diff --git a/src/api/tile/__tests__/denormalizeDupes.test.ts b/src/api/tile/__tests__/denormalizeDupes.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f45f5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/api/tile/__tests__/denormalizeDupes.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+import { BLACK24 } from '../../palette/colors';
+import { getTestCanvas } from '../../../testUtil';
+import { denormalizeDupes } from '../denormalizeDupes';
+
+describe('denormalizeDupes', function () {
+	it('should maintain the original Canvas ref', function () {
+		const tile = {
+			cromIndex: 0,
+			canvasSource: getTestCanvas(BLACK24),
+		};
+
+		const deduped = denormalizeDupes([[[tile]]], 'cromIndex');
+
+		expect(tile).not.toBe(deduped[0][0][0]);
+		expect(tile.canvasSource).toBe(deduped[0][0][0].canvasSource);
+	});
+});
diff --git a/src/api/tile/denormalizeDupes.ts b/src/api/tile/denormalizeDupes.ts
index f79fc78..a93bcee 100644
--- a/src/api/tile/denormalizeDupes.ts
+++ b/src/api/tile/denormalizeDupes.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import cloneDeep from 'lodash/cloneDeep';
+import { Canvas } from 'canvas';
 
 /**
  * If a tile is a dupe, it won't have a c/sromIndex but instead
@@ -11,16 +12,46 @@ import cloneDeep from 'lodash/cloneDeep';
 
 type DupableTile = {
 	duplicateOf?: DupableTile;
+	canvasSource?: Canvas;
 };
 
 type MatrixRow<T extends DupableTile> = T[];
 type Matrix<T extends DupableTile> = MatrixRow<T>[];
 
+/**
+ * A Canvas cannot be cloned. So this method clones but copies the original Canvas
+ * ref, if any, back onto the clone
+ */
+function cloneDeepExceptCanvasSource<T extends DupableTile>(
+	tiles: Matrix<T>[]
+): Matrix<T>[] {
+	const cloned = cloneDeep(tiles);
+
+	cloned.forEach((image, i) => {
+		image.forEach((row, r) => {
+			row.forEach((clonedTile, t) => {
+				if (clonedTile) {
+					const originalTile = tiles[i][r][t];
+
+					if (
+						originalTile &&
+						typeof originalTile.canvasSource !== 'undefined'
+					) {
+						clonedTile.canvasSource = originalTile.canvasSource;
+					}
+				}
+			});
+		});
+	});
+
+	return cloned;
+}
+
 export function denormalizeDupes<T extends DupableTile>(
 	tiles: Matrix<T>[],
 	indexProp: keyof T
 ): Matrix<T>[] {
-	const cloned = cloneDeep(tiles);
+	const cloned = cloneDeepExceptCanvasSource(tiles);
 
 	cloned.forEach((image) => {
 		image.forEach((row) => {