A rare Irish independence broadside made £305,000 ($462,143) at Sotheby's London earlier today.
It achieved an increase of 154.1% on an estimate of £120,000 ($181,827).
 The Easter Rising began on Easter Sunday, 1916 |
The paper was printed at Dublin's Liberty Hall and issued on Easter Sunday, 1916. It announces the beginning of the Easter Rising, which saw an Irish republican force seize control of several key locations in the city.
The republicans hoped that the British focus on the war effort in France would reduce resistance, but the rebellion was brutally put down. They surrendered a few days later, on April 29.
A total of 1,000 copies of the broadside were printed, out of an intended number of 2,500. The vast majority were destroyed in the British shelling of Liberty Hall, which the rebels were using as a munitions factory.
A painting of Charles Darwin and the crew aboard the Beagle, painted by the expedition's resident artist, sold for £52,500 ($79,549).
Augustus Earle joined the survey expedition in 1831 but was forced to disembark in 1833 due to poor health.
Sotheby's explains: "This newly identified watercolour is one of the earliest depictions of Darwin, the only image of him on the Beagle, and an exceptionally rare image of him at work as a naturalist."
A letter sent from Mao Zedong to Clement Attlee realised £605,000 ($917,319) in the sale.
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