Is this the strangest items of 1940s’ memorabilia to be sold at auction?
Winston Churchill’s false teeth have just sold for a huge £15,200! The wartime Prime Minister’s gnashers had to be specially constructed to disguise his natural lisp. So complicated and delicate were the resulting false teeth that spares were made – and his private secretary always had duplicates at hand in case of emergencies.
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One of these spare sets has just been sold by Keys Auctioneers of Aylsham, Norfolk, and the new owner is a Gloucestershire collector who also possesses the microphone through which Churchill announced the end of the war.
The partial dentures were sold by the son of the technician who was commissioned to make them – Derek Cudlipp. Antiques auctioneer Andrew Bullock said Churchill suffered from terrible teeth and gums and he needed complicated dentistry from childhood. So good was Cudlipp’s craftsmanship that Churchill nominated his dentist, Wilfred Fish, for a knighthood. Churchill’s oratory skills and rousing speeches are credited with stirring Britain to victory over Hitler – and he regarded his dentist as a key ally in helping him mesmerise his audience. The delicacy and special design of the teeth have been widely credited with helping Churchill speak clearly and effectively.
According to documents written by the Royal College of Surgeons, Churchill’s dentures were “carefully designed to ensure that Churchill retained his characteristically slurred diction – a deliberate affectation designed to overcome a childhood lisp. Churchill lived in fear of losing his false teeth – and hence his speaking voice – and insisted that spare dentures always be on hand.”
