12 hours Ago By Bethany Whittingham
It seems there is no end to the weird and wonderful items that are regularly brought along to the Antiques Roadshow . The BBC weekend show is loved up and down the country and quickly became a mainstay following its debut in 1979. In one memorable instalment, the show which took place at Ightham Mote in the heart of Kent where one guest brought along an unusual item.
Expert John Foster left the baffled owner speechless when he gave his valuation of a full set of 18th century false teeth. The Roadshow expert was pleasantly surprise with the odd find which he had “always wanted to see.” He gushed: “I’ve been doing the Roadshow for over 10 years now and this is the one thing I’ve always wanted to see.
” Holding the set of gold-plated and spring-bound false teeth in his hands, he joked: “I know you’re going to think I’m weird but why have you got them?” Explaining how he’d come to be in possession of the teeth, the guest revealed: “My dad bought a box of junk at a [car] boot fair. He paid a few pounds and they were at the bottom of the box.” John was excited to share to the guest this history of the set of antique teeth.
He revealed: “We know that one plate is gold, the springs are gold and the pins that hold the teeth are in gold. “Now you’d be pretty wealthy if you had a set of teeth like this. Like they are in gold and the rare thing about them is that are porcelain teeth.
” The expert added: “The history of anything like this is fascinating because with teeth during the 18th century, the wealthy obviously had vast amounts of sugar and generally their teeth were rotten, their breath stank, and they would lose their teeth. “The needed something to sort them out. Surgeons tried everything from implanting teeth into chickens heads to see if it would take, you would pull out your tooth if you were poor and sell it instantaneously and they would try and implant it – none of that really worked.
“So when they came up with a set of teeth like this it was the obvious solution. They are made of porcelain on a gold background but the earlier ones from the Napoleonic wars, [people] actually went around after [the Battle of Waterloo], picked up the teeth from all the bodies and corpses, pulled them out and then sold them to make denture sets like this. “So English people were actually going around with French teeth in their mouths!” As the crowd gathered around and gasped in disgust, John added: “I know it is disgusting and horrible, but it’s a fascinating history.
” John estimated the age of the teeth between 1845 – 1855, a very close guess to the actual age which was 1850 – 1860. He remarked: “The fact that they’re porcelain, I love. They are incredibly rare.
The fact that they’re gold, the fact that they’re porcelain, I’d say [they’d sell for] £2,000 to £2,500.” Stumped by the expert’s appraisal, the guest looked utterly speechless, simply muttering: “Woah! I’m amazed!” John added: “This is a rare survivor” before thanking him for bringing the historic item onto the show. Antiques Roadshow airs on Sundays from 8pm on BBC One or catch up on BBC iPlayer.
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