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| Design for Death by Barbara Jones, 1967 |
"-Whatever's that?
-A sheep's skull.
-Fancy having a skull about.
-You've got one in your own head.
-Morbid, I call it.
Death is a
morbid subject only so far as, yes, mori is 'to die' in Latin and so death is
rightly morbid, but for the last century morbid has meant unhealthy, and this
death can hardly be said to be."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 13
On The Corpse:
"The most interesting Roman funeral custom was
that of using wax masks, careful portraits of ancestors used only for funerals
and worn by actors who mimed their welcome to the new dead. He himself was represented by an actor chosen
to look as like him as possible, briefed in his mannerisms and wearing a mask
of him that was afterwards out away to join the ancestors at the next
funeral."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 22
"The skull has always been top bone; it holds
the brain, important in most cultures, it has a neat shape, and it looks human,
except that its eyes are bigger and it laughs all the time, very sexy."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 27
On The Coffin:
"...Gold-plated coffins are dull besides the
coffins of Bali, where corpses are burnt in carved animals. These accord with caste; half-elephant,
half-fish for conman man..a deer for a soldier, a winged lion for a king or a
very holy priest, a cow for a noblewoman and a bull for a nobleman. They are made by specialist craftsmen from
hollow trees with a lid in the back for the body."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 91
Epitaphs to Pets:
"'PIP' AS SHE HAD LIVED - DRINKING TEA BLESS
HER.
IN MEMORY OF SUSAN OUR WEE DARLING WOOLLY MONKEY.
HITLER, IN MEMORY OF A GOOD AND FAITHFUL PAL"
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 151
On The Procession:
Wellington, London 1852. Probably the most splendid funeral ever
staged in Europe, centred on an enormous car made from cannon captured by the
Duke, melted by a hundred men in six foundries...In the procession was every
military splendour, the Duke's horse with reversed boots in the stirrups."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 171
"Where death gets you Sin-eating
...In Britain, especially Wales, sin-eating by a
paid individual continued into the nineteenth century. The sin-eater was an outcast who took upon
himself the sins of the dead. Bread and beer and sixpence were handed to him
across the corpse and he ate and drank and went away and the platter and beaker
were burned."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 261
"Where death gets you doing something really
worth while about taxidermy
Not everyone is satisfied with just stuffing
animals or skinning them and then keeping them about the place plain. Some men have stuffed them as the materials
for tableaux-morts, groups of small animals stuffed on their hind legs, dressed
and posed as people...Walter Potter (1835-1918) was an enthusiastic taxidermist
who was inspired by a sister's book of nursery rhymes...Rabbits' Village School
(48 little scholars)...The Guinea Pigs' Cricket Match."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 268-70
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| Rabbits' Village School (image from http://www.victoriangothic.org/the-curious-taxidermy-of-walter-potter/) |
On Necrophilia:
"Beyond the enjoyment of the good works of
death lies necrophilia. It must be a
difficult passion to satisfy; very few people admit to the liberal sentiments
of Henri Blot, who dug up an eighteen-year-old ballet dancer at St Ouen in
1886. He got away with that one but was
caught with his next corpse. At his
trial he said, "What do you want? everyone has his taste, mine is for the
corpse" [my translation]. So,
because it is probably the most carefully concealed of all aberrations there
are no publicly known observances or special artefacts for necrophilia."
Design for Death, 1967, Pg. 278
