Vanishing Dublin. With an Introduction by The Earl of Wicklow. Dublin: Allen & Figgis, 1966. Pp, 100. Green cloth boards, title lettered in gilt to spine in publisher’s pictorial dust jacket. A very good copy.

Signed by the Author on title page.

Illustrated with fifty coloured plates depicting Dublin streets by American-born Irish artist Flora Mitchell, each accompanied by a short descriptive text on opposite page. A book which has achieved classic status for its atmospheric depiction of the rapidly disappearing Dublin streetscapes.

First and only edition as the plates used in the books production were destroyed in a fire at the printers. 

The scarce original prospectus for the book (loosely inserted) describing it thus:  Once upon a time Dublin was one of the most elegant Georgian capitals in Europe. Little of that quite dignity remains to us now. Old buildings are rapidly being demolished in favour of the rectangular, plate-glass, chromium-studded, essentially functional edifices of a bustling modern metropolis. But thanks to the skilled eye and brush of Flora Mitchell all is not quite forgotten; for she has successfully captured some of the most picturesque city scenes in this enchanting volume, ‘Vanishing Dublin.’ With a depth of feeling that no camera could match, she has depicted the charm of Fishamble Street, the quaintness of The Priest’s Gate, the colour of Moore Street market, to name but a few of her subjects. Fifty paintings have been carefully reproduced in full colour so that none of their original quality is lost, and each is accompanied by a short description often an amusing anecdote conversations with dustmen and fishwives a note on the origin of the Ouzel Galley Court the tale of Johnny Fox of Bride Street. Vanishing Dublin is not just a collector’s item. It is the painted of a Dublin that used to be, a city whose former splendour would be forgotten were it not for artists such as Flora Mitchell. This is no ordinary picture book. For the subject is Dublin and Dublin is no ordinary city. Vanishing Dublin is an illustrated record of the passing of time, with all its sadness, its regret, but above all, its beauty. Exceptional Value @ 50/-