Edgar Samuel

[3] Samuel stated that his father acquired a professional standard of expertise as a researcher and writer, and made a significant contribution to the history of the Jewish community in England.

[3] In the early 1960s, using both his historical and optical skills, he developed a unique theory about the meaning of the skull in Holbein's painting The Ambassadors,[1] in which he conjectured that it is designed to be viewed face on, through a simple, straight blown glass tube, acting as a lens.

[1] Later he became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and worked as the director of the London Jewish Museum from 1983 to 1995, when it was located at Woburn House in Euston.

[3] He was the chairman of Anglo-Jewish Archives, and was a member of the records and treasures committee of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, London.

[3][5] Samuel's theory regarding The Ambassadors published in 1962–63 is that it was intended to be viewed through a special optic, rather than as generally believed, from the side.

[11] The viewer sees the representatives of "wealth and power in state and church" at the "height of their powers", the tools of science and knowledge sit at the centre, and "in the glass, is the skull of death, at once a reminder of the transience of worldly glory, a brilliant demonstration of artistic skill and a fascinating scientific toy.