Diss is proud of its links to Thomas Paine, who was born in 1737. The author of The Rights of Man spent his teenage years in the town, working in his father's corset making business. His later life could not have been more different. 

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Death masks may seem gruesome now, but they were commonly made in the early 1800s after wealthy or famous people had died.  They acted as a reminder of the deceased at a time when photography had not yet been invented. The masks could also be used as the basis of a portrait or  sculpture. Sometimes eyes were modelled to look as if they were open, although this is not the case with Paine's mask.

 

The Diss Museum mask was signed on the back in pencil by John Wesley Jarvis, one of the most famous portrait painters in New York. He created it soon after Paine's death, by making a wax mould, and then pouring in plaster of Paris. It would have been possible to make a number of copies in this way. Unfortunately it seems that the wax mould was removed before it was fully hardened, which is why the plaster cast shows a nose which is slightly to one side.

 

It is difficult to know now why Jarvis decided to make the mask. The artist was at the peak of his success and had already painted a portrait of Paine four years earlier. The two men were friends and perhaps Jarvis felt that further mementoes were needed.

 

Thomas Paine had previously been famous and much admired.  His pamphlets had helped inspire the American and French revolutions, but by the 1800s he was poor and unpopular. His attacks on governments, the monarchy and organised religion had made him many enemies.

 

His request to be buried in his local Quaker Church was refused. Paine was instead buried on his farmland in a New York suburb.