Copy of life mask of Nelson, eyes open, hair parted in centre (the hair added by modelling). Accompanied by the matrix in two sections. The mask, one of three similar examples in existence, was for many years believed to be a death mask, but there is no contemporary reference to a mask being taken after his death. It is recorded , however, that when Nelson was in Vienna in autumn 1800, he permitted a cast of his face to be taken by the sculptor Franz Thaller and it is therefore likely that the life masks are related to the marble bust completed by Thaller and Ranson in 1801. The mask at the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth, shows the eyes closed.