Death mask

This is a death-mask, a way of remembering the dead by creating a cast of a person's face, either in wax or plaster. This death mask is made from stone and plaster mixture. It was attached by an iron cramp to the stonework above the nave pulpit at the base of the arches of the high nave clerestory windows. We do not know yet who it is.

In the days before photography, death masks were a way of preserving someone's exact likeness. They were very commonly made for wealthy people up until the end of the 1800s. Sometimes they were used to help sculptors create statues, on other occasions they were used as part of the funeral procession, placed on a dressed figure on the coffin.