WORLD
CHURCHILL`s FALSE TEETH SELL FOR $23,000
Churchill, famous for his rousing speeches during World War II, had several sets of the partial upper dentures specially constructed to hide his natural lisp and accentuate his signature slurred diction.
According to documents held by the Royal College of Surgeons, the former prime minister “lived in fear of losing his false teeth” and would always have a spare set to hand, entrusted to his private secretary, Andrew Bullock of Keys auction house in Aylsham, eastern England, said
The set which sold for £15,200 ($23,700) on Thursday -- more than three times its expected price -- was put up for sale by Nigel Cudlipp, the son of the dental technician who made them, Derek Cudlipp.
Bullock said Churchill suffered from poor teeth and gums from childhood and had complicated dentistry requirements. He later nominated his dentist for a knighthood.
The auction of memorabilia took place as details of plans to make one million pages of Churchill-themed archive material -- described by Churchill biographer Martin Gilbert as an “Aladdin`s Cave of historical riches” -- available on the Web for the first time from 2012.
The Churchill Archives Centre, at Churchill College, Cambridge, is open to the public, but archive director Allen Packwood said the online resource -- a collaboration between Bloomsbury Publishing, the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust and Churchill Heritage Ltd. -- would take the collection into homes and classrooms.
The collection includes letters from Churchill to his dentist, Eric Fish, including one written in 1936 complaining that his ill-fitting dentures were affecting his sense of taste.
The collection also includes correspondence between Churchill and three American presidents; Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower; and state papers, private letters and photos dating from his 19th-century school days until his death in 1965.
Meanwhile, auctioneer Bullock said the market for Churchill memorabilia showed no sign of exhaustion. In the last two years, Keys has sold a silver butter dish used by Churchill as an ashtray and a half-smoked cigar for more than $6,200 each.