Beschreibung:

Michael Collins [1890-1922] A polished leather Sam Browne officer's belt with brass buckle and fittings, warranted to be the original belt worn by Michael Collins in the weeks before his death, 22 August 1922, as seen in contemporary photographs of Collins in Free State military uniform, 1922, as exhibited by the National Archives and illustrated by them in a calendar for Sept.-Oct. 2006 (copy with the lot). The waist belt in heavy leather approx. 17 1/2 ins diameter, width approx 2 3/16 ins, the shoulder strap approx. 1 1/4 ins wide, with two-pronged waist buckle and stud, single-pronged shoulder buckle and various fittings, impressed number '23' on leather near the waist buckle, patterned stitching, some wear and creasing but generally in excellent condition. Born in Co. Cork in 1890, Collins lived mainly in England between 1906 and 1916, working in the Post Office and in several financial offices; during this time he joined Sinn Fein and the IRB and was active in the Gaelic League of London and in the GAA. He returned to Ireland in January 1916; in the Easter Rising he served in the GPO as staff captain and as aide-de-camp to Joseph Mary Plunkett. After his release from Frongoch in December 1916, he became Secretary of the Volunteer Dependants' Fund, a position which he used to build up a network of contacts with Republican activists and sympathisers. When the IRB was reorganised after the execution of many of its Supreme Council members, Collins quickly emerged as a leader. He became Secretary of the IRB Supreme Council, Adjutant-General of the Irish Volunteers, a member of the First Dail, Minister for Home Affairs, and later Minister for Finance 1919-21, in which capacity he organised the National Loan which financed the Dail's programme. He built up an unrivalled intelligence network, culminating in the ruthless 'Bloody Sunday' coup which broke the back of British intelligence in Dublin. Moving around Dublin apparently with little regard for his personal safety, his courage and charm created the legend of 'the Big Fellow', the pimpernel whom the British could never catch. Sent to London for the Treaty talks against his better judgement, he and his fellow delegates made the best bargain they could, and he stood by it in the Dail and in the country. When the Dail voted to approve the Treaty, Collins became Chairman of the Provisional Government, Minister for Finance and then Commander in-Chief of the Free State Army. He died in uniform at an ambush in his native Cork on 22 August 1922. A superb personal memento of Ireland's greatest soldier of modern times, the man whose direction of Ireland's military struggle for independence created the conditions for the Anglo-Irish Treaty, accepted by a majority vote of Dail Eireann as offering to the Irish people 'the freedom to win freedom'. With a copy of a letter of provenance from a previous owner, Ms. Maureen Hayes, to whose husband the belt was presented by 'his very good friend Commdt. Leo Brennan, a companion of Michael Collins', and with two related letters from the Military Archives (with whom the belt was deposited on loan for a time); also a framed photograph showing Collins in military uniform. Michael Collins [1890-1922] A polished leather Sam Browne officer's belt with brass buckle and fittings, warranted to be the original belt worn by Michael Collins in the weeks before his death, 22 August 1922, as seen in contemporary photographs of Collins in Free State military uniform, 1922, as exhibited by the National Archives and illustrated by them in a calendar for Sept.-Oct. 2006 (copy with the lot). The waist belt in heavy leather approx. 17 1/2 ins diameter, width approx 2 3/16 ins, the shoulder strap approx. 1 1/4 ins wide, with two-pronged waist buckle and stud, single-pronged shoulder buckle and various fittings, impressed number '23' on leather near the waist buckle, patterned stitching, some wear and creasing but generally in excellent condition. Born in Co. Cork