". . .and I want it on another plate!"
So, apparently, researchers have identified the head of French King Henry IV, a mummified skull that was "pillaged from a grave near Paris during the . . . French Revolution" and recently returned to descendants by the tax collector who's been keeping it in his attic ever since purchasing it for 5,000FRF in the 1950's.
Even Joseph Haydn's head -- which certainly got around -- had better treatment than this, having been enshrined for a time "in a handsome custom-made black wooden box, with a symbolic golden lyre at the top, glass windows, and a white cushion." (Or so says Wikipedia.) I remember my music history professor telling a rather horrifying story of the stolen head being passed from house to house during the police searches, and at one point stuffed under a mattress and sat upon by the wife of the phrenology fetishist who stole it in the first place!*
I'm learning that skull stealing was pretty big business back in the day. Colin Dickey, author of what must be a pretty entertaining book on the subject, describes phrenologists' fascination with collecting the skulls, not just of famous people, but of serial killers and madmen as well:
"And those were really easy to get. You just show up at a execution, you could - you know, nobody really wanted those bodies, and you could go to an asylum graveyard and, you know, root around there without too much trouble."
Super.
* That guy was supposedly Haydn's friend, so I'll just go on record right now and announce that anyone who tries to sever my dead skull and put it in a box had better not forget my glasses.
Even Joseph Haydn's head -- which certainly got around -- had better treatment than this, having been enshrined for a time "in a handsome custom-made black wooden box, with a symbolic golden lyre at the top, glass windows, and a white cushion." (Or so says Wikipedia.) I remember my music history professor telling a rather horrifying story of the stolen head being passed from house to house during the police searches, and at one point stuffed under a mattress and sat upon by the wife of the phrenology fetishist who stole it in the first place!*
I'm learning that skull stealing was pretty big business back in the day. Colin Dickey, author of what must be a pretty entertaining book on the subject, describes phrenologists' fascination with collecting the skulls, not just of famous people, but of serial killers and madmen as well:
"And those were really easy to get. You just show up at a execution, you could - you know, nobody really wanted those bodies, and you could go to an asylum graveyard and, you know, root around there without too much trouble."
Super.
* That guy was supposedly Haydn's friend, so I'll just go on record right now and announce that anyone who tries to sever my dead skull and put it in a box had better not forget my glasses.