Locks of hair taken from friends and loved ones were an important element of Mary Shelley’s sanctum at Boscombe Manor, following Mary Shelley’s own practice in collecting and preserving them. This elaborate case contains (mounted in the trademark gold gilt of the sanctum) locks of hair taken from six of Shelley’s friends: Lord Byron (1822); Leigh Hunt (1817); Byron’s mistress Teresa Guiccioli (no date); the Greek independence fighter Alexander Mavrocordato (1820); Edward John Trelawny (1822); Edward Williams (1821); and the Irish poet Thomas Moore (no date).

(Source: laurenjenae)