"A fashionable dentist is extracting the teeth of the poor in order to insert 'live teeth' immediately into the jaws of his patients. In the centre a young chimney-sweep sits in an arm-chair, over the back of which the dentist leans, holding the boy's head, and inserting an instrument into his mouth. Next (left) a lady sits in a similar chair watching the sweep with a pained and angry expression; she holds a smelling-bottle to her nose; she has just endured an extraction and is about to receive a transplantation. On the right a good-looking young lady leans back, her fists clenched in pain, while a spectacled dentist peers closely into her face, placing his instrument in her mouth. Behind her a lean, ugly, and elderly man wearing regimentals stands in profile to the right, holding a mirror in which he inspects his mouth with a dissatisfied expression. On the left a ragged boy and girl are leaving the room, both crying with pain: the girl inspects the coin in her hand. On the door is a placard: 'Most Money Given for live Teeth'. A placard on the wall is headed by a coronet and two ducks, indicating quackery: 'Baron Ron------Dentist to her High Mightiness the Empress of Russia'. Cf. British Museum Satires No. 6760."--British Museum online catalogue, description of a later state
Description:
Title etched below image., Early state of a plate that was reissued in 1790, at which time Harris's imprint was burnished out and replaced with that of William Holland. Cf. No. 7766 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6., and Temporary local Medical Library subject terms: Tooth extraction -- Tooth transplant -- Baron Roh...*.
Publisher:
Pubd. 1787 by J. Harris, No. 37 Dean St., Soho
Subject (Topic):
Dentistry, Teeth, Extraction, Donation of organs, tissues, etc, Quacks and quackery, Poor persons, Chimney sweeps, Pain, Dental equipment & supplies, Chairs, and Signs (Notices)
