![[SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE] BODLEIAN LIBRARY. Photographs of Shelley Relics in the Bodleian Library.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/2022-03-22/1538020.jpg?itok=tNItyKUR)
Lot Details
Lot 130
[SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE] BODLEIAN LIBRARY. Photographs of Shelley Relics in the Bodleian Library.
[Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1898]. One of 6 bound copies, containing a tipped in manuscript compliments note explaining the edition size and who received presentation copies, this copy was presented to Mr. Edward Augustus Silsbee. Original black morocco, gilt titled front cover, gilt ruled, all edges gilt. 12 3/4 x 10 inches; 6 plates after photographs interleaved with blanks. Some rubbing and wear along the spine and at corners, leather a bit discolored with traces of old leather dressing, boards slightly bowed, contents very lightly toned, bookplate of the Library of the Essex Institute, presented to them by the estate of E. A. Silsbee in 1910.
A rare set of photographic reproductions showing Percy Bysshe Shelley relics in the Bodleian Library, including two portraits of the poet, one portrait of his wife Mary Shelley, his pocket watch, the copy of Sophocles he was holding when he drowned, and the Shelley Guitar. Edward Augustus Silsbee donated the guitar to the Bodleian Library, which is no doubt why he merited one of the few copies of this book. Silsbee was a Merchant Marine seaman, a Boston art critic and an avid Shelley collector. Silsbee's two Shelley manuscripts are now at Harvard and his archive is in the Pforzheimer collection at the NYPL. It is worth noting that the Henry James novella, The Aspern Papers, is based on Silsbee's failed attempt to acquire Shelley material from Clare Clairmont, who had been Lord Byron's mistress and Mary Shelley's stepsister.
C Property of a Massachusetts Gentleman
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