Martin van Butchell was a quack dentist and all round ‘interesting chap’ in London, known for riding around on a white pony that was painted with purple spots.

His wife Mary died in January 1775 and he had her embalmed by his old teacher, the famous Dr William Hunter and Dr William Cruikshank. The body was injected with preservatives and colours, her eyes replaced with glass ones and she was dressed in a fine lace gown before being embedded in a glass topped coffin using plaster of paris.

Butchell then placed the whole coffin ensemble in the window of his home, which was also where he practised dentistry. There was a rumour that a clause in the marriage contract provided income for Butchell while Mary was ‘above ground’, though this was possibly started by Butchell himself.

When Butchell remarried his new wife demanded the infamous and slowly decaying previous wife be removed. She was given to Dr Hunter’s museum.

Mary Butchell finally found peace when a 1941 German bombing raid blew the museum, and her, to bits.