A full pair of hand carved sprung ivory dentures in their original velvet lined leather case.

Over the years dentures have been made from a host of different materials ranging from wood, ivory, metal,  human and animal teeth and porcelain. In general natural materials have not faired well in this role because they tend to stain and rot and smell. This is a full set of top and bottom dentures for an edentulous patient which have been hand carved from ivory. In the absence of suitable adhesives the early dentures were held together by springs at each angle which helped to retain them in place with an open mouth.

• From the Ishmael collection