Yours for £1,000... Oliver Cromwell's death mask, warts and all

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 03rd February 2009 | David Wilkes

[PotatoHeadMick]

He loathed vanity so much that he insisted his portraits depict him faithfully, 'warts and all'.

And even after his death, Oliver Cromwell's instructions were followed to the letter.

This death mask shows the puritanical Lord Protector of England in all his grizzled, lumpy glory.

There has been no attempt to conceal the growth on his lower lip or straighten his crooked nose.

All in all, the mask doesn't make an attractive artwork - though that probably won't bother the person who buys it this week.

The plaster cast, made around 350 years ago, has been put up for sale at auction by a private collector.

[PotatoHeadMick]

Not something you'd want for above the mantelpiece I think.

[Badeye]

I once saw Robert E Lee’s ‘death mask’ at the CSA’s Whitehouse/Museum. It can only be described as ‘creepy’.

[JoeProBono]

[GreyFriar]

Cromwell ping

[kenavi]

Fie on thee.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Whether you esteem him or despise him, and there are not many in the middle, the Lord Protector’s disdain for his physical superficials is a refreshing contrast to today’s pretty boy actors, metrosexuals and image-obsessed politicians of no substance.

[Monterrosa-24]

Cromwell's daughter died from breast cancer shortly before his death and many feel her death took much of the will to live away from him.

Politically he was controversial but his military career was phenomenal. Even the Irish historian at Drogheda wrote of him as an “honorable enemy”. It is now seen that in Ireland Cromwell was not anti-Irish but anti-Royalist and the Irish war coalitions included Protestant and Catholic on both sides. It was an Irishman, Richard Harris, that played Cromwell sympathetically in the film CROMWELL.>

[Unlikely Hero]

I’ve been reading Antonio Fraser’s bio for a whole now. Really good, but really bogged down in details. One of these days I’ll actually finish it.

[driftless2]

"Drogheda"

Did the historian (Thomas Reilly?)say that before or after Cromwell's troops slaughtered about four thousand people at Drogheda including about seven hundred civilians? The Sack of Wexford saw more civilian slaughter at the hands of Cromwell's troops.

[Monterrosa-24]

Both sides followed the same rules of no quarter after a failed parle. Reilly did say that Cromwell treated civilians far better than any military commander, Royalist or Parliamentarian, that preceded his expedition. Drogheda was a Royalist town as opposed to an Irish nationalist town.

[SunkenCiv]

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[zot]

Thanks for the ping. I hope a museum buys it.

[wildbill]

Seems awfully cheap for a historic relic

[ZULU]

I would have been a Royalist. No connection between our revolution and the antics of that bunch of religious fanatics and literal iconoclasts led by the lead murderer-in-chief Cromwell.

God bless Charles I!!!

[spyone]

True, but still a misguided philosophy/creed. Whether it’s Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Jews...conversion by the sword is a dodgy strategy.

[PotatoHeadMick]

Irish Republicans loathe Cromwell but in fact he was the first Republican to fight in Ireland, most of the people who were killed in Drogheda were Royalists and supporters of the English king.