19th Centuary French Death Mask

19th Centuary French Death Mask
£280.00

A rare 19th Centuary plaster French Death Mask from around 1870. These macabre death masks were made in plaster and were actual moulds taken from the dead body before the advent of photography. Sometimes they would be taken of famous individuals, but most commonly, during the 18th and 19th centuries, death masks were also used to permanently record the features of unknown corpses for the purposes of identification. This function was later replaced by post-mortem photography.