Made of a rare plant resin called mopa mopa, and decorated with a technique known as Barniz de Pasto, this unique table cabinet is unlike anything else in our collection. When it was acquired in 2015, a routine x-ray revealed an even more remarkable discovery: a vivid skeleton of Death, or memento mori, lay hidden beneath a layer of paint, applied some 300 years after it was made.
Part 1: Revealing a hidden skeleton of death
Follow V&A curators, conservators and scientists on their journey to unravel this box of mysteries. Watch as the overpaint is finally removed to reveal the skeleton in all his glory, along with a cryptic message or rebus – the final part of the puzzle.
Part 2: Cracking the secret rebus puzzle
With further research (including the help of commenters on our YouTube channel) V&A furniture curator Nick Humphrey explains the painstaking steps he took to crack the mysterious puzzle and decipher the hidden memento mori message.
You can find detailed imagery of the cabinet on Explore the Collections
