Materialisation of M Furtado, with a death's-head (after Mme.Frondoni-Lacombe).
Charles Richet notes in Thirty Years of Psychical Research:
"On December 18, 1914, Countess Castelvitch, Mme. Ponsa, Mme. Furtado,
M. and Mme. Lacombe were present in the house of the Countess
Castelvitch. Through the table Mme. Furtado's husband was alleged to be
present, but that he would not allow himself to be photographed because
he had forgotten what his face was like, but he said that his companion
would come in his place. This companion was his mistress, he
having been separated from his wife; and in fact a veiled woman was
photographed, causing great fear in Mme. Furtado, who declared she
would never be present at any more séances. At the next
séance (December 27, 1914), M. Furtado announced his
presence again and said, "I have no face, but I will make
one," and the phantom photographed is a tall person clothed in
white, but the face is that of a death's-head.
"It is difficult or impossible to imagine that these are frauds or
illusions. Fraud was not easy. In order to show a French
officer, a nun, a phantom with a death's-head, and an Arab soldier a
whole series of costumes would be needed, to be bought at a shop and to
be used at the séances where hands were held, if not rigorously,
yet sufficiently well. And why should this be done? If Mme.
Lacombe wished to deceive she might have given stranger things.
There is no reason to suspect the good faith of Mme. Furtado, who
was very skeptical, nor of Mme. Ponsa, who was Mme. Lacombe's
intimate friend."
