SHAKSPER 1995: Shakespeare Death Mask

From: Hardy M. Cook (hmcook@boe00.minc.umd.edu)
Date: 07/12/95 

Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 6, No. 0550.  Wednesday, 12 July 1995.
 
From:           W.L. Godshalk <William.Godshalk@UC.Edu>
Date:           Tuesday, 11 Jul 1995 21:59:04 -0500 (EST)
Subject:        Shakespeare's Bust
 
Guid Rijhoek, Associated Press, reports that Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel,
a professor at Mainz University, believes that the disputed death mask of
Shakespeare at Darmstadt is genuine. She has had the mask analyzed by a crime
lab and the chief doctor of the Wiesbaden Eye Clinic.  The crime lab found 17
points of similarity among the mask, the Flower portrait, and the Chandos
portrait. The doctor noted that the left eye of the death mask shows a slight
swelling, probably a tumor, and notes similar swellings in the portraits.
 
The mask has 1616 etched into it, and there are traces of hair. The mask was
brought to Germany in the 18th century by Reichsgraf Franz von Kesselstatt and
was purchased by the city of Darmstadt in 1960.
 
Professor Hammerschmidt-Hummel reportedly has the slides and analyses.
 
I, in turn, report this without comment.  Jennifer Peters handed me the
clipping, but did not identify the newspaper in which she found the report.
 
Yours, Bill Godshalk


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