ABSTRACT
Mary Butts was born in 1890 in Dorset. As an only child, she anticipated inheriting the eighteenth-century family home, Salterns, overlooking Poole Harbour, along with a collection of prints and drawings by William Blake, which her father had inherited from his grandfather, who had been a patron of the artist. However, after her father’s death in 1905 Butts’s mother, Mary Jane (Briggs) sold the collection, a decision which further strained her difficult relationship with her daughter. In 1907 Mary Jane re-married and a boy, Anthony, was born, superseding Butts as heir.
