and politicians of the day, most notably
around the time of the 1921 Treaty negotiations.
Her intense relationship with Michael Collins - he
had a letter to "Hazel dearest" on his body when he was killed - was a source of
rumours in the 1920s and long after. And yet the process by which she
ended up on the Irish banknotes was shrouded in some secrecy. It was a
matter of record that John Lavery was commissioned to paint the archetypal Irish
colleen demanded by the brief, and he was well known for using his wife as a
model. Yet when the notes appeared in 1928, and The Irish Times suggested
the obvious, the Minister for Finance, Ernest Blythe insisted the figure was not
Lady Lavery and "does not bear the slightest resemblance to her".
In fact Thomas Bodkin had not only persuaded the
Currency Commission to use one of Lavery's portraits of his wife, but opposed
the painter's own suggestion of a competition, on the grounds that he didn't
trust the commissioner's judgement.
In a letter to the lady herself, Bodkin wrote:
"Their award would probably favour a portrait of some farmer's daughter.
They are men of business but, emphatically, not men of taste. I know them
all".
The mixture of official denials and criticism of her
rumoured involvement stung Hazel's vanity, however. In the midst of the
controversy, she circulated a studio portrait of herself. The Irish Times
got hold of a copy and reproduced it, side by side with the currency
portrait. The paper was subsequently prosecuted under the Forgery Act for
reproducing a bank-note, and had to apologise. But the point had been
made.
Still bristling, Lady
Lavery wrote again to Bodkin on the subject of the (separate) female in the
watermark of the first notes, said to be modelled on the Italian wife of an
Irish sculptor. "Do find out if the fat female symbolical figure of Erin
in the watermark is a portrait of the late Mrs Hogan", she commanded.
This is in very good circulated condition. Plenty of
use but no holes, tears
or problems.
Measures:
5.40" X 3.00".
This is
a Genuine Original 42 Year Old Note with Watermark.
PLEASE NOTE WORLD WIDE
SHIPPING RATE
IF YOU LIVE ON THE ISLAND OF IRELAND DIVIDE THE RATE IN HALF.
Allow $4.00 for insurance, packing and shipping.
Good Luck!
Payment
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