The mystery of the Pandora figurehead
No one knows what the Pandora's figurehead looked like. Unfortunately, no sketches or drawings of it have come down from the 18th century.
Stylistically, the figurehead may have resembled the one depicted in the Pandora Foundation's logo. Museum designer Robert Allen, who created the logo, was inspired by sketches of figureheads of 18th century Royal Navy frigates built by the Pandora's builders after they had transferred their yards from Deptford on the Thames to a new location at Buckler's Hard in Hampshire.
Many late 18th century figureheads on RN ships depict bare-breasted women in flowing robes, each carrying an object popularly associated with their mythical persona. So, it is quite probable that the Pandora figurehead was carved carrying a box-this being the only instantly recognisable object associated with her name.
However, unless some new illustration is found, it is unlikely that we will find out what the Pandora's figurehead really looked like. Unfortunately it probably has not survived the harsh environment underwater at the wreck. But, it cannot be ruled out that maybe some day a sketch will be discovered in an archive somewhere.
Reports of a figurehead, said to be based on the original from the Pandora, reached the museum in 1995. This stirred up some excitement at the time. Located in the stairwell of the Pandora Inn near Restronguet Creek in Cornwall in the UK, the reported figurehead was said to be a copy of the Pandora's, based on the original. However, upon seeing a picture of the figurehead, some doubts arose about its authenticity as a copy of the original. To date, the claim that it is based on the original still appears somewhat fanciful.
Enquiries museum staff made about it have determined that the inn's figurehead was probably carved around 1965. The claim that it is based on the original is probably as doubtful as a text on a publicity brochure-published by the Inn's owners in the late 1980s-informing visitors that the Inn was once owned and managed by the Pandora's Captain Edwards, after he had retired from the Royal Navy. Unfortunately for this piece of creative advertising, an association between Captain Edwards and Cornwall cannot be established historically.
More telling, however, is the information that the inn was called "The Coach House" until it was renamed "Pandora's Inn" in the 1850s. The association with Captain Edwards therefore seems to be very unlikely.
In 2001, a visitor to the Museum alerted staff to another figurehead at the Pandora Inn, purported to be based on an original. Deirdre Howard Williams related how her father had owned the inn during the 1960s. She later sent a picture of herself as a girl with this other figurehead, which apparently had been used as a welcome sign at the main entrance to the Inn for decades. Its current whereabouts is unknown.