Box with essences used during Shelley’s cremation

The cremations of Shelley and Williams were conducted in the classical Greek manner. ‘The funeral pyre was ready,’ Trelawny wrote later about Williams’s cremation, ‘I applied the fire, and the materials being dry and resinous the pine-wood burnt furiously, and drove us back. … As soon as the flames became clear, and allowed us to approach, we threw frankincense and salt into the furnace, and poured a flask of wine and oil over the body. The Greek oration was omitted, for we had lost our Hellenic bard.’ The same process was repeated for Shelley’s cremation the next day.

no date

1 box

realia

tin

boxes (containers)
essential oil

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822

Gift of Mrs Laetitia Call, 1911-1912.

KSH

REL-009