Father Theobald Mathew (1790-1856) was a Capuchin priest and temperance leader, famed for his association with The Teetotal Abstinence Society and his social work in Cork, Ireland. A 19th century silhouette by the Irish artist Stephen O’Driscoll (circa.1825-1895), which depicts Father Mathew presenting alms to the King of the Cork Beggars in front of M.P. Daniel Callaghan will be sold by Bonhams on 19 February 2008 in London.

Father Mathew spent many years of his life working for the welfare and education of the poor. Such was his contribution to 19th century Irish society, that statues of him can be found today in O’Connell Street in Dublin and St Patrick’s Street in Cork. In 1838, appalled by the effects of the drunkenness and alcoholism he witnessed in the slums, Mathew took a pledge of total abstinence and devoted himself thereafter to the temperance cause.

The movement with which his name is associated was The Teetotal Abstinence Society, which relied on one enduring act, to keep a person sober for life. Members of the Society took the following pledge: “I promise to abstain from all intoxicating drinks except used medicinally and by order of a medical man, and to discountenance the cause and practice of intemperance.” In less than nine months, no fewer than 150,000 names were enrolled as taking the Pledge and at the height of the movement, just before the Great Famine of 1845-48, some 3-million people (half the adult population of Ireland) had enrolled.

In 1849, Father Mathew travelled to the United States, where he campaigned against alcohol in numerous major cities on the East Coast. By the end of his trip to America, it was estimated that around 600,000 people had been recruited to the Abstinence Society.

Expected to fetch £800-1,200, the “cut-out” paper silhouette figures, shown against a lithographic background depicts the Victoria Hotel in Cork, then the most prestigious establishment in the city and, which still exists today. Each shop in the “silhouette conversation piece” bears the name of a real-life proprietor on its sign-board, such as Henry O’Hara – a merchant who ran a successful haberdashery on St Patrick’s Street in the 1840s.

Posted: 01|30|08 at 9:22 pm. Filed under: Auction News.