[Percy Bysshe Shelley: supposed portrait by George Romney.] Five Autograph Letters Signed from William Salt Brassington, Librarian of the Shakespeare Memorial, to the donor of the picture Evan Marlett Boddy.

These five items are part of a collection of correspondence (the rest is offered separately) relating to a supposed portrait of a young Percy Bysshe Shelley by George Romney, which was in a group of paintings donated to the Shakespeare Memorial Association by the appropriately-named anatomist Evan Marlett Boddy. (The Shelley portrait is reproduced in ‘The Magazine of Art’, 1901, with the caption ‘Reputed portrait of Shelley as a boy, by Romney. In the Shakespeare memorial, Stratford-on-Avon.’, in an article on ‘Portraits of Shelley at the National Portrait Gallery’, p. 494.) The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was founded through the efforts of local brewer Charles Edward Flower (1830-1892), after whose death its management was taken over by his brother Edgar Flower (1833-1903), also Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. On Edgar’s death these duties fell to his son Archibald Flower (1865-1950), several times mayor of Stratford-upon-Avon. Between 1899 and 1901 Boddy donated at least twelve portraits to be hung in the Shakespeare Memorial reading room (from the correspondence wood carvings also appear to have been donated). Details of the first seven portraits (including the supposed Romney one of Shelley) are contained in a letter (in the separate collection of correspondence) of 11 December 1899 from Boddy to the Shakespeare Memorial librarian the archaeologist William Salt Brassington (1859-1939). The paintings included supposed works by Henry Fuseli (‘The Fuseli Macbeth’) and Sir Peter Lely (Nell Gwynne), Henry Wyatt (Coleridge), one of Alexander Pope (‘attributed to Hogarth’), as well as a ‘Garrick portrait’, one of Nell Gwynne, and a ‘Spanish Lady’. In 1916 Boddy demanded their return, on discovering that the Archibald Flower had broken the condition that Boddy had arranged in 1900 with the then librarian W. S. Brassington: ‘The Portraits were to be hung together and remain so.’ The present five items comprise four in 12mo, totaling 8pp; and one (the first) in 4to, 1p, the first part of which is typed and the latter part in autograph. All signed ‘W. S. Brassington’. All in good condition, lightly aged. In the first letter (28 August 1900) he writes: ‘Dear Dr. Boddy, / Following the investigations respecting the portrait of Shelley, I find that the description on the frame of the picture is not quite correct. / “Percy Bysshe Shelley, aged 13 by G. Romney.” Shelley was born in 1792, and in 1805 he was 13 years old. Romney died in 1802, and did not paint much for some years before his death. From a careful examination of the portrait it appears to me that the subject is a boy of about 8 or 9 years of age, and consequently the portrait may have been painted by Romney, in, or about, the year 1800. Next month I hope to meet Dr. Garnett [Richard Garnett (1835-1906)] at the meeting of the Library Association at Bristol and hear what he has to say on the subject; He is the greatest living authority on Shelley. I am also writing to the author of a new life of Romney and hope to find a record of the sittings in Romney’s notes.’ In the second letter (31 August 1900) he recaps the position, adding: ‘The more I see of the picture the more I like it: it is beautiful, and to me more interesting than any of the others: it would be a treasure for any gallery.’ In the third letter (4 September 1900) he comments on a photograph of the Shelley portrait (presumably for the ‘Magazine of Art’ article), which he considers excellent. On 5 December 1901 Brassington writes: ‘Since last I had the pleasure of seeing you Miss Florence May has been hunting up the bust of Shelley which Mrs Leigh Hunt made & gave to Thomas Carlyle. It has now been found in Scotland, and the owner has kindly sent me, for the Memorial, an etching made from the bust by W. Bell-Scott. It appears that the present representatives of the Shelley family do not like the bust, though it undoubtedly is a likeness, and it has a resemblance to the Romney portrait, which renders it all the more interesting to me.’ In the last of the five letters, 13 December 1901 he write: ‘It is quite time, as you say, that misfortunes attend some poor souls even after death, but I fancy the poor departed generally score in the end, if they deserve to do so. In Shelley’s case this must be so, & it is a score that his portrait should be here. I shall do my best to get the Leigh Hunt Bust placed beside the Romney Portrait before next April.’ There is a final reference to his ‘young friend Nupean’.