The study of medieval Celtic art and a love of antique books paid off with a lucky discovery by an Andover couple. Stephen and Susan Walker run a family business making and promoting jewelry and other contemporary Celtic design arts and crafts. They also keep an eye out for books on the Irish and Scottish art. One of the rarest and most sought after books on the subject is a large format collection of lithographs published in 1857 titled Illustrations of some of the most interesting Sculptured Crosses of Ancient Ireland by Henry O’Neill. This was the first collection of illustrations of the monuments now commonly known as “Celtic Crosses” to be published at a time when interest by the Irish in the artistic accomplishments of their past was beginning to lay the foundation for the Celtic Revival.

Until their discovery only four intact copies of this book were known to have survived from the limited edition of 200, three of these belonging to library and museum collections in Ireland and the other owned by a private collector. The Walkers considered themselves lucky to have already found several of the illustrated pages from the book being sold separately by antiquarian art dealers in Ireland. An internet search located a copy in an estate sale in the Hudson Valley, which the Walkers were able to purchase for less than they had paid for a few loose pages.

The quality and beauty of the illustrations and the intact text were exciting enough, but the Walkers discovered in a hand written inscription an historical gold strike worthy of Antique Road Show.