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In a small London museum lies a disturbingly tattered hat decorated with small objects. It's a really strange thing, isn't it? Now, using the latest technology, we are studying this strange object Its decoration is bizarre. Up close, you can see that it is covered in teeth. It looks like something from a medicine man's bag. But in reality, it comes from the back alleys of Victorian London. Approximately 8 inches tall and 6.5 inches wide, it is made of felt with a faded velvet outer layer. He has 87 tooth fragments sewn into him.
Why would anyone create such an object? Why are there teeth attached to it? And whose teeth are these? Unfortunately, there is not much information. There are no images, no written descriptions, nothing to give us context, just a few cryptic notes written by the collector. So, who owns this terrible hat Why is it covered in teeth? What is he for? This eerie object was donated to London's [__] Museum in 1916 by collector Edward Lovett. Lovett was the chief cashier of a major London bank at the turn of the 19th century, but that was only his main job.
When Lovett is not counting checks at the bank, he can be found in the backyards and slums of London, looking for curiosities to buy from street vendors. Amulets, objects with magical powers, anything that is strange or considered unusual. Lovett is part of a growing obsession with collecting folklore across Britain. This is truly a response to accelerating urbanization. When people travel around England, they try to collect stories and artifacts related to folklore in an attempt to preserve these local traditions. But there is no known English
folklore that describes a hat covered in teeth. Which leaves a very obvious question. Why would someone in Victorian London need to take a piece of material, cover it with their teeth, and then wear it on their head? What possible purpose could this serve? Luckily, this terrible hat has a clue. Lovett left a cryptic note stating that it supposedly had magical properties And it is certainly true that throughout history and in different societies, teeth have been worn or used to adorn decorative objects, clothing, and weapons, all of which have had the reputation of being magical objects. There is another object in Lovett's collection that may also be related to magic. A small silk pouch containing what is believed to be a dog's tooth.
There was a tradition of using animal teeth to try to cure toothache. The idea was that when you wore this tooth, the pain or whatever else was causing the problem in your tooth would be sucked up and absorbed by the animal's teeth. The problem is that these are not animal teeth. These are human teeth. But it turns out that in 19th- century London, wearing human teeth was surprisingly fashionable. Thanks to the queen herself. The death of Prince Albert in 1861 prompted Victoria to go into prolonged mourning. This practice would soon be followed by other members of Victorian society, especially women, who wore black for up to 2
years after the death of a loved one, and then often adorned themselves with memorial items, including hair and sometimes teeth. But if it's a memorial for a widow or widower in mourning, there's a slight problem. When the hat is enlarged, fragments of teeth are visible, from which at least 60 different teeth can be assembled. That's just a lot of teeth. How many deceased relatives did this poor man have? So, maybe it's not an amulet or a keepsake , but there's another clue. Namely, a note indicating that this hat was purchased from another London specialist in 1855, and his profession was dentistry.
Dentistry in Europe really became popular after Columbus discovered America and refined sugar began to arrive in huge quantities. The rot is spreading across Britain, and no one is prepared for it. People didn't know what actually caused tooth decay until the 18th century. There was a belief that a tiny worm lived inside the teeth, making holes that are familiar to many people. And in the days before the invention of antibiotics, blood infection from caries was a cause of death. In fact, it was the fifth or sixth
leading cause of death in London during that time period. And if the infection didn't kill you, the toothache itself could. In 1862, there is a report of a man in Sussex who, after suffering from pain for 5 months due to a toothache, committed suicide because the pain was simply unbearable. All this disintegration and despair has created a huge niche in the market for dentists Many different people appeared: from barber-surgeons to street tooth cutters and blacksmiths. And what the blacksmiths may have lacked in knowledge of dental anatomy and perhaps in delicacy of practice, they made up for in skill in toolmaking.
Each of them looks more like an instrument of torture than a dental instrument. But toothpickers should pull out teeth, not wear them on themselves. So what's this hat for? There is a painting by a 17th-century Dutch artist that depicts a toothpicker. And if you look closely, you 'll see that there's something quite strange about it This is a necklace made of human teeth. So, for dentists of the past, wearing teeth was not a strange thing. The question is, why? They say this strange hat belonged to a dentist. This is from an era when anyone with a tool and a strong hand could practice medicine.
Once upon a time, hairdressers also performed the duties of surgeons and performed bloodletting. The red stripe on the pole symbolizes the blood on the bandages when they bled patients. In the days before the pillar, they used real blood to advertise their services. They simply left a bowl of blood on the street near their shop. Traveling dentists went to even greater extremes. This became a kind of theatrical performance to attract the attention of as many people as possible. There could be juggling, storytelling, music, and, of course, tooth extraction. And if it seemed that the doctor knew his job well and pulled teeth out without
much pain, perhaps there were more people willing to do so Some dentists wore necklaces made from teeth they had pulled out. The more teeth they had, the more skilled they seemed. The most famous of these doctors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was Edgar Randolph Parker, known as " Painless Parker." He joined a circus, where he offered his services as part of a performance among other entertainments, such as clowns, elephants, or a tent of mysteries.
He carried with him a bucket of hundreds of extracted teeth, and is also said to have worn a necklace of those he said he had extracted in one day. So, this hat with teeth could have been an advertisement for the dentist's skill. There is only one problem with this explanation. When we look closely at the teeth on this hat, we see something strange, or rather not as strange as it should be, because many of these teeth show no signs of decay. They are in perfect condition. If this hat was an advertisement for craftsmanship, why are most of them so healthy?
