A major redesign by John McCurdy was completed in 1867, with the :fr:Fonderie d'art du Val d'Osne|Foundry of Val d'Osne casting the four external caryatid style torchère statues. These were based on two repeated beaux-artsneoclassical models originally sculpted by the prolific French sculptor Mathurin Moreau entitled Égyptienne - the two female Ancient Egyptian figures flanking either side of the front door, and Négresse - the two female ancient Kushite figures flanking either corner of the main building. All four statues are wearing gold coloured anklets, and are draped, with jewellery picked out in gilt while supporting a torch with a frosted glass flambeau shade. All four statues are on a circular base with a further square metal plinth with cartouches to the angles indicating royal descent. In feint writing at the front of the circular base of all four statues can be seen the name of the foundry which produced the statues Val d'Osne. Of the several other examples of the castings, the most notable can be seen in the porch of the Hôtel de ville in the French town of Remiremont as well as outside the mausoleum of the architect Temple Hoyne Buell in Denver, Colarado and in the :pt:Jardins do Palácio de Cristal|Jardins do Palácio de Cristal in Porto. In all three cases the door is flanked either side by one Égyptienne and one Négresse statue indicating parity. In July 2020, the statues at the front of the building were removed by management as a precautionary response to the toppling and removal of statues following on from the killing of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests. This move resulted from the mistaken belief that either two or all four of the statues represented nubian slaves shown in manacles. Both histories of the Hotel by Elizabeth Bowen and Michael O'Sullivan state that two of the statues represent slaves or servants with Bowen stating "on each stands a female statue, Nubian in aspect, holding a torch shaped lamp. Two of the four are princesses; two are slave girls". Neither book notes the source of the information and neither book cites the original catalogue or primary sources. Other references to castings of the statues have cited them incorrectly alternatively as Egyptian and Greek godesses. Kyle Leyden, an art history lecturer at the University of London, indicated that the statues did not depict slaves as claimed, but rather aristocratic women of Egypt and Africa. Following the removal of the statues the matter was referred by the Irish Georgian Society to the Planning Enforcement Section of Dublin City Council for investigation.
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In the early 1900s, Alois Hitler jr., the elder half-brother of Adolf Hitler, worked in the hotel while in Dublin. In James Joyce's Ulysses, Leopold Bloom remembers the Shelbourne as where "Mrs Miriam Dandrade", a "Divorced Spanish American" sold him "her old wraps and black underclothes".
