Ancient handprints on cave walls are said to be an early form of signature. The prints were rarely painted with ink or paint on the hand, as the examples above were, but rather using the hand as a stencil and blowing paint through a hollow reed. Most examples of hands in cave paintings are male, and about a quarter are children’s.

I like modern handprints on walls, their presence a bit of a mystery; in films, a bloody handprint indicates a last desperate act before dying or something supernatural, a ghost’s print in a haunted house. These examples are probably more prosaic but the black print on red is possibly a werewolf’s.