COVE

In 2019-2022, Wes R. Schroeder undertook a challenging and exciting luthiering project: to make a playable replica of "that silent token," "Shelley's" guitar. That guitar, made by Pisan luthier Ferdinando Bottari in c.1816, was given by poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to Jane Williams in 1822, and is now in the collection of the Bodleian Library, identified as "Shelley Relics no. 1." This exhibit documents Schroeder's luthiering of a replica of the "ex-Jane Williams." The replica is not an exact copy. The design process involved judicious conjecture about the composition of inaccessible features, a mixture of historical and modern materials, and slight adjustments for robustness and playability. However, in the replica, it is now possible to hear an approximation of the sound of the ex-Williams for the first time in over 200 years.