Death masks are typically plaster casts of a person's face taken after death. Before the invention of photography, they were often created as mementoes of the deceased, or as a reference for portraiture. Masks of unknown corpses were also made to help with identification.

Our own plaster piece was in desperate need of identification. It was described as 'unknown death mask' in our artifacts catalogue, and since provenance is key in the Archives world, we wanted to cast some light on the issue.

Handling the mask gingerly with cotton gloves, we searched for any identifying marks.