Shelley's Ghost

John Courtown Edward Shelley, later Sir John Shelley-Rolls, grandson of the poet’s younger brother John, inherited a third of the family archive from Jane, Lady Shelley in 1899. He supplemented it through a programme of active purchase, seeking items with a Shelleyan provenance, but also objects such as this enamel box, which (although with no proven connection with the family) nevertheless expressed Shelleyan sentiments. On the lid of the box are the words ‘LIBERTY and Free Election’; on the inside base is, simply, the name ‘SHELLEY’.

(Acquired 1930s) Sir John Shelley-Rolls; (bequest, 1961) Bodleian.

Shelley’s Guitar, no. 65.

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