Recently I visited Apsley House, once home of the Duke of Wellington, for the first time. Nothing to do with his teeth (featured above), but because I’m reading Laura Cumming’s excellent book The Vanishing Man about a lost painting by Velazquez, and wanted to look at those paintings acquired by the The Duke of Wellington. Not the lost one by the way.
The house is a monument of self-regard, but I was moved then intrigued by the old Duke’s false teeth. Not made of elk’s teeth like those of the unfortunate George Washington, but constructed of gold and, ironically, probably teeth retrieved from the dead after the Battle of Waterloo. Were they French or English? Did the Duke enquire?
George Washington’s teeth feature in one of my very early books, Fascinating Facts.