AN Antiques Roadshow guest was left floored after a set of old false teeth returned a staggering valuation.
John Foster, an expert on the BBC show, could not believe his eyes when he was presented with the unusual item on the show.
The guest brought the teeth to the Roadshow after finding them at the bottom of a junk box and was left intrigued to see if there was a chance they could be worth anything.
As John gazed down at the teeth, he said: “Now I’ve been doing the Roadshow for over 10 years now and this is the one thing I’ve always wanted to see.
“I know you’re going to think I’m weird but why have you got them?”
In response, the guest said: “Well my dad bought a box of junk at a boot fair. He paid a few pounds and they were at the bottom of the box.”
Having explained that the teeth in question were plated with gold, it was quickly established that the owner would have had to be “very wealthy”.
Explaining in full the likely history behind the teeth, John said: “Now you were pretty wealthy if you had a set of teeth like this.
“It’s like you say, they are in gold and the rare thing about them is that they’re porcelain teeth.
“And 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. And they needed to sort it out.
“Surgeons tried everything from implanting teeth into chicken’s heads to see if it would take and you’d pull out your tooth if you were poor and sell it instantaneously to 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.
“Now these are made of porcelain on a gold background but the earlier ones from the Napoleonic wars, they actually went round, let’s say 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 going around with French teeth in their mouths.”
John seemed unfazed by fiddling around with the old set of false teeth as he admitted he “loved it”.
As a result of them being gold and porcelain and having originated around 1845, John confessed that they could fetch a staggering £2,500.
He said: “The fact that they’re gold, the fact that they’re porcelain, £2,000 to £2,500.”
Stunned by the revelation, he said: “Wow, I’m amazed.”
Antiques Roadshow launched all the way back in 1979 and has become a staple BBC programme. Here is a look at those who have hosted the show over the years.
