NEWLY PUBLISHED: ‘OPENWIDE’ A Series of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Caricatures on Dentistry Compiled by: John Trevers & Martin Orskey
“A handsome volume on a painful subject!” (Huon Mallalieu: Country Life Magazine Sept 09)
There was an extraordinary paucity of material depicting dental quackery from this period, thus today dentistry prints are notoriously rare, expensive and are eagerly sought after. Thus this unusual collection of eighteen dentistry caricatures will appeal to a wider audience. Lucy and Henry Baggott of Wychwood Books have published this intriguing tome with care and attention, the prints have been finely reproduced and are mostly in actual size, eleven of which are in colour and each print has a detailed description on the facing page.
The book contains work by the great caricaturists of the period, such as Thomas Rowlandson, John Collier and George Cruikshank; they aptly capture and satirise the dilemma toothache sufferers faced. Their prints are humorous, bawdy, horrific and grotesque; each richly illustrates the practices of the day prior to the use of anaesthetic.
It was not uncommon for the local farrier to draw teeth to relieve toothache of those in desperate pain, for then the blacksmith in many rural communities doubled as a tooth drawer. There were many dubious practices adopted: hot coals, string, forceps, and pliers to name a few. Children were lured to sacrifice their teeth for the supposed benefit of the wealthy in exchange for only a few shillings. One print reads: “Most money given for live teeth”! Today the horror of visiting the dentist has largely been removed due to the arrival of anaesthesia, clutching a bottle of liquor would have been your only chance of pain relief in Georgian England.
This new publication paints a vivid picture of dental quackery and will appeal not only to dentists but all those who are interested in the visual history of the 18th and 19th Century.
www.wychwoodbooks.com/categories.php?subject=93
TITLE Open Wide!
AUTHORS John Trevers & Martin Orskey
ILLUSTRATORS Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank, John collier, William Davison, Edwards Dighton, Mathew Darley & Louis Leopold Boilly
FORMAT Card covers. 44 pages. 18 plates: 11 in colour & 7 black & white.
PUBLISHED 2009. Wychwood Books Sheep Street, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire GL54 1AA
PRICE $28 plus $11 Airmail Postage from the UK