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There seems to be no end to the weird and wonderful objects that appear on Antiques Roadshow.
And in a re-released episode, a guest was left speechless when he discovered the staggering value of a pair of dentures he found at the bottom of a “junk box.”
BBC expert John Foster was equally astonished by the rare specimen, admitting that he had always wanted to see one in the 10 years he has worked on the programme.
When the teeth were presented to him, John said: ‘I’ve been doing the Roadshow for over 10 years and this is the one thing I’ve always wanted to see.
“I know you think I’m weird, but why do you have them?”
An Antiques Roadshow guest was left speechless when he heard about the value of ‘disgusting and hideous’ false teeth he found at the bottom of a junk box
The value of the gold and porcelain false teeth dating from 1845-1855 was estimated at around £2,000 to £2,500.
The guest then replied, ‘Well, my dad bought a box full of junk at a jumble sale. He paid a few pounds and they were sitting at the bottom of the box.’
He further explained that the plate, springs and pins that hold the teeth in place are made of gold, making the object even more valuable.
John continued: ‘You were quite wealthy if you had teeth like these. It’s like you say, they’re gold and the rare thing about them is that they’re porcelain teeth.
‘And the history of something like that is fascinating, because with teeth in the 18th century, the rich obviously had enormous amounts of sugar and generally their teeth were rotten, their breath smelled and they were losing their teeth. And they had to fix it.
‘Surgeons tried everything from implanting teeth into chicken heads to see if it would work, to pulling your own tooth if you were poor and selling it straight away to try to implant it.
‘None of it really worked, so when they came up with a set of teeth like this, it was the obvious solution.
‘These are made of porcelain on a gold background, but the earlier ones from the Napoleonic Wars went around, say after the Battle of Waterloo, and they took the teeth from all the bodies and corpses, pulled them out and sold them to make dentures like this.
‘So the English walked around with French teeth in their mouths.’
BBC pundit John Foster was equally as surprised by the rare item as he admitted it was something he had always wanted to see in the 10 years he has been doing the show.
Speechless, the guest struggled to process the information when he said, “Wow, I’m amazed.”
Undeterred by the slightly coarse nature of the object before him, John exclaimed, “This is why I love it.
“I know it’s disgusting and horrible, but it’s a fascinating story because I would say it happened sometime between 1845 and 1855.”
John revealed the item’s surprising price and concluded: ‘ The fact that they’re gold, the fact that they’re porcelain, £2,000, £2,500.’
Speechless, the guest tried to process the information when he said: ‘Wow, I’m amazed’