BYSSHE

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.

6pp, 12mo. Paginated [1]-6. Lightly aged and a bit grubby. Folded twice. On six leaves of paper, which Herford has made up by tearing in half the 4to leaves of one of his students' essays. Complete, and signed at the end 'C H Herford'. Written in a close hand, with numerous deletions and emendations. He begins by describing how Shelley met his death, and his final writing, before dismissing the suggestion that he committed suicide: 'we may dismiss the utterly uncalled for suggestion that his own hand lifted the veil'.

2pp, 12mo. On bifolium. Twenty lines of text. In fair condition, aged and worn, with chipping and short closed tears to extremities. Folded twice. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Joseph Blunt Esqre.' Signature underlined with a flourish.

One page, 16mo (9 x 11.5cm), trimmed, staining (recto and verso, from being laid down in an album presumably) but text clear and complete: "Sir Percy Shelley would be obliged to Messrs Sewell & Co. to send home the articles he purchased today - before two o'clock tomorrow, as Sit Percy is going into the country and wishes to take the parcel with him." Note: a. Sewell & Co. were perhaps the silk mercers and drapers of Compton St., London; b. Image on website.

The three items in good condition, with light signs of age and wear. LETTER: 2pp., 8vo. A splendidly waspish missive. Topics include: her 'letter to Mickie' ('masterly diplomacy'); 'dear Miss Massey, wounded on active service for the BIS' (with references to 'Mrs.

Robinson is the author of Ollier's entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, in which he discusses the 'fifty titles' that Ollier and his brother James published between 1817 and 1823, and the others dating from his second stint as publisher between 1846 and 1849. The list is 10pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Subtitle: '(*Indicates that U. of Delaware Library has in original, microform, or photo rpt.)' Robinson has given the date and his details in autograph at the head, and has starred items in 'urgently need' in red ink.

3pp., 8vo. Bifolium. On aged card, with wear to extremities. The text, attributed to Wallis by the British Library catalogue, is on the verso of the first leaf; and facing this, behind a tissue guard, is the print. Wallis discusses the 'feeble' nature of the 'various engaged portraits of Shelley', and explains Peacock's reservations in endorsing Lasinio's engraving of Leisman's painting. Uncommon: five copies on COPAC, the British Library entry attributing the publication to Henry Wallis.

Octavo: 21 pp. Leaf of prices and buyers' names loosely inserted. Stapled. In original yellow printed wraps. Somewhat creased and chipped, on aged, spotted paper. Two-page foreword. Maggs were the main buyers, but the three highest sellers among the 105 lots, all Shelley letters, went to other dealers: lot 13, 'quoting 36 lines of original verse', for £155 to Pickering; lot 55, 'describing the origins and method of his elopement with Mary Godwin', £175 to Quaritch; lot 65, 'dealing with many topics', £360 to W. H. Robinson.