EXCESSIVELY-RARE PARTLY-PRINTED SIGNED CHECK OF THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC MOVEMENT POET, PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE. (1792-1822). English poet of the Romantic movement. Excessively-rare Partly-Printed Check Signed, ”Percy Bysshe Shelley”. One page, oblong octavo. London, April 11, 1816. Drawn on Messrs. Brooks, Son & Dixon and made out in Shelley s hand, payable to himself, in the amount of ”thirty-two pounds”. Cancellation marks across signature. Very fine condition. In 1816, a young Percy Shelley traveled Europe with his paramour, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and Mary s step-sister, Claire. During that time, the trio kept the company of poet Lord Byron, whom Claire had a child by the following January. In December of 1816, the body of Shelley s wife, Harriet, was found in a London lake shortly after she drowned herself. Free from his first marriage, Shelley married Mary W. Godwin that same month. There are many recognized greats amongst the English speaking literary canon: [Shakespeare, Austen, Bronte, Poe, Melville, Dickens, Byron, Milton, Dickinson, Chaucer, but to name a few] the name of Percy Shelley ranks among them. Combine this with his early death, and the fact his signed material is of legendary rarity, plus that this is a financial related item, and you get just an unbeatable piece! One of our ‘Best of the Best’.™

$22,500.00